how is the motif of violence featured within the very first section of the story?

The bank robbers are armed with a pistol and a sawed-off shotgun, respectively. When the bank customers and employees first realize that there is a robbery taking place, they also see that the man with the pistol has it "pressed against the guard's neck" (6). The man with the pistol then tells the tellers that if one of them presses the alarm, they will all be "dead meat" (6).