Preview

Why Is Marlowe Considered A Hard-Boiled Detective

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
813 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why Is Marlowe Considered A Hard-Boiled Detective
Philip Marlowe at first glance would seem like the typical hard-boiled detective but in reality is a sensitive, honest detective trying his best to survive in a dishonest society. Can you blame Marlowe for his tough guy act while trying to solve crime in the brutal streets of Los Angeles while confronted with murder, bribery, and vicious crimes? I admire Marlowe for staying true to himself while faced with temptations and sticking to his strict ethnics regardless of the circumstances.
Philip Marlowe is a tall, dark, and fairly handsome, older man with a dry sense of humor and a quick wit. He smokes cigarettes as if they were going out of style and drinks alcohol on a consistent basis. He leads a solitary life which means: no friends, no family, and no women to go home to after long nights of work. While on the job, Marlowe witnesses a lot of criminal activities from blackmail to bribery, etc. It would seem normal to form a “hard shell” in order to cope with all the brutal things he sees on the mean Los Angeles streets. What separates Marlowe from any other hard-boiled detective
…show more content…
Any problem that he encounters he chooses to solve it on his on which shows just how cynical he is and the lack of trust he has for people. To him everyone is considered a potential criminal. Marlowe is considered a strict man with a lot of integrity, he shows this through his personal life, society and also towards his clients. Throughout his life he isolates himself both physically and emotionally. Marlowe also isolates himself in the streets Los Angeles and holds his moral conduct as part of this integrity. Which untimely means that he lives a lonely life because he does not allow himself to find a partner that he can trust. Although he is in need of advice, emotional support and a shoulder to lean on he does not allow anybody to be there for him. He accepts that this is a part of his nature and does not allow it to define

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The poet asks if someone else is “not there too,” revealing that he feels isolated and detached from others and his exaggerated…

    • 410 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why Is Crooks So Unhappy

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Mistreated, He doesn’t have friends-unconfident and seriously mentally damaged from the lasting effects of loneliness.…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sam is saying that to be free the people of the colonies have to fight. He thinks fighting is the only way to be free. It also means that Sam thinks the King who is so far away from the colonies shouldn't be the governor of the colonies and they should not let him govern their country. "He (the King) thinks he's going to teach us a lesson. But we're going to teach him one" (p35)He's telling Tim to join in his side and make him help the Rebel army.…

    • 1720 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Next to Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple are two of the most recognizable detectives in fiction because of their distinctive attributes. Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective, is noted for moustaches and his “egg-shaped head”. From the rather violent village of St. Mary Mead, Miss Jane Marple is known for her knitting needles. A third detective, Ariadne Oliver, is an author with a fondness for apples. Interestingly, the last character is also thought to be the Christie’s alter ego. Through her characters, Christie is able to express her own views on the social issues of her time.…

    • 669 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He knew what was the right thing to do, but his selfishness kept him from acting on it. His character is hypocritical because he claims his values are his devotion to God and trustworthiness, yet he does not follow through with what he believes. His desire for a family is his motivation that leads him to the confession of his sin. His reputation no longer mattered to him. The change in the character is drastic from beginning to end of Hawthorne’s novel and shows readers that there would be a consequence for the actions Arthur Dimmesdale had…

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    unhappiness is the direct result of the poor guidance he receives from the bad adult role models…

    • 622 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When one person is left alone for a long period of time, they think. It’s inevitable. They think about memories, regrets, potential outcomes, past decisions. In Chris McCandless journey, he has had a lot of time to think to himself. If McCandless never left to live a nomadic lifestyle, to ponder life's greatest wonders in solitude, that same man would never have lived the joyous life he did. The events that took place on his two year journey ultimately left McCandless as a changed man for the…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sherlock Holmes is a very strange man. He is a detective who can solve a mystery without even seeing what seems to be like too much evidence. His ethics are very interesting. He believes that murder cases turn out to have very complex ways of happening. He does not believe in the solar system, which the narrator thought was very weird. His decision to join the case to help was a just decision, because without him the case wouldn’t have been solved correctly. Holmes seems to always stick with his beliefs, not matter what the situation was, even after the case seemed like it was solved.…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Film Noir Analysis

    • 1421 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Film Noir is most often seen as a man’s world- the hard boiled detective is the ultimate…

