ISSN : 2455-4375 UPA Interdisciplinary e-journal Vol.-2 2016
Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep: Crime as a vehicle of social saga of incrimination Anchal Ishwar Mudgal Police Inspector, Police Training Centre, Nagpur Email:[email protected]
ABSTRACT: The purpose of the research is to discover whether the concept of crime in the novel of Raymond Chandler can operate as a saga of social incrimination. In the earlier part of the twentieth century, the loam of America witnessed the dual social sabotage of The Great Depression and the Prohibition movement. Both the social nemesis tainted the innocent environment of America into the ambiance of incrimination. Moreover, these nemeses sunk the social atmosphere of America in a criminal tone. The Great Depression brought the desperation and economic hardship while the Prohibition movement produced the brigade of illicit liquor bootleggers, consequently the mishmash of these nemeses ubiquitously created organized crime, bootleggers, peddlers, gangsters, corrupt politicians and crooked police machinery in the society. These incriminations also brought the ancillary evils of society in the disguise of pornography, racism, drug addiction and sexism. Raymond Chandler was the eccentric English eyewitness of the criminality in the era. Hence, the attempt would be made in this paper to examine and discover whether the concept of crime can work as a social commentary of incrimination in the society as is reflected in Chandler’s novel The Big Sleep.
Key words: social saga, incrimination, crime, social commentary, incrimination etc
Introduction Crime is the essence of a society as no society is free of crime. Therefore the concept of crime and society has its inherent correlations. As literature is the mirror image of the society, crime also can be taken as an integral part of the society whether it is a primitive or an advance one. Raymond Chandler is the master of hardboiled genre which is one of the branches of crime fiction. He penned almost all his novels adopting the concept of crime as an instrument to create a documentary on the contemporary society. Raymond chandler in his hardboiled fiction portrayed the societal scenario. Laura Marcus in Crime Fiction says hardboiled fiction “is the earliest and only form of popular literature in which is expressed some sense of the poetry of modern life”(247). This statement of Marcus can straightly be applied to the work of Raymond ISSN : 2455-4375 UPA Interdisciplinary e-journal Vol.-2 2016 chandler. Chandler outstandingly raised the issues of the contemporary times and portrayed the social scenario through the vehicle of crime. The Actual Criminal milieu of the contemporary society In relation to the enquiry of this treatise it is essential to get acquainted with the actual criminal scenario of the contemporary society which will further verify the social depiction in the novel. The world depicted by Chandler is of the epoch of early twentieth century. The soil of America witnessed reprisal of the Prohibition movement and The Great Depression. In 1920 the government banned the alcohol and the whole epoch from 1920-1933 is recognized as the years of Prohibition. Uncouthness thirst of some Americans uses this preventive measure of prohibition as an opportunity for illegitimate activities and raised a huge business of illicit liquor. The scattered criminals gathered and many fleets of organized crimes indulged in the bootlegging of illicit liquor. October 1929 witnessed the great fall of stock market that began The Great Depression. The eon of years from 1929 to 1939 is considered as the Great Depression which creates unemployment, poverty and hardship. The evil of Great Depression in the flow of Prohibition added fuel to the fire and brought a miserable economic downfall with the social evils.
The mishmash consequences of preventive measure of Prohibition and Depression produced the supportive environment for bootleggers and gangsters and criminals. Encyclopedia Britannica explains that the business of “bootlegging helped to lead the establishment of American organized crime, which persisted long after the repeal of Prohibition”. Gradually these criminal became affluent and rich. Such criminals got the fame of heroic figure in the society. This was the actual scenario of contemporary society of the America of what Raymond Chandler witnessed with his naked eyes. In the same interlude when Chandler was penning The Big Sleep(1939), Gottlieb and Wolf explains that the existing attorney General of U.S., Frank Murphy categorized the environment of Los Angeles as “one of the most corrupt and graft-ridden cities in the U.S” (qtd. in Boas, 44). This actual felonious scenario of Los Angeles is reflected in the novels of Raymond Chandler. This real set up of the society is the touchstone to verify the social commentary of criminal milieu in the novel, The Big Sleep.
