The big sleep

In the novel " The Big Sleep ", there's a character by the name of Philip Marlowe. Philip Marlowe is a private investigator who is hired to work for a wealthy man named General Strenwood, in the month of october. General Sternwood wants Marlowe to deal with a blackmail on his wild young daughter Carmen . Carmen is being blackmailed by a book seller named Arthur Geiger she was also previously blackmailed by Joe Brody. Carmen is clearly the femme fatal who killed her brother in law Rusty because he didn't give her the time of day. This book might be known to many but few can understand the complexity of this novel. Many characters though out this novel double -crossone another and many secrets are exposed.

Before I get started, I would like to describe what a femme fatale is according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary. A femme fatale is a very attractive women who causes trouble or unhappiness for the men who become involved with her.

"Carmen is a child who likes to pull wings off flies ," pp13. This quote gives the reader an I sightof the the type of person Carmen is. The reader can literally picture the flies as metaphors for men and she just sits there finding men to use and sobotage.General Sternwood uses this quote to describe his daughter Carmen as he explains to Marlowe the situation with both his daughters. She also fits the characteristics of a femme fatale because she is ambiguous women,yet she is an innocent child, also a cold blooded killer. She is a two faced person and one face is of a child for instance sucking her thumb. " She bit it and suck it slowly, turning it around in her mouth like a baby with a comforter" (6). In the beginning of the novel Carmen tries to sit on Marlowe's lap using her sex appeal since she knows she's pretty she then calls him cute hoping he will give in to her. " I'm cute too "(6). " There was something behind her eyes, blank as they were, that I had never seen in a women's eyes" (157). She was a cold blooded