The Hero In Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep

A traditional hero is a person who is admired for courage, noble qualities, or outstanding achievements. However, this hero can be limited by the actions and reactions of its people, especially if the society is far too corrupt to behave in civilized manners. This idea is demonstrated in Raymond Chandler’s novel, The Big Sleep, where private detective Philip Marlowe must figure out who might be blackmailing the wealthy, dying Mr. Sternwood with scandalous content provided by the actions of his two dangerously young daughters, Carmen and Vivian. He soon finds out that Mr. Geiger, the owner of an adult bookstore, is the culprit, and when Geiger is murdered, he delves further into this meaningless case, where all people involved are corrupted

After Marlowe enters into Geiger’s house where he finds Carmen drugged and posing for nude photos, he notices upon looking at her eyes “the dark slate color of the iris had devoured the pupil. They were mad eyes. She seemed to be unconscious, but she didn’t have the pose of unconsciousness”(Chandler 35). Clearly, Carmen brought this troublesome situation upon herself, since Marlowe can physically see the mischief in her eyes, despite her apparent state of unconsciousness. Marlowe, whose initial role is to save the innocent, now needs to consider how to rescue Carmen, who obviously displays corruption, which Marlowe immediately notices solely by looking at her eyes. Towards the end of the novel, Carmen attempts to murder Marlowe in the same way she murdered Rusty Regan, leaving her in a stoke-like state as soon as the attempted murder fails, which compels Marlowe to request that Vivian sends her to “somewhere far off from here where they can handle her type, where they will keep guns and knives and fancy drinks away from her” and that “she might even get herself cured”(Chandler 228). Marlowe’s decision to send Carmen away to receive help is something outside of what he would normally do, assuming that he would not find it rational

In order to recuse Carmen from further corruption, completely solve and create meaning from the meaningless case put upon him by General Sternwood, Marlowe must act as a Sisyphean hero and break through his own moral boundaries as well as those established by his society to create his own personal set of morals. While he is able to remain somewhat noble in his effort to solve the case, there are multiple times Marlowe goes against all that is considered ethical, which proves that his world is devoid of meaning and that no matter how hard he tries to become a traditional hero, his corrupt society will always prevent him from achieving the traits of a traditional hero. In today’s society, there are many instances of corruption, and the world can arguably be considered meaningless, especially since many people feel stuck in the mundane pattern of life that results from taking part in daily activities or careers that fall into a meaningless routine. With a hero such as Marlowe, Chandler shows how an everyday man who is wrapped up situations involving corrupt people and completely devoid of meaning can overcome society by changing his moral code, which can be applied to the real world, proving that people