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Symbolism In The Talented Mr. Ripley By Patricia Highsmith

Decent Essays

“The Talented Mr. Ripley” by Patricia Highsmith, set in 1950s in a somewhat vibrant, jazz influenced Italy, gives a vivid insight into the mind of a small-time conman turned psychopath. It also provides us with the central concepts of amorality, paranoia and how that survival and greed for money can turn almost ordinary people uncaring and self-indulgent. Highsmith’s use of third person narrative is an effective technique and is used to expand on the thesis of morality in the novel . Tom Ripley, a man in his mid-20’s, claims he is close friends with Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf, when in reality, he doesn’t really know Dickie at all. (3) Approached by the wealthy Herbert Greenleaf, Tom is asked to retrieve his son, Dickie, from Italy. (3) …show more content…

One symbol that I found to be the most important would be the color green. As the reader, you come across many symbols inside the symbol of the color green. Some examples may be the green ring on Dickie’s finger, (37) the bar in the beginning of the novel called “The Green Cage” (3) and Dickie’s last name, Greenleaf. The color green represents the feeling of jealousy or envy. Tom Ripley envies the life that Dickie has and the money that he earns. (37) Tom wanted to be liked by Dickie, as well as his rich friends. (49) The bar called “The Green Cage” represents that Tom is particularly “caged” or for lack of better words, “trapped” with envy and jealousy. The last name, Greenleaf pretty much means “money tree.” Herbert Greenleaf, Dickie’s father, is Tom’s new source of money. (48) Marge, Dickie’s writer friend, gives Dickie a green ring that he swears he will never take off unless he goes swimming. (The Talented Mr. Ripley) Here is another scene where the color green plays a huge part. After Tom kills Dickie, he takes the ring off of Dickie’s finger and puts it on his own. …show more content…

Overall the themes and plots were similar, but there were additional characters and a different ending. There were also small details that were changed, but overall I did not enjoy the movie as much I thought I was going to after reading the book. In the same way that every mystery is exciting until you find the logical explanation, the film is intriguing because you don’t have the luxury of knowing Tom’s background, or why he covets Dickie’s lifestyle. It was because of these changes, even though some were minor that I did not enjoy the movie. I do understand though that in order to appeal to a more broad audience the producers had to add and change details in order for it to be more appealing. The differences did not make the movie unexciting, but the book is definitely better. The book provides a more in-depth profile analysis of the characters involved and especially puts a point on the three leads (Dickie Greenleaf, Marge and Tom

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