Corruption in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep

Similarly, in the 1920s flourishing American economy of flashy cars and ostentatious mansions and extravagant parties and overpriced attire, there are those who believe money is the key to glee. Gatsby, born into a family of “unsuccessful farm people” trades in his “torn green jersey” for a “shirt of sheer linen” and dedicates his life to amassing the fortune he believes will help him accomplish his dream (Fitzgerald 5.92 & 6.98). Deceit becomes his best friend as corruption murders his once innocent dream and meretricious promises replace his morals. He, to rise to the top and near his dream, cheats the poor, the people that are so much like his own family.

At each stratum of society, there is the misconception of correlating money and character. Jim’s mother risked her life and that of her only son to get her ‘dues.’ “[I]’m an honest woman,” she proclaims and intends to prove this proclamation by taking only what is owed (Stevenson 17). It is astonishing how her perception of value is skewed. She sits counting money in the face of imminent danger. She values money over the safety of herself and her son. It is when danger is at the door that Jim is able to pull her back from the brink of death and disaster.

In the books The Big Sleep and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, both authors, Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep) and Simon Armitage (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight), create the protagonist of each story into archetypal knights. The protagonist of The Big Sleep is named Phillip Marlowe and in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight the protagonist is named Sir Gawain. The 3 knightly qualities that we will be focusing on in this essay are self-sacrifice, loyalty and courage. These qualities are displayed throughout each story in different and similar ways throughout each book.

The very essence of money creates an urge in human nature to obtain it and have an excess of it. When people come into wealth and begin rising on the social ladder, they usually become corrupted, and compromise their personal values. In the novels, Great Expectations and The Great Gatsby, the protagonists, Pip and Jay Gatsby respectively, believe their wealth is used for the common good, but in reality many values are being compromised. Pip and Gatsby both utilize their money in an attempt to bring the women they love into their lives. Along the way toward achieving their goal, they violate ethics, which, in turn, change them as people.

In The Big Sleep, Marlowe, a white man, shows his personality as he describes the stained-glass panel that shows a “knight in dark armor rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree” and the knight was not really trying to rescue the lady. Marlowe is a knight in his society and as any good knight, he is very chivalrous not like the dark knight (other ethnicities) on the panel. He says that he needs to “climb up there and help” the knight to rescue the lady, showing how chivalrous he really is and how others need the help of a white man. In Murder Is My Business, Marino is a lesbian detective with a damsel in distress syndrome. However, she is cautious and smart enough to know that Mrs. Hunnicut’s story “smelled as rotten as a bonito left out in the sun,” but her attraction to Mrs. Hunnicut and her syndrome to help everyone drives her to help Mrs. Hunnicut anyway. In this story the typical white detective is changed, giving a woman the main role and thus the white people’s power. In Devil in a Blue Dress, the detective, Rawlins, is an African American who is fully aware of the racial discrimination that exists towards African Americans. He is captivated or even being manipulated by Daphne, a white girl. Changing the detectives’ ethnicity reveals the position that their ethnicity represents on

Money is the supreme power of the world. Its immeasurable power and limitless influence has hacked into our society today, ruining our political democracy, our capitalistic economy, and our chances at achieving the American Dream. Money is handled differently between the rich and the poor. Money in the hands of the poor is spent on essential items necessary for survival, and since money is not abundant in the hands of the poor, every single penny is cherished as a gift from God. However in the hands of the rich, money is used to acquire more money. The urge to succumb to greed influences the rich to use any and all means necessary to grow their wealth, to grow their power, to grow their long lasting influence. We look up to the rich with awe for their ability to achieve the American Dream, but what we are blindfolded from seeing is the true rise to stardom, their true pathway to success. Not all, but some have achieved the American Dream through immoral acts and satanic deeds, swindling the desired ones from their exit of poverty or their chance to enter into reality. In the end of The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald revealed to us the true Jay Gatsby. Fitzgerald teaches us that not all people achieve the American Dream immorally, giving the example of Jay Gatsby

During the time in our country's history called the roaring twenties, society had a new obsession, money. Just shortly after the great depression, people's focus now fell on wealth and success in the economic realm. Many Americans would stop at nothing to become rich and money was the new factor in separation of classes within society. Wealth was a direct reflection of how successful a person really was and now became what many people strived to be, to be rich. Wealth became the new stable in the "American dream" that people yearned and chased after all their lives. In the novel entitled the great Gatsby, the ideals of the so

