Comparing The Big Sleep And Devil In A Blue Dress

Both The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler and Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley depict women as simple characters acting as objects of sex and trouble, existing only to thwart the detective. Chandler does this through Philip Marlowe, a white Hard-Boiled detective who has a very guarded attitude towards women and will not trust them. Mosley depicts women through the point of view of his character Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, an African-American detective, who views white women as objects of misfortune but also as sources of information that can help his investigation. Consequently, The Big Sleep proposes that women can almost never be trusted and only exist to impede what someone is trying to carry out, while Devil in a Blue Dress suggests that women are useful to get information but can still can lead you down the wrong road if trusted. Together these two stories characterize women as not objects of trust and accompaniment, but as simple and naïve persons who will only hinder whatever task the detective is trying to accomplish.

From the moment he walked into the Sternwood mansion Marlowe noticed a stained glass panel on the roof of the foyer of a knight rescuing a lady tied to a tree. He thought, “I would sooner or later have to climb up there and help him.”(Chandler, 3-4) proving that he has had to help a lady before. Right after this Marlowe meets Carmen Sternwood who tries to seduce Marlowe even though the two of them just met.(5-7) Flirting with someone you just met can only mean that you have a goal, and that goal is not love, it is a test to see what kind of man you are. This scene shows us how the women in The Big Sleep are viewed and foreshadows the fact that Marlowe will have to help a helpless women that will slow down the true mystery he is trying to solve. Easy Rawlins however has better experiences with the women he