Broken Blossoms

Lynching was the medium used to avenge the violation of a particular social norm. Whether this act is performed by an enraged mob or an individual (who inflicts punishment upon himself), the overt purpose is to maintain the status quo in general and send a message that keeps people "in their place" specifically. In Broken Blossoms, lynching and suicide (self-inflicted lynching) are used to avenge and solve the problem that the violation of Lucy's purity caused.
Even though the Yellow Man's love for Lucy is depicted as being a "pure and holy thing," it is still chronicled as a doomed interracial romance. It is made acceptable only in comparison to the brutality that Battling Burrows bes...