The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler as a Living Document of the Socio-Economic Anxieties - Case Study Example

Introduction Among the seven novels written by Raymond Chandler, the debut novel is ‘The Big Sleep’ and arguably the best too. The novel was published in the year 1939 and at that time Raymond was aged fifty. So, Chandler showed all the traits of maturity in his novel. The characters were fully developed and the plot was complete. But these are general attributes of any good novel. What extra we find in this novel is a more matured perspective and overview of socio-economic condition of the time. Any literary piece is not framed beyond its social milieu and The Big Sleep by Chandler is not an exception in this regard. If we give a close reading of the text we could easily find out that the time frame against which the novel is written is the post World War era and all the anxieties and the tension of the time can be easily perceived through this novel if read between the lines. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler has more depth and it is a living document of the socio-economic anxieties and tensions of the period which is very much essential for a reader to look at and this feature places the text beyond a mere hard-boiled detective novel. Issues of Masculinity The Big Sleep is written at the backdrop of 1930s, the period of Great Depression in American history. This was the time when America was completely cynical and disillusioned about the prospects for its future. A repetitive mention of money can be found in the novel and money acts as an ideal for any kind of work. Money seems to be the seed of every crime and we find characters within the novel fight and bribe each other for money only. The opening page of the novel shows that Marlowe is “dressed up” because he is about to enter a house that is owned by a millionaire. Money in short, throughout the novel is shown as an object that is coveted, enjoyed and respected. Therefore the mirroring of the desperation throughout the entire nation of America becomes more obvious in the plot of the novel. The Hard – boiled detectives of the novels written during that period are all epitomes of masculinity. Tough, rough male characters were all presented in these novels to show the social and political turmoil of the period that made a man stubborn and rigid. The protagonists in these novels are the hard-boiled detectives and all of them bear some typical archetypal characteristics of working class men of the period (Breu, “Hard-Boiled Masculinities”). Chandler’s Marlowe is represented as an icon of masculinity found in the hard-boiled detective series of the era. Philip Marlowe is an honest, wisecracking private detective who is represented to the readers as a seemingly straightforward person. Marlowe is represented as everyday “man’s man”. But a more close introspection to the character opens up newer perspectives. In the centre of Marlowe’s character there lies a complex and uncertain figure that uses his biting one-liners quite often to avoid the serious personal questions that might lead to an open insight about Marlowe’s idea about women, his enigmatic past or about his present relationship. The pursuit of Chandler to portray Marlowe as an iconic “hard-boiled” detective; is a tough guy and often seems contrived or overstated. The portrayal of Marlowe has been as character whose only weapon is masculinity. As if masculinity is sheltering him and is seen as a wall that completely alienates him from the society from which he feels disgusted, is actually the disgust of Chandler towards the corrupted American society of the era. This disgust is shown through a tough masculine character that is strong enough to shoulder the responsibility, to wipe away evils from it. Through the eyes of Marlowe, Chandler shows his readers that the oilfields lying empty where Cameron attempts to murder Marlowe, where Rusty Regan is found dead are symbolic of the fact that these oilfields has made General Sternwood rich but it is equally essential to see that the place from where the money came is “dirty”. In the novel, it is not only the money-hungry people who are corrupted but Chandler shows corruption in every layer of the American society, as if the process of corruption was carried out very systematically during the time. Even the law is not exempted from the corruption within the novel. The newspapers lie and the cops can be bought. Amidst this all-corrupted situation, Chandler shows Marlowe as a voice of “everyman” who as if comes as an alienated part of the society, who watches every thing with a misty smile and half-squinted eyes from a distance and without being a part of the corrupted society evolves as a “real man”, as a “modern messiah” to break the disillusion, the corruption of the society and establish a regime of honesty and uprightness. At the core of all these discussion there is a central question about the masculinity of Marlowe. “Is Marlowe a ‘real man’ or his exaggerated masculinity a compensation for a masked weakness?” (Griggers, “Into the Heart of Marlowe: Masculinity and Romance in Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely”). The character portrayal by Chandler raises plethora of contention and controversy. The unexpected toughness from Marlowe and his complete detachment from romance are viewed from two perspectives. Firstly, this tough masculinity as depicted by Chandler may be the voice against all that was corrupted in the society during the time and women can be viewed not as a paradigm of love but as an object for temptation and Marlowe is the iconoclast who is shown diverted from all, that are considered as vices in the society and even from company of woman cause that as may lead to illegitimate desires. In this context, Marlowe may encapsulate all the traits of a ‘real man’ that was quite essential for the contemporary society. On the other plane, Marlowe can be seen as a mask, an easy path of escaped from all the drawback of the society and a mask symbolic of the shelter that puts more stress on masculinity and hides its real face behind. That tough look is admirable but behind the face of admiration is the real face of society that portrays the strong things though is actually weak inside (Smith, “Hard-Boiled: Working-Class Readers and Pulp Magazines”). Peter. J. Rabinowitz in his essays, “Rats behind the wainscoting: politics, convention, and Chandler’s The Big Sleep” finds a connection between the novel with that of the Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. The connection is about an important parallel between the characters in both the novels. The characters of both the novels are idealists and both of them are in search of truth in a primary dark world. This quest of the truth by a powerful ‘real man’ in a dark society is again the representative of the post war hollowness and anxieties prevalent during the time. Philip Marlowe and his masculinity are symbolic and the voices of the anxiety in the American society that the nation was undergoing during the post Cold War and Post World War era. In a very true vain Marlowe himself voices Chandler in the novel: “It is not like it the hard way. It’s that I get it that way” in the page 195 of another novel of the series “Farewell, My Lovely”. It is worth noticing that Chandler is not ‘redefining’ masculinity through the characterization of Marlowe. He just gives a different perspective to masculinity that evolves out of the time and society. The masculinity attributed to Marlowe is a shield that doesn’t allow us to delve deep into his soul and psyche. Marlowe cannot fall in love or break down to tears because he is tempered unemotional machismo. “He can never let down his masculine guard in front of the reader”. Therefore, masculinity is an important feature in the novels of Chandler and the driving force behind them. They are the creation “into which men can escape and be the hard-boiled tough –guys they only dream about, and that give women an icy yet attractive man they want to get to know better”. Conclusion Marlowe and his masculinity is a kind of ‘bildungsroman’ that functions within the novel, The Big Sleep. Marlowe educates himself about the prevailing moral illness. He finds out his own ability to operate within it and he begins the story along with his knightly code: ‘it is tested and it fails’. He ends the story on a bitter and desperate note - “the struggles of a man who has lost his sense of moral order and is reaching out of a source of support”. This affirms and reestablishes that the gender issue or masculinity in Chandler’s ‘The Big Sleep’ represented through the character of Philip Marlowe is a resultant of the depression, conflict and anxiety of the time. References Breu, Christopher. Hard-boiled Masculinities. U of Minnesota Press, 2005. Griggers, Cody., “Into the Heart of Marlowe: Masculinity and Romance in Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely”. 10 December, 2009. Criticism and Scholarship. No Date. Smith, Erin Ann. Hard-Boiled: Working-Class Readers and Pulp Magazines. Temple University Press, 2000. Bibliography Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep. Vintage Books, 1992. Read More