Stylistic Analysis Of The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep is an interesting novel by Raymond Chandler with many twists and turns throughout the entire plot, with an abrupt plot twist at the very end. The story is set in the in Los Angeles, California in the 1930s, from the point of view of Philip Marlowe, the protagonist. The basic plot of the entire story starts when a private detective, Philip Marlowe, gets hired by a wealthy man, General Sternwood, for a job, which involves the blackmailing of one of his two daughters, Vivian Regan. The plot gets more complex and in-depth with all the events that occur from the beginning of the story to the very end, from murder, secrets, etc. In short, Marlowe has his sights on somewhat of a side quest than his original mission, which is to find out what happened to Rusty Regan, who is Vivian …show more content…
Throughout the entire story, it seems that Marlowe rarely sleeps and if he does it’s a very short. Gathering information from the story, it seems that Marlowe stays up late working and wakes up early to work, which greatly reduces his amount of sleep. Because of his lack of sleep, Marlowe is a bit more sensitive and instinctive, therefore not using judgement in his decisions, “Sleep loss impairs judgement, especially about sleep. Lack of sleep can affect our interpretation of events. This hurts our ability to make sound judgements because we may not assess situations accurately and act on them wisely.” (WebMD). In other words, Philip Marlowe is basically “grouchy” and isn’t thinking very straight. In addition to lack of sleep, Marlowe also has a problem with alcohol at times throughout the story, “I went to bed full of whiskey and frustration and dreamed about a man in a bloody Chinese coat who chased a naked girl with long jade earrings while I ran after them and tried to take a photograph with an empty camera.” (Pg.