Why Do Actions Speak Louder Than Words

In the novel Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, the passengers on the train show how the cliché “Actions speak louder than words” is true but also false. The loyalty and the laying of the passengers so how “Actions speak louder than words” is used in different ways. The loyalty the passengers have to the Armstrongs is shown through their actions on the train, by killing Ratchett. While the lies oppose the cliché, because it is their words against no one else; there is no proof. An example of the cliché, “Actions speak louder than words”, is how loyal the passengers are to the Armstrongs. The Armstrong baby was kidnapped and later killed by a man named Casetti. Casetti later changed his name to Ratchett, and was found on the same train as the Armstrong associates. “If ever a man deserved what he got, Ratchett or Cassetti is the man. I'm rejoiced at his end. Such a man wasn't fit to live!” shows that Ratchett was not a good man and most people had a reason to kill him.

The associates of the Armstrongs all killed Ratchett, so they all had a cover story for no one to be blamed. There were clues found at the crime scene, the handkerchief with the initial “H” and the pipe, but both of these clues could have incriminated multiple people; but there was no actual proof. Poirot, the detective on the train, tried to substantiate who killed Ratchett, but there was no actual proof to pinpoint who killed him. “Are these people whose evidence we have taken speaking the truth or lying? We have no means of finding out – except such means as we can devise ourselves. It is an exercise, this, of the brain.” (Page ), shows how Poirot cannot tell if the passengers are lying or are telling the truth. The laying of the passengers does not goes with the cliché, because there was no proof of them lying about the