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Marlowe's The Big Sleep

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Marlowe has demonstrated his rare behavior throughout several scenes of The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. In comparison to all the detectives we have encountered thus far, it is clear that their methodologies were distinct from Marlowe. Marlowe was a detective who was easily influenced and this had a major effect on his case. The detectives that were presented throughout this course were resisted any personal interaction with women, mentally independent regardless of their partner’s help, and had no extrinsic motivation. On the other hand, Marlow was easily distracted and selfish compared to the other detectives that we have read. This being said, I believe that he could not be categorized or defined as an “Ubermensch” because of the qualities …show more content…

The person has their own set of values, which they live by regardless of society’s influences. Holmes represented these attributes through his desire of seeking his own knowledge and not easily conforming to society’s beliefs. Holmes’ inquired a great amount of success because of his detachment to these forces, which allowed him to concentrate on the main picture and solutions to his cases. In comparison to Holmes, Marlowe was influenced by one of the highest authority figures in the story. Marlowe was employed by General Sternwood, specifically to inquire about who was blackmailing him, yet the one of the higher authorities implanted the notion of General Sternwood’s missing son in law Raegan. As Wilde says “I’ll bet a Canadian dime that the General’s afraid his son-in-law, the ex-bootlegger, is mixed up in this somewhere, and what he really hoped you would find out is that he isn’t…” (115). Although, Marlowe expressed his doubt in this idea, he went ahead and searched for General Sternwood’s son in law. Before this event, Marlowe had no interest in looking for Raegan and his main concern was searching strictly for the blackmailer. Even though he had taken it upon himself to search for the disappearance of Raegan he was not successful. I do acknowledge that it is ironic that General Sternwood receives a blackmail letter and then his son in law goes missing without any information given. But what is intriguing is how quickly Marlowe allowed Wilde’s triggered his interest. Every detective that we have encountered in class solely focuses on the case they are assigned and obey their values regardless of another person’s

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