ISSN : 2455-4375 UPA Interdisciplinary e-journal Vol.-2 2016
A social saga of incrimination
Chandler depicted the society in which he lives in and writes about his own experiences. Chandler uses the concept of crime to sing the social saga of incrimination with perfect fusion of fact and fiction. The societal view which was full of criminals, gangsters, bootleggers’ murderers, blackmailers, pornographers and racketeers convincingly convicted and mirrored in his novels. Chandler convincingly convicted the crime certainly through his characters set in nervous natural climate including the flora and fauna of Los Angeles. In the days of Prohibition and Great Depression the contemporary society witnessed the offences like bootlegging, illicit drug addiction, gambling, pornography, blackmailing. Through his fiction Chandler bravely presented the live scenario of criminality throughout the story of The Big sleep.
Chandler presented the picture of the contemporary society through the device of crime in the novel The Big Sleep. The murder, blackmailing, pornography, bootlegging and drug addiction being the forms of incrimination in the society has been presented in the novel. Most of the characters in the novel are responsible for the crime and corruption in the society. In the novel, General Sternwood represents corrupt high society. Eddie Mars is responsible for the figure of multiple criminalities like bootlegging, blackmailing, racketeering and murder. Chandler bravely portrayed the corrupt police machinery. Carmen Sternwood, the younger daughter of General Sternwood denotes the drug addiction, nudity and pornography while Vivian Sternwood stands for nudity and culpability of the contemporary society. All the characters of Raymond Chandler are the representatives of the era and collectively sing the social saga of incrimination of the contemporary society. In The Big sleep the General Sternwood hires the private detective Philip Marlowe to detect the blackmailer who claims the money for the debts incurred by Carmen Sternwood, his younger daughter. Here Chandler wants to depict the incrimination of blackmailing. This blackmailing in the story rams the several murders in the story and the tendency of incrimination is maintained throughout the story. Criminal events of the whole novel flow in the rage of crime which appears in several disguise according to the situation.
Corrupt high-class society ISSN : 2455-4375 UPA Interdisciplinary e-journal Vol.-2 2016
General Sternwood is the businessman of an oil industry and he is the representative of corrupt high class society in the story. The wealthy and rich people who dwells on the outskirts of city and run their race for materialistic things with their dishonest intention and culpability. John Cawelti agrees to this contention and maintains that “ those who have achieved wealth and status are weak, dishonorable and corrupt” (157). The people of high class in the novels of Raymond Chandler are associated with ostentatious sham and fakery. This is the mirrored scenario of Great Depression and Prohibition when there was unequal distribution of wealth. People like Eddie Mars who once were the professional criminal are among ranks of wealthy high class people. Terrain of Criminals The glimpses of real criminal milieu have been implanted in the novels of Chandler. As discussed in the early part of this research paper the societal phenomenon in the Great Depression and the Prohibition was fostering the development of illicit elements. All these elements Chandler witnessed personally and therefore its reflection can be observed in his novel, The Big Sleep. Historians like Douthit and Kramer point to “crimes related to Prohibition --- illegal sale of liquors and gambling which were prevalent in most major U.S. cities” (qtd. in Isaac and Norton) In The Big Sleep Eddie Mars is a character that represents crime tendency as that of the gamblers, racketeers. For the series of murders in the story Eddie Mars is responsible. Eddie, who is dirty and crooked, is involved directly or indirectly behind the every murder in the novel and his description in the lines of the novel personifies his figure in the best manner. In The Big sleep Candler portrays the Eddie’s criminality as “You think he’s just a gambler. I think he’s a pornographer, a blackmailer, a hot car broker, a killer by remote control, and a suborner of crooked cops. He’s whatever looks good to him… he never killed anybody, he just hires it done”(144). Thus Eddie Mars is an archetype of gangster. He is blackmailer, gambler, racketeer and epitome of crime of the city. Therefore “figures like Eddie Mars are clearly supposed to be realistic representations of masterminds of organized crime” (Bird, 111). Eddie Mars is the representative of racketeers and gamblers and bribers of the society. The era in which Chandler wrote The Big Sleep was the epoch when the science and technology was emergent but it witnessed its adverse side as well. Arthur Gwynn Geiger is a pornographer who uses the photography for such ill purpose. One more character adding ISSN : 2455-4375 UPA Interdisciplinary e-journal Vol.