Think there is corruption in your town? Does it really grind your gears? Wish there was something you could do about it. Dashiel Hammett’s Red Harvest is just that, the safe way to immerse yourself in action of revenge to those low down crooks that have done you wrong.
Set in the grime and greed of the 1930’s, Hammett’s Red Harvest, is worded in the vernacular of the times which brings out the Al Capone gangster out of every reader. The theme is a righteous blood bath staring a detective trying to do right in a world gone wrong. Both sides of the law are rotten, as the known criminals are chased by the criminals on the police force, both trying to keep their sweaty palms dry with crisp lettuce (That’s cash for you square’s). You may remember …show more content…
Policemen are “dicks, the girls are “broads” and everyone has a shot of gin and a cigar. The cops seem to have their own rules concerning two-faced ex cops, as you can see by the police chief’s quote, “take this baby down cellar and let the wrecking crew work on him before you lock him up” (99). The law in Poisonville is as lawless it’s the criminals.
I have been told that absolute power corrupts absolutely, yet it is the underdog of Op from Frisco that ends up with the power when the gig is up. The occupants of town of Poisonville have no redeeming qualities. There is only the motive for more. As Janus Joplin sang “freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose”, the Op has nothing left to lose save his version of right and wrong. It is this version of right that makes this crime novel and Arthurian bloodbath. In Poisonville, Right equals Might and Wrong Equals Dead.
Yet, in the tradition of Arthur Cannon Doyle, the detective is not without his own vices. Gin and the opiate laudanum are among the Op’s arsenal. He knows the ways of the crooks and pits them against themselves. The Op does not claim to be better than, and that is part of the beauty of this down and dirty novel. The Op just wants to do the job he is paid for making him an honorable
Set in the grime and greed of the 1930’s, Hammett’s Red Harvest, is worded in the vernacular of the times which brings out the Al Capone gangster out of every reader. The theme is a righteous blood bath staring a detective trying to do right in a world gone wrong. Both sides of the law are rotten, as the known criminals are chased by the criminals on the police force, both trying to keep their sweaty palms dry with crisp lettuce (That’s cash for you square’s). You may remember …show more content…
Policemen are “dicks, the girls are “broads” and everyone has a shot of gin and a cigar. The cops seem to have their own rules concerning two-faced ex cops, as you can see by the police chief’s quote, “take this baby down cellar and let the wrecking crew work on him before you lock him up” (99). The law in Poisonville is as lawless it’s the criminals.
I have been told that absolute power corrupts absolutely, yet it is the underdog of Op from Frisco that ends up with the power when the gig is up. The occupants of town of Poisonville have no redeeming qualities. There is only the motive for more. As Janus Joplin sang “freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose”, the Op has nothing left to lose save his version of right and wrong. It is this version of right that makes this crime novel and Arthurian bloodbath. In Poisonville, Right equals Might and Wrong Equals Dead.
Yet, in the tradition of Arthur Cannon Doyle, the detective is not without his own vices. Gin and the opiate laudanum are among the Op’s arsenal. He knows the ways of the crooks and pits them against themselves. The Op does not claim to be better than, and that is part of the beauty of this down and dirty novel. The Op just wants to do the job he is paid for making him an honorable