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Overview
“The Use of Force” is one of five stories William Carlos Williams wrote for Blast, a short-lived literary magazine dedicated to telling “proletarian” stories, or stories with working-class characters
. First published in 1933, the story was later included in Life Along the Passaic (1938), a collection of stories set in New Jersey during economically depressed times. “The Use of Force” is frequently anthologized now as a standalone example of Williams’s incisive and accessible prose, but it takes on more meaning when considered in the context of collected stories that feature everyday people struggling to get by during the Great Depression.Read a full story summary, a full story analysis, and explanations of important quotes from “The Use of Force.”
