Red Wind And Double Indemnity Analysis

Superior Essays
The noir genre was similarly reactionary as its predecessor, romanticism. At the end of the 21st century, the progress and development of the society showed its unlimited abilities and the abandonment of the religious faith. Romanticism and its “eventual child”, gothic genre, was a reaction against the rapidly materializing world and the negation of its former ideals. The beginning of the 20th century faced similar challenges and certain disappointment in the big brave world. The emerging “literature noir”, as the gothic fiction before, aimed at exploring the darkest corners of the human nature in the cold and indifferent world. The research shows that the readings, Red Wind and Double Indemnity, of Chandler and Cain fully comply with the …show more content…
The protagonist is an ordinary person in the extraordinary circumstances like Wilder in the book Double Indemnity. Or, on the other hand, an extraordinary person in the criminal circumstances like Marlowe and his crime­-solving skills. He is always a “loner, often utilizing the skills of violence in an extralegal fashion”, is hard­-boiled and life­-beaten (Porter 413). Originating from the western tradition, he distracts himself from pleasures and attractions that might confuse or bring him to peril. Moreover, the noir literature includes a femme fatale like Lola or Phyllis. The genre treats women “specifically” and it implys the dualism of the human nature – dark and light. The world is represented as keenly “patriarchic”, that gives two possible roles for a woman, an innocent “damsel in distress” or an “evil queen” who follows the steps of Lady Macbeth. Both of them give little contribution to the plot development, though they serve a suggestive motive to the male characters, either too weak to follow their instructions, or honest enough to protect them (Ewing 77). When the first archetype is a traditional love interest, the second one either brings the protagonist to ruin or changes his life

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