PB1: The Big Sleep and the Noir Genre

O’Brien, Alex

Writ 2

Schranck

PB1: The Big Sleep and the Noir Genre

American Noir: a cornerstone of literature, and the manifestation of America’s frustrations with society. After the 1929 Stock Market Crash, Americans felt helpless, and many turned to crime for their own sake or for that of their family’s. Crime fiction, meanwhile, had found common ground among every day and disillusioned citizens, and, utilizing past works in the mystery genre, and the blunt style of Ernest Hemingway, Noir became a distinct and popular genre in both novel and film. Writers such as Raymond Chandler became well-known for his portrayal of the hardboiled detective, and use of witty dialogue and dark humor. A staple of Noir, the novel The Big Sleep serves as the epitome of the Noir genre itself, and although Chandler incorporated a unique writing style in the form of imagery through metaphorical language, his work synchronized with the rest of the Noir genre.

In most Noir stories, the primary protagonist is the detective, a cynic and an emotionless tough-guy, secretly dissatisfied with his place in the world. Despite his frequent run-ins with the police and criminals, he lives only to complete his assignments as a private detective, using underground methods that others, such as the police, are unable to employ. Philip Marlowe, the protagonist in The Big Sleep, is an example of such.

At its heart, the Noir genre outlines the very meaning of absurdist existentialism, with the main character, the detective, attempting to save himself from his own cynicism and, to an extent, find his own true purpose. In the end, however, he is unable to make a self-fulfilling difference and realizes his own fatalistic motives.

“What did it matter where you lay once you were dead...Oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Me, I was part of the nastiness now…” (Chandler)

In The Big Sleep, Marlowe feels obligated to save Carmen, the daughter of his client, from getting caught up in a series of murders, only to discover that she is mentally unstable and is directly responsible for the disappearance of her sister’s husband. When Marlowe grasps the futility of his actions, the only thing he is left with is the realization that he must pick up the pieces. In turn, he begins to understand that the people who get by are those like him, willing to embrace the darkness (albeit outwardly and, by extension, unwillingly). Marlowe's blunt self-inquiry over death conveys a sense of undramatic existentialism.

Alcohol, cigarettes, and money are heavily used symbols in the Noir genre. Their use conveys acquired corruption in the characters. As the detective who has been through much and seen the world for what it is, Marlowe is a heavy smoker and drinker, and claims that his only motivation in life is payment. His attempt to forget about the incident at the novel’s conclusion, by going to a bar, is mostly unsuccessful, as he wishes to drown his sorrows away with his drink’s contents.

While The Big Sleep is one example of Noir, and Raymond Chandler is only one of the many authors who developed the genre, the novel serves as a significant piece of the genre’s puzzle, written to emphasize the futile cycle in the world of crime. Although men like Marlowe secretly wish to find a greater meaning, the impossibility of such a task prevails as innate human selfishness creates a fatalistic pathway for anyone wishing to change the outcome.