After going through the “Great War,” also known as World War I, soldiers came back home in the middle of prohibition, a time where the almost all recreational alcohol was illegal. Despite the government's intentions to protect the people from alcohol abuse, prohibition forced people to find unorthodox ways of attaining alcohol. Prohibition unofficially made people rich because so people made lots and lots of money making and selling alcohol illegally–bootlegging. This is the setting for the famous novel, The Great Gatsby. In this book, F. Scott Fitzgerald exemplifies the true corrupting nature of wealth and shows just how powerful the desire for money can be through the corruption of the American dream, Gatsby’s dream, and the main characters.

The world is full of powerful forces that control people from all corners of the globe, but one of the most powerful and far-reaching force is money. Money is something that controls multiple people's lives and their decisions, sometimes people revolve their lives around money. Just like in the real world, in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, money is a large concept in the book and is a motivator for multiple characters. The Great Gatsby is about Nick as he follows the story of Jay Gatsby and his quest to gain money and uses theses riches to win over his past lover, Daisy. Gatsby is not the only character that uses money to get his way or is materialistic, as multiple

From the two-story house and the white picket fence to the consistent flow of money from a decent paying job, the American Dream has been a desire for Americans alike since the Declaration of Independence. It was not until the 1920s that the inundation of materialistic objects changed the American Dream from wanting freedom to living as comfortably as possible. As the years went on, and more machinery was being built, people gained more leisure time by relying on these innovations to either lessen the burden of specific tasks or handle them completely. This concept is prominent in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Throughout the book, every problem the characters face has something to do with money - whether it is Daisy declaring her love for Gatsby but deciding to stay with Tom or Nick moving to the East Coast in search of a better and more comfortable life.

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most celebrated literary authors of all time, known for writing very suspenseful, dramatic short stories and a poet; is considered as being a part of the American Romantic Movement, and a lesser known opinion is he is regarded as the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. Most recognized for his mystery and macabre, a journey into the dark, ghastly stories of death, deception and revenge is what makes up his reputation. The short story under analysis is a part of his latter works; “The Cask of Amontillado”, a story of revenge takes readers into the mind of the murderer.

During the time in our country's history called the roaring twenties, society had a new obsession, money. Just shortly after the great depression, people's focus now fell on wealth and success in the economic realm. Many Americans would stop at nothing to become rich and money was the new factor in separation of classes within society. Wealth was a direct reflection of how successful a person really was and now became what many people strived to be, to be rich. Wealth became the new stable in the "American dream" that people yearned and chased after all their lives. In the novel entitled the great Gatsby, the ideals of the so called American dream became skewed, as a result

In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, money plays a large role in the character’s lives. Money is used to change their appearances throughout the novel. All the characters use their money in a different way. Gatsby attempts to use his money to win back his one true love, Daisy. Myrtle Wilson uses money she does not have to change her appearance towards others. But others are used to having wealth, and they are experienced in the ways of being rich. These people include Tom and Daisy Buchanan. The narrator, Nick Caraway, moves east searching for wealth, but never achieves that goal. The entire novel is filled with wealth and riches, but is money to be seen as a

Fitzgerald discusses the desire for material possessions in The Great Gatsby by explaining the fact that Americans judge people by the possessions and the money they have. For example people pictured Tom as a god because of his wealth. Because of his wealth he could commit crimes, have affairs, cover up stories all by being wealthy. Nick explains “They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or

First, the community’s attitude toward money and obsession with money was prominent. Throughout the book, “One of the main themes of The Great Gatsby is the attitude of its characters- . . . -toward money” (Gross 149). The book highlighted the amount of money each character had and their social status in the community because of their wealth or lack of wealth. Many characters and the entire community dreamed of becoming rich to make themselves worthy of higher social statuses. Palladino once said, “The idea was that anyone could become a millionaire regardless of one's background” (Palladino 31). The community’s interest in wealth and what was believed about money was depicted many times. For example, “Most of these fellas will cheat you every time. All they think of is money. . . ” (Fitzgerald 31). This quote shows that many people were focused on the amount of money they could