Alan Sillitoe sees the violence of our present environment deriving from sociological conditions. His characters belong to the low classes and are in danger of losing what little identity they possess. Their lust for life throws them into open battle with the traditional elements of society—government, authority, middle and upper class people—and violence is a means of holding onto a world that is being destroyed. The individual feels himself the victim of technological production, impersonal war, governmental suppression. Violence, under these conditions, is a way for a person to demonstrate that he is still alive. (p. 30)

Sillitoe, more than any other contemporary novelist, sees violence as a valid and necessary expression in modern culture…. Because Sillitoe's heroes are trying to survive in a violent world, they react violently. The origin of their actions lies in sociological sources. (pp. 30-1)

Lawrence R. Ries, in his Wolf Masks...