The Simplification Domestic Violence in Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us (2016)

Abstract

Many popular culture genres have tried to address the issue of domestic violence, attempting to raise awareness, and empower people who experience violence in their relationships. However, domestic violence is a complex issue and is often misrepresented. Thus, critical appraisals of how popular cultural productions portray domestic violence are urgently required. To this end, the present article utilizes the qualitative research method of close textual reading to examine the peripheral characters of the novel, It Ends with Us (2016). The analysis evaluates the attitudes of these characters toward others and scrutinizes their reactions to the issue of domestic violence. The examination is grounded in theories such as Flood, Pease, Taylor, and Webster’s (2009) concept of attitudes and Schippers’ (2007) notion of hegemonic femininity. The findings of this study indicate that the majority of the characters in the novel exemplify a simplified perspective of domestic violence and tend to regard violence as a private and normal phenomenon in a marriage. The outcomes of the study also indicate that the attitudes of these characters toward domestic violence are influenced by several factors such as internalized patriarchal norms and perspectives on marriage. In conclusion, the peripheral characters of the novel fail to function maximally to support the abused female protagonist. The novel’s proposed solution to the issue of domestic violence is also overly simple: it does not propose professional intervention or punitive measures against the