Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye

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Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye is much more than the average detective fiction of it’s time. Chandler uses the novel for a social commentary on the depravity that surrounds money using the protagonist Philip Marlowe, a callous, but still likeable, private investigator who’s moral compass is unwavering, to emphasize his points by contrasting him with the variety of other characters including the wealthy and the police. Throughout the novel we see Marlowe constantly and consistently making decisions and acting upon them based on his own values, regardless of what others or even the law have to say on the matter. “What makes a man stay with [Private Investigating] nobody knows. You don’t get rich…Sometimes you get beaten up or shot at…every other month you decide to give it up and find a sensible …show more content…
At one point in the novel we even see him turn down extra money from Mrs. Wade since he did not feel he did enough work to deserve it, “You don’t owe me anything… What little I did I got paid for.” (Chandler 159). On the other end of the spectrum we see a variety of corrupt antagonists that are the complete opposite of Marlowe in regards to money and morals in general, an example of a smaller character being Dr. Verringer who is a prime suspect in Marlowe’s search for the missing Roger Wade as he treated him for alcoholism. Driven by sheer desperation to save his friend Earl, he is forced to sell out and compromise his values for money. Furthermore, more important characters are also a part of this social criticism, the biggest being Terry Lennox

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