The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep is an film noir, which was pioneering in crime drama tropes and style. The film utilizes editing techniques and camera work to convey a intricate narrative. One of the most interesting scenes to me was in the opening of the film when Marlowe is talking to General Sternwood which really introduces the main character through his interactions with the old man. The scene also makes good use of the 180-degree rule, shot/reverse shot, and eyeline matching which makes the dialogue between…

In the novel Big Sleep, written in the 1930’s, Vivian is a character that seduces Marlowe into protecting her and her family in fear that Marlowe will find out the truth about her sister Carmen. Vivian is a Femme Fatale meaning an attractive and seductive person who, throughout the novel, uses that to get her way. Vivian is first introduced by a description of her body and looks. This is important because it sets her tone that she is an attractive woman. Vivian uses this to her advantage…

Women in The Big Sleep As I have mentioned before, this was true in the case of the rise of feminism. Before the turn of the century, “Women arrived, en masse, [to the Western frontier], and the ‘male-dominated homosocial world of gold rush California’ gave way to a ‘settled domestic Victorian discipline’” (Hoefer 49). That ‘Victorian discipline’ gave way in the 1920s to a deviant social norm, exemplified by Carmen and to a lesser extent Vivian. Right before Marlowe expresses how much he…

themselves throughout the period about which Chandler is writing” (Sparknotes, Themes, Motifs, and Symbols). The movie The Big Sleep is a great tale and produced in classic film noir style that is full of twist and trickery as crime stories go, and the lead character shares a kinship to the anti-hero detective Sam Spade featured in The Maltese Falcon (1941) five years…

Ismael Dembele Week 6 English Language Homework It was a slightly hazy, albeit sunny morning in the south of Los Angeles on that day. Meanwhile, the big story was all over the news; “Global manhunt for wanted criminal continues in Compton, Los Angeles”. Three policemen were shot dead, two airlifted to Mount Zonah (the biggest and safest hospital nearby), and one taken hostage – all by one fierce human being. There was no sign of him for at least a couple hours, but we weren’t going to cease…

In my essay I will first sate the traits of an ideal knight and then discuss the characteristics of an ideal knight as represented in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight while comparing and contrasting them to the characteristics of ideal knights in traditional texts. Quoting examples from the text, I will then discuss, analyze and come to a conclusion if Sir Gawain has been represented as an ideal knight in the 14th century poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. During the Middle Ages and in many…

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…

On November 20th, my sister and I attended an astonishing play called The Pillowman at the Newnan Theatre Company in Coweta. The Pillowman was originally written in 2003 by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. The play takes place in an interrogation room in an unnamed totalitarian state. A middle aged writer named Katurian (played by Arden Avery) is being questioned by two detectives Tulposki (played by P. David miller) and Ariel (played by Robert Stowe) while his older brother Michal (played by…

Throughout Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, it does not take long to notice that a certain code of conduct, or code of ethics, is very prevalent throughout the poem. The poem includes several key aspects of medieval life, especially how following the code of chivalry is a requirement for knights. The knightly code of chivalry explains the bravery of Sir Gawain that is portrayed throughout the poem. During the story, Gawain’s chivalry is continuously tested, but it is not just Gawain’s chivalry…

turned the gun and shoot him, just the way she tried to shoot me today, and for the same reason” (Chandler 226). Detective Marlowe explained what happened to Rusty Regan as he revealed the major crime happen in Raymond Chandler’s book The Big Sleep. The Big Sleep contained two mysteries: Marlowe was hired by General Sternwood to find out who blackmailed Carmen Sternwood, who turned out to be Geiger; Geiger was murdered in his house, and Marlowe found out that Sternwood’s driver who loved Carmen…