-2 2016 culpability to the society is of Carol Lundgren who reflects the corrupt morality. He is a homosexual and worked for Geiger. He is arrested and charged with Brody's murder. Here Chandler wants to convey the unnatural sexual relationships and also his own disapproval of it. The Character of Terence Regan is the envoy for immigration and bootlegging of the contemporary society. He was a bootlegger in his early life and an Irish immigrant. He is the recent husband of Vivian Regan. He falls in love with the wife of Mars and he is the target of investigation for private detective Marlowe. Here chandler uncovers rush of immigrants in the city of Los Angeles. An illegitimate relationship with the legitimate wife of Mars is the epitome of adulterous societal set up and corrupt morality of the Americans. The era in which Chandler was writing The Big Sleep, the moral values of Americans was decaying and sex scandals were the routine of the society. In a case study it was revealed that “Los Angeles was a slew of sex scandals in the entertainment industry during the 1920s and 1930s” (Isaac and Norton, 12). The plight of society with respect to the sex offences is explained by William Nelson “a 40 percent increase in sex offenses in 1936 and a 110 percent increase in 1937” (270). To depict this real immoral soil of society Chandler created the figure of Vivian Regan and Carmen Sternwood, former is the oldest and later is youngest daughter of General Sternwood. In the peak her youth Vivian spend most of the time in drinking and gambling in Cypress Club and seduces men like Marlowe. Her three marriages, illicit seducing behavior speaks her immoral sexism. She accompanies with the slobbering drunk Larry Cobb for whom she doesn’t have affection. Actually, he was a marrying figure at one time in her life. She covers up the murder done by her younger sister and also attempts to seduce the private detective Phillip Marlowe. Another figure of sexism and immorality is Carmen Sternwood, she tries a futile attempt to seduce Marlowe with her nude body. Further she is a figure of felony of pornography as she is engaged in business of pornography with Geiger. The immoral corruption of Vivian and Carmen is the reflection of moral corruption and illicit sexism of the existing era. Through both the female characters Chandler brazenly and bravely portrayed the nude and rude life of Americans. Chandler wants to deliver the sense of corruption and conductivity for criminality in law- enforcing agencies like Policing and in the office of District Attorney. The period “From the 1920s to 1940s, the City of Los Angeles in general, and the Los Angeles Police Department in particular, were beset with widespread corruption”( Isaac and Norton 14). To deliver the corruption in Government machinery through the concept of crime Chandler conglomerates the ISSN : 2455-4375 UPA Interdisciplinary e-journal Vol.-2 2016 fiction and fact in an artistic way. In The Big Sleep Chandler portrayed the corruption in police department as they help the criminals like Eddie Mars. Chandler tells us through the mouth of Marlowe “I know you, Mr. Mars. The Cypress Club at Las Olindas. Flash gambling for flash people. The local law in your pocket and a well-greased line into L.A. In other words, protection” (52). Geiger’s shop and his business of pornography runs in connivance with the police, hence private detective Marlowe explains “But the Hollywood police allowed it to operate, for their own reasons” (83).
In conclusion it may be said that Raymond Chandler successfully testifies the statement that his novels are the “poetry of modern life” (Marcus, 247). Chandler successfully depicted the society in which he lives. In addition to it, he has depicted the felonious nature of the contemporary society. The aspect of crime drives the reader to question the social set up of the American life. Chandler also depicted the plight of supreme bureaucracy suffered with melanoma of corruption. Ian Rankin in an introduction to a new Rough Guide to Crime Fiction by Barry Forshaw notes: “I continue to find the crime novel the perfect vehicle for a discussion of contemporary issues in the most unflinching terms.” In the novel, The Big Sleep, the concept of crime is the vehicle of expression for incrimination in the society. Throughout the story chandler commented upon the felonious issues of the contemporary society including the corruption, immorality, pornography. The nexus of criminals, bootleggers, racketeers which are the byproducts of Depression and Prohibition are well set up in the story to sing the social saga of incrimination of American life. The entire story speaks the reality of the time through the vehicle of crime.
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Cited works
Bird, Paul, “Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction as a Vehicle of Social Commentary in Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep and Walter Mosley's Devil In A Blue Dress.” Journal of the Faculty of Economics, KGU, Vol.21, No.1, September 2011 105. Web. 6 Dec 2015.
ISSN : 2455-4375 UPA Interdisciplinary e-journal Vol.-2 2016
Boas, Philip, “The moral fiction of Raymond chandler” Diss. University of Southern California, 1992 Dissertations and Thesis: Full-Text. ProQuest. Web. 21 Oct 2015. Chandler, Raymond, The Big Sleep, Maryland: Wildside Press LLC, USA, 2014. Print. Cowelti, John G., Adventure, Mystery, Romance, The University of Chicago Press, USA, 1977. Print. Encyclopedia Britannica, “Bootlegging.". Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. N.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.