    • 1421 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sam Spade, the detective-protagonist is aware that his best efforts are ultimately futile, to the extent that the corrupt urban environment will inevitably undercut and outlast his heroic attempts to see justice done, this sense of Spade wanting to achieve greater justice implies to the reader that Spade is essentially good and is resistant to the hostile world which he had devoted his life to combating. Raymond Chandler labels Hammetts character of Spade as a ?cynical, tough individual who maintains his code of honour in a world tarnished by deception and betrayal at all levels of society? In ?The Maltese Falcon? Spade is described as the "blond Satan." Whilst his objective and inner good is clear to the readers, other characters struggle to see Spade in his true light, and describe him as a ?wild and unpredictable man, and his motives are never quite clear? This could be attributed to the fact that he is continually distancing himself from people and avoiding relationships, except in his relationship with…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Through the text ‘A Clean Well-Lighted Place’ we can very clearly see the ideas of Loneliness and living life in despair. I think that these themes are very relevant to the society around us. A lot of people are unable to form connections or lose connection in their lives. This leads to people being lonely, much like the main character in the story. An example of this in the text is when the two waiters at the café are sitting down, and talking to each other, they begin to talk about the old man, “He’s lonely. I am not lonely.” This is the younger waiter referring to the drunken old man; the only reason for the man being lonely is because he struggles with making connections as he is deaf.…

    • 589 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Devil in a Blue Dress

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Easy Rawlins from Devil in a Blue Dress was a black private detective. He was a man who worked for what he had. Unlike most of the African American population, he had his own house, but he was lacking money. Rawlins did not have a steady job so when a man came along proposing work, he immediately took it. This is much different from the amateur detective, Sherlock Holmes, in “Silver Blaze.” In “Silver Blaze” the story opens up with Holmes talking to his partner, John Watson, about leaving to go to King’s Pyland so he could involve himself in an investigation involving a murder and a missing horse. Watson then thought to himself, “I was not surprised. Indeed, my only wonder was that he had not already been mixed up in this extraordinary case, which was the topic of conversation through the length and breadth of England.” The difference between Rawlins and Holmes was Easy Rawlins needed the job; Sherlock Holmes just loved to be presented with a challenge.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “It was a summer Sunday and the hall door of the Marlowes’ room was open. She could see only a portion of the room, part of the dresser and only the footpiece of the bed with Mrs. Marlowe’s corset on it. But there was a sound in the quiet room she could not place, and when she stepped over the threshold she was startled by a sight that, after a single glance, sent her running to the kitchen, crying: Mr. Marlowe is having a fit!” This displays the cleanness of her mind and her youth without being forward about the subject, as she is unaware of the Marlowes’ actual activity. The author illustrates Frankie’s rashness indirectly as well. For instance, on page 153, it states, “She had said that she would shoot herself if the bride and her brother would not take her. She pointed the pistol at the side of her head and held it there for a minute or two.” Even if she did not follow through with the action of killing herself, the fact that she was prepared to do so shows how dangerously reckless she is. By including these details and more like them, McCullers adds depth to her characters, and encourages the reader to not only pay attention to her direct statements, but to read between the lines to truly visualize each individual as…

    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Poor Fish Moravia

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The young man in the story is constantly looking for reassurance. He asks his girlfriend quite frequently for compliments, and encouraging words to help boost his diminutive ego. The author shows the struggle taking place in the characters thoughts by his need for such words, making it obvious on how the character feels about himself. The author shows how the character is at a war with himself through not only the characters thoughts, but also with his words. However, the character is gifted enough to have such a loyal companion who sticks by him even when times are…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    would you like to have fun

    • 1099 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Evidence of a “Tough Guy” novel where the character is determined to reach their goal can be found in “The Long Goodbye” by Raymond Chandler. In this story, the main character and tough guy, Philip Marlowe is conflicted with suspicion of murdering the wife of Terry Lennox who recently fled to Mexico for reasons unknown to Marlowe. Once released, Marlowe does not lay off the case of who killed Lennox’s wife, and he also challenges the alleged suicide note made by Lennox himself. Throughout the novel Marlowe is hit with gangsters threatening him to give up the case, and a senseless woman who accuses him of a different murder. However, despite the backlash and interruptions Marlowe faces, there is nothing that stops him from getting to his goal of discovering the true murderers of Terry Lennox and his wife. In the text Marlowe states, “But there was something that didn’t figure at all—the way she had been beaten up. Nobody could sell me that Terry had done that…Nobody was going to explain the Lennox case to me, The murderer has confessed and he was dead. There wouldn’t even be an…

    • 1099 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics