Aaron Ferber

Assignment 6

ENGL 1147

amf272

Aaron Ferber

The Mystery Outside the Story

Excuse me, but you seem to be somewhat lost. Ah, I see I have startled you. Please, do not be frightened by my appearance: we French are kind and hospitable people. I noticed that you seemed to be quite exhausted, in fact it seemed as if you had been wandering for quite some time. You see I am a native of this city, and I thought I could be of service to you. Ah, I see you hungrily eyeing that freshly baked bread across the street, why don't we take a small snack before we set you on your way?

That is quite a nice coat you have, and the orange color makes it stand out so well. There are undoubtedly few others like it anywhere near here. It reminds me of an adventure I once went on with one of my close friends. Ah, my story piques your interest? Very well, I shall tell you while we wait for the next batch of baguette. 

You see it all started on a very dull day. Why yes, actually most of my stories begin on the most dreary of days, c'est la vie. So on this day, a Wednesday I believe, I had simply been taking a stroll around town, seeing if there was anything to be done. You see, I thrive on an intellect that derives it's main source from observation and extrapolation. You don't quite understand? Look at that man over there, hastily glancing back and forth over at the woman sitting across the café and again at the plate in front of him. No doubt most would assume he is interested in getting her phone number. However, if this were the case, we might also assume a slight dilation of the pupils as well as a neglect of the food in front of him. Both of which, in this case, are not present. Now look at her food, ah she is just now realizing that in fact, the meal she has before her is not what she had asked for. Indeed, it is the other man's food that has been brought to her table. That man's eyes of desire are not so much for the woman, as for the food at her table. Ah yes, and there he is walking up to go correct the waiter's mistake. The world is a funny place in this way.

Ah, my ability to predict excites you. It is quite common for most to find my train of thought intriguing. You wish to hear my original story? Very well, we will continue this story after you have a nice croissant.

Your waving hand gestures seem to indicate that you would like another piece of bread. No, it is the rest of the story that you desired. Very well, I shall try to satiate your appetite. Well, you see, it was a rather dreary day when I decided to pick up a newspaper and skim over some of the local headlines. Going over the articles I found that there had been many things that were, much like the day, rather ordinary and of little consequence. However, I soon stumbled across an article describing a pair of extraordinary murders in the Rue Morgue. Apparently there had been a recent break in at the L'Espanaye residence. Nearby residents had complained about some noise and when heading over to investigate, found that the door was locked tight and they could not enter until they took a crowbar to the door. They also heard some form of shouting, both from the mouth of Madame L'Espanaye, as well as the perpetrator. None of the witnesses could quite tell the origin of the perpetrator from his language, but they had soundly defined him as male, which narrowed the search pool by roughly a factor of two. A pool which, when originally factoring in the entire population of the world, still seemed rather large. In addition to identifying that the culprit was male, the report also indicated that nothing had actually been stolen from the household, indeed all that seemed to be missing was Madame L'Espanaye and her sister, which directly tied the case to one of immense rage. Only someone so brutal and with an inhuman lack of compassion could have done such a deed. Indeed, a large amount of soot was found and upon inspection of the fireplace, the body of Madame L'Espanaye's sister, Camille, was found fully jammed up the chimney, head first. Her corpse was dragged from the chimney. Upon inspection of her corpse, severe scratches on the face, dark bruises along the throat and deep indentations of finger nails were found that seemed to hint the deceased had been throttled to death.

Ah, of course you are not interested in hearing such stories of gore and violence while we eat. Please enjoy some of our finer cheeses with your bread. Take some wine perhaps, it is quite fragrant. Yes, I see your nose picks up the scent. Do you drink much wherever you are from, no? Oh what a pitty, here in France we all enjoy some wine with our meals, it helps dull the mind as well as the tongue. Yes, I do see that you are enjoying yourself, and your claps of joy seem to beg for a continuation into my story. Very well, we shall hear more of my tale, but only after we get one of my favorite cheeses. Ah, yes, I practically grew up on this. It's one of the most expensive cheeses money can buy. Why yes, actually my family was quite wealthy, but I am not so unfortunately. Such is life. But yes, where was I.

Right, I had read through the newspaper article and indeed they had eventually found Madame L'Espanaye. She turned up outside the house, in the small paved yard to the rear of the building. The body, as well as the head, was so mutilated that in an attempt to raise here, the head had fallen off. In addition, the police had thus far been unable to identify a single clue. After the article were several key witness accounts that all seemed to conflict with one another. Some deposed that the culprit had been from Spain while others said they must have been from France. Indeed the only intelligible information given was the fact that the two sisters were very friendly with each other, lived a rather retired lifestyle, and that the door was forced open with the bayonet of a Gendarme, rather than by crowbar. The only possible suspect was one Adolphe Le Bon, who had delivered four thousand francs on the day in question to the two sisters. However, that being said, no money was taken from the household. In fact, the key to the chest of valuables had still been in the lock and any culprit could have gained immediate access with little to no resistance. 

It was in essence, an unsolvable puzzle, the kind of which greatly whets my appetite and only presents itself once in a while. Just as you are tearing into your hard bread with your claw-like hands, I was eager to immerse myself in this newfound puzzle. Ah, but I see you are finished with your bread and cheese. It's getting somewhat dark out, why don't we stay for a bit and enjoy a nice cake or pastry. Here in Paris, we tend to enjoy the finer things in life, food, drink, unsolvable puzzles, we have it all. Why don't I get you one of these fine pastries glaring at you through the glass. Yes they are somewhat fattening, but I hope you'll realize that it's truly how much something satiates your desire that counts, not as much what happens afterwards. I myself have had one too many pastries, but I've enjoyed every last one of them. Indeed we must fully indulge ourselves in order to fully appreciate something. Your tapping finger seems to indicate that you would like me to continue. Very well, I shall indulge your sense of mystery.

Many, after seeing that even the parisian police could not find out what had happened, immediately mark the case as solved and never give it a second thought. However, the parisian police, while extolled for the acumen, are cunning, but nothing more. There is no method beyond that of the moment for their procedures. They take a vast parade of measures, each of which are specifically suited to the mundane tasks of day to day life. Their abilities, for the most part, come up with not infrequently surprising answers. However, they are found the majority of the time through their diligence and hard manual labor, rather than educated thought. Vidocq, for example, was a good guesser and a hard worker. However, he relied for the most part on the intensity of his investigation. He tended to bring in an object of interest too close to his view, as to be able to see with excruciating intensity each individual nook and cranny of the object. However, in doing so he lost a great deal of sight on the outside world. He was unable to see the object's place in the bigger picture and as a result was unable to find the true mistake of his fellow gendarmes. Indeed I did go pay the Rue Morgue a visit so as to verify the information myself. It was lucky that I happened to know the prefect police in that I was able to obtain permission quite simply into the building. Indeed the witnesses had agreed on nothing with regards to the voice save for it's gruffness and that no words had been distinguishable. Since the door had been locked and watched heavily by the gang of disturbed neighbors, that point of egress was definitively out. At this point I told myself that there must be some other way of escape. The window, of course was the only other possible route available short of climbing out the chimney, which had been backed up at the time by the corpse of Mademoiselle Camille. In fact, once I had removed the other impossibilities for reasons relating to witnesses, I was only left with the highly improbable method of using the windows as an escape route. In fact, in the police's notes they had noted that a very stout nail had been fitted one of the windows. And upon inspection of the other window, they had found the nail practically immovable and the sash covering the window just as firmly in place. I then proceeded to think that the culprit had definitely escaped through the unchecked window. In fact, it was highly unlikely as any escape through the window would have necessitated a removal of the sash and then a replacement of it upon complete exit which is something that was nearly impossible. However, the culprit most definitely did not escape through the front entrance as the majority of witnesses and higher up gendarmes were essentially blockading the front entrance. A careful search of the room brought to light a hidden spring which, when pressed, raised the sash enough to allow and escape. The spring was attached to the stout nail that no doubt caused much effort in opening for that same reason. In essence I now understood that the method of exit was definitively through this window. The entire mystery was no longer unsolvable and I had all the answers to be able to solve this mystery. It was quite simple really, a man, or woman, of considerable strength must have entered and exited this window. Of course, this would be quite simple were the residence not on the fourth floor of the building. Clearly, a feat of this caliber needed a culprit that was so sure footed as to be able to climb a four story building and then jump out as he exits. In order to understand this I took a look around the back of the estate. It was almost entirely devoid of climbable material, save for a rod sticking all the way up the back of the house, and very old shutters, both about ninety degrees from the wall in such a way that an very courageous robber might have climbed all the way up and then swung with all his might onto the shutters and then into the room. Of course, this begs us to question why a robber would go through all this trouble and not bring a single item from the L'Espanaye residence. Such an acrobat would surely have wanted more than the mere pleasure of killing the two sisters. Indeed they didn't seem to be acquainted with any person of this sort.

Ah, but you seem to be enjoying yourself. Yes the lights do dance very enticingly across the street. Many small shops have this type of light that playfully dances in the wind. You seem to be finishing up your pastry quite nicely. You see, I told you it was a good idea. Don't worry, I am also almost done with my story. You enjoin me to continue, very well I shall.

The way in which the culprit so decimated the bodies and shoved that of Camille up the chimney was unparalleled in terms of fear and awe. It had to have been the work of an acrobat; however, no acrobat could speak with an unintelligible tongue to so many people. Someone must have understood something the man said if it were truly an acrobat. In fact, I deduced that it couldn't have been human as much of the acts were completely inhumane or near impossible feats for a human to achieve. 

No, it would not be wise to venture out this late at night into the wilds. Better you stay with me and avoid trouble. Don't worry sir, I promise to take good care of you. Nothing will happen to you and no one else needs to know our secret. Yes well, you see the fur pulled out by Madame L'Espanaye turned out not to be that of a human, but rather that of an ourang-outang. The animals, known very well for their climbing and courageous abilities perfectly fit the bill for culprits. In fact, it would be the only creature to want to enter the room by climbing the back entrance four stories up to the window where it would kill the two sisters in the most gruesome and animalistic way possible with no regard for their monetary treasures. Only a creature of this nature could have done such a deed, a creature, such as yourself.

ANALYSIS:

Assignment 6 Writeup

ENGL 1147

amf272

Aaron Ferber

The Mystery Outside the Story Writeup

For this assignment I wanted to include as much as possible from both Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Reluctant Fundamentalist. I purposefully didn't include the unnamed narrator from  Murders in the Rue since I felt that with a character like Dupin, a side character is not nearly as important to him as it is to the author. Dupin doesn't need our interlocutor, but rather we as readers need the interlocutor, to be able to better understand the story.

I think Dupin and Changez are very similar characters in that they are extremely well gifted in reviewing situations. Dupin notes that, unlike the Parisian Police, he is exceptionally gifted in viewing a problem as a whole and not overlooking a single possibility, however improbable it may seem. In addition, Changez is very good at reading situations such as when he is able to do very well in his job interview for Underwood Samson given that he is already in the top percentile of the class of Princeton. Changez is able to look at a situation from many perspectives and often overthinks things such as human contact that we so often ignore. It is because of this that Changez is able to make such a powerful connection, albeit a one way connection, with Erika.

In addition to this I tried to drop in small hints that the interlocutor present in my story was in fact the Orangutan from the original story. I felt that this added a second layer of mystery to the story and that in any case it would be interesting to see the hints dropped along the way when the truth is finally revealed at the end. As for the ending itself, I tried to make it somewhat vague as we saw in The Reluctant Fundamentalist since it seemed to keep us as readers guessing as to what the actual ending was. In The Reluctant Fundamentalist we had no idea whether Changez was an enemy spy, a friendly informant, or even still just a regular guy who was caught in the crossfire. All of this is very difficult to differentiate and I think it fits perfectly well with the terrorism genre. The biggest problem with terrorism, as noted by David Black, was that in the modern theatre of war, it is nearly impossible to tell who are your allies and who are your enemies. There are no more flags, no more boundaries between us and them, and I think this is what keeps The Reluctant Fundamentalist a mystery even after we're done the story. I wanted this effect in my story because it is the same concept with animals. They are neither with us nor against us. Indeed in the modern theatre of war, many animals such as dogs, dolphins and other domesticated creatures are used extensively to combat many forms of enemies. In Murders in the Rue Morgue, it seems as thought the culprit was not really the enemy of the L'Espanaye sisters but rather a passerby who happened upon them by accident. As a result of the shrieks that likely would have followed a large orangutang jumping into your bedroom window, the creature would probably have turned ballistic and attacked them.

Overall, I believe that the two stories, even though they were separated by a great deal of time, have much in common. They both deal with the unknown allegiance of the culprit, with an unknown motive. Indeed, they both have an unnamed interlocutor, even though in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Changez seems to actually acknowledge and try to aid his American interlocutor as much as possible, whereas with Murders in the Rue Morgue, we never hear the person's name because it is seemingly unimportant. Both stories also have an overarching mystery of some kind, which of course was necessary for it to be featured in this class. Changez, as much as Dupin, is dealing with a rather unpredictable character. Both the American and the Orangutang are considered highly dangerous and unpredictable by the majority of people who deal with them, the waiter and the Gendarmes respectively. However, when confronted by a man of intelligence and near perfect train of thought, they seem much less dangerous and unpredictable.

Terrill Jones

Terrill Jones                                                                     

Christina Black

ENGL Mystery in the Story

16 December 2013

Spade and the Adventures of the Bruce-Partington Plans

Samuel Spade was finishing up his cigarette.  It had been over two weeks since his last major case walked in. Despite the lack of activity, Spade showed no signs of concern, always maintaining the same temperament. “Yes, angel?” Sam Spade said to Effie.

Effie was wearing a dull-colored dress that complemented her short brown hair and brown eyes. She had a boyish face, one that Spade could trust. After entering Spade’s office, she said, “There’s a guy named William Hensly who just came in. He has a problem with his shop; he needs help with.”

“A customer?”

“Not really, sounds like something small. Says he has a problem with an employee.”

“Petty crime” Spade responded in a scoffing tone, as he made a slight groan and the “v”-like creases in his forehead became more apparent. Spade had a very sharp jawline with eyebrows that accentuated this contortion. He was a tough man with blond hair and wolfish yellow eyes. “Alright, bring him in.”

As the man entered, he appeared nervous. He was an older man, slightly hunched over with soft white hair. He wore a heavy jacket and thick scarf even though the weather wasn’t too cold. He asked very politely, “Is it alright if I sit in this chair?”

Spade made a slight gesture at the chair, while smiling and commenting, “What ‘s your problem?”

The man coughed loudly. “Well Mr. Spade, I own a small deli and have been running the business for the last 27 years. My financial trends have remained fairly consistent over that time span as well. However, within the past few months I have started to notice a sharper decline than seems normal.”

Spade interrupted, “Where do I fit into this?”

Hensly continued, “I recently hired three new workers to help me out, since I cannot work as hard as I used to. Almost at the same time I hired them, I began to notice that profits were not in line with my sales. I believe there is the potential that they may be embezzling from my shop, and I would like a third party to take a look and help with the investigation.”

Inside, Spade felt uninterested in the whole situation. He knew this was just penny ante theft that would occupy his time. “I can look into it. Give me two hundred dollars and I’ll help you out,” Spade exhaled. Hensly handed Spade the money and left. Spade pulled-out the drawer of his desk and dropped the money inside. He lifted out some tobacco and papers and began to roll himself a cigarette. Even though he had thick and clumsy fingers, Spade was able to easily roll it together. After licking it closed, Spade lit it up and began smoking by himself, hoping he eventually would stumble onto a bigger case.

After about two hours, Effie returned into Spade’s office. She opened, “Just received a call from your brother. He says he is on his way immediately to talk about Cadogan West”

Spade thought to himself for a moment before responding. He couldn’t remember who Cadogan West was. He asked, “Angel, do you have any information on who Cadogan West is?”

Effie was unsure as well and suggested, “Maybe you could look him up in the newspaper.”

Spade nodded in agreement and reached over to the corner of his desk grabbing the newspaper from the previous day. He quickly began eying over the headlines until he was drawn to a story entitled, “Body Found on the Underground.” Upon closer inspection of the article, Spade discovered the name of the victim to be Cadogan West. At that instant, Mycroft entered the room. Mycroft had a very similar build to his brother. Despite being related, Mycroft lacked the intensity in Spade’s eyes, an appearance that Spade had maintained ever since becoming a detective. Mycroft also had a softer, rounder looking face, as opposed to the angular “v” countenance that comprised Spade’s.

“I’m sure you read the newspaper,” Mycroft began. “On Monday, Cadogan went missing into heavy fog after spending the night with his fiancée, Miss Violet Westbury. Last thing anyone saw of him was when he was found on the Underground tracks outside of Aldgate Station.”

“Any violence between West and his fiancée? Is there any clear motive there that would give us a lead?”

“Nothing. The two had no problems at least from what we know now.”

Frustrated, Spade refuted “Well you have to know something more, anything to help me out.”

“We found the body at six on yesterday morning. ‘It was lying wide of the metals upon the left hand of the track as one goes eastward, at a point close to the station, where the line emerges from the tunnel in which it runs. The head was badly crushed – an injury which might well have been caused by a fall from the train. The body could only have come on the line in that way. Had it been carried down from any neighboring street it must have passed the station barriers, where a collector is always standing” (Doyle 41).’ We ought to head over there now and check out the scene.”

Spade prodded, “What’s West’s importance? Is there anything for me to get out of this?”

“The government has been designing a brand new submarine type. This new model has descriptions written on ten separate highly classified pages. We keep the safe locked and secured. Unfortunately, we faced a massive blowback when we discovered all of the information had been compromised. We found there were seven of the ten pages missing on West’s body. At this point in time, we still have no information about where the three remaining papers are.”

Spade leaned back in his chair and put his hands together, growing a slight smile. “How much would these papers be worth?”

In the same serious tone he had maintained throughout the meeting, Mycroft responded, “Sam, these are some of the most revolutionary designs our government has created in recent times. In the wrong hands, knowledge of the construction of the submarine could be devastating. These papers are no less than an invaluable treasure. I cannot put a value on the remaining three pages, but I can tell you this would be the most important case you have worked on in your career.”

Spade could barely hold his grin back. He starting tapping his hands on the table and stood up while extending his hand to his brother. “Leave it to me” Spade concluded.

The two drove over to the train tracks to fully begin their investigations. As soon as they arrived, Spade swiftly walked over to the body. Quickly, he noted that there was no blood at the scene, just the lifeless body. While he portrayed a calm and collected exterior, thoughts were rapidly streaming in Spade’s mind. How could a body be violently thrown from a train with no signs of blood anywhere near the landing place? Spade surmised that West surely died elsewhere. But, how could West have perished somewhere else and ended up on the tracks? Did he die on the train? Was he ever on the train to begin with? Looking at Mycroft, Spade asked, “Was West ever confirmed as being on the train?”

Mycroft was walking further away from the body when he heard Spade’s question. He looked up with a confused expression, one that reflected his slower working mind that had trouble piecing together the miniscule details of the case. Mycroft slowly responded, “no, no train ticket was ever found on West’s person.”

Spade’s eyes quickly darted back at West’s corpse. Although West’s body rested near the tracks, there was no blood where he laid, and he presumably was never on the train itself. Spade looked up at the outside gate leading to the tracks from the public road. With heavy security guarding the gates, Spade resolved that no one could have lugged the body onto the tracks. Spade looked to the right of the body, assuming a view of train’s path on which West allegedly had ridden on before falling off. Walking in this direction, Spade’s thought process raced on, trying to rationalize and recap every detail of the investigation.

Mycroft glanced over at Spade who was walking toward the train tunnel. Still confused himself, Mycroft assumed his brother was having similar difficulties in discovering anything new. Spade’s demeanor gave no evidence of how his brain was processing the information. Spade walked with a slight frown which was emphasized by his eyes and eyebrows which both slanted down to their normal v shapes.

Spade next examined the tunnel that the train would come out of and found nothing of value. Theorizing how West came to rest on the tracks without riding the train, Spade continued to mentally cross-check other possibilities. Without a ticket, West never would have been admitted onto the train and with surrounding security personnel; his body never could have been placed on the tracks.

Letting out an audible sigh, Spade gazed up at the sky and pulled a cigarette out of his pocket. He began to smoke it while continuing to sulk in his inner debate. As he puffed, the v- shapes that his eyes made relaxed. When finished, Spade tossed the cigarette away and looked back at the tunnel and his yellow eyes began to glow and a sly grin began to grow.

When the train exits the tunnel, it makes a dramatic sharp turn. Spade looked back at the body, and then returning his attention to the tunnel, he recognized that the centripetal force of the train could have forced a body to fall from the roof. This meant that the body was already dead on the roof of the train when it rounded the curve, and this explained why there was no blood at the crime scene. With this realization, Spade turned around and began walking back towards the very dead Mr. West.

Mycroft saw Spade coming over and posed, “Have you figured anything out yet?”

Spade glanced back at his brother with a blank expression and said “nothing.” The two brothers then drove back to Spade’s office with no other apparent leads. Upon their return, Mycroft received a phone call while Spade and Effie talked in a separate room.

“He didn’t fall off a train. His body was put on the roof and it fell when the train rounded a turn” Spade began, retelling his findings of the day.

“Unbelievable, Have you told anyone else about this?” Effie replied.

“No. I’ll need to see more information for myself before I’ll tell anyone anything.”

Mycroft entered the room after Spade spoke his last word. “I just got off the phone with one of my associates in the government,” Mycroft stated. “I was informed that one of the people very closely linked with West just skipped town. He goes by the name of Hugo Oberstein.”

Spade never responded directly to Mycroft about this new information. Instead he turned to Effie and barked, “Get me the address of this Oberstein!” Effie proceeded to pull out a large directory and found his address and gave it to Spade.

After making a note of the address, Spade began walking out of his office, but not before turning around and saying, “Thanks Angel.” Spade sped directly to Oberstein’s apartment, while keeping a hardened facial expression with a slight frown. When he arrived, Spade immediately got out of his car and approached the door. Since Oberstein skipped town, Spade had no fears of an unexpected encounter. He lifted his right leg, and, with a powerful kick, knocked the door in, breaking the hinges’ and gaining access.

While walking through the apartment, Spade’s eyes darted rapidly from object to object. He quickly and deeply analyzed each item looking for clues to explain Cardigan West’s death. Finally, Spade’s investigation led him to Oberstein’s bedroom. After opening up one of the dresser drawers, Spade suddenly heard a loud banging noise. The noise slowly got louder and louder, until it reached its loudest point right next to Spade. Alarmed, Spade jerked to his left and looked to his side to discover that nothing was there. Pausing for a moment, then knowingly snickered as a train clattered by the window.

Spade dropped his eyes back to the floor, close to where he had just heard the sound of the train passing. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary except part of the rug, which curled under the leg of an end table. When Spade lifted the table to flatten the rug, the bottom of his knuckles brushed past a large crack in the floor. Intrigued, Spade lifted the corner of the rug, exposing a trap door in the floor with a large handle. Bloodstains soaked the underside of the rug and pools of blood had dried into the wood grain. Spade lifted the latch and cold air rushed into the apartment. Below the door was a long fall to the train tracks, the same tracks that the train had just passed over. While holding the door open and still smiling about coming closer to the resolution, Spade began to feel cold: not from the open air, but from the cold metal point that had just been thrust into his side of his head. “ ‘You will please’” Spade heard the voice say, “clasp your hands together at the back of your neck’” (Hammett 44).

Spade calmly spun around and lifted his hands behind his neck. When he looked up, he saw a large man with a scowl on his face. Above his mouth were fiery eyes, the look of a person only after having committed a killing. While still holding the gun to Spade, Oberstein moved his finger to the trigger with completely steady hands. This was clearly not Oberstein’s first time in this kind of situation, as Spade recognized. Appealing to Oberstein’s sense of reason would be the only way out at this point, Spade quickly concluded.

“Let me tell you this,” Spade calmly began. “I’ve got a suggestion for you”

Oberstein cocked the hammer of the revolver and harshly replied, “I suggest that the guy with the gun pointed at his head stops making suggestions.”

Without fear, Spade stood up from kneeling by the trap door and sat on Oberstein’s bed. “The way I see this, we’ve got two ways out. I have enough experience to know…”

Oberstein interrupted, “Hey, who is making the rules here?”

Spade continued, “…Enough experience to know that either you could turn yourself in, or give me the three papers you stole. I’m sure the first option won’t work, so I move to the second. Give me the documents”

“I don’t have to give you anything. Remember, I’m the guy with the gun.”

“I’ve been working on your case for a while now, and everything I’ve found out, I’ve told to the police. If you want any chance of coming out of this clean, you’ve got to cough-up a name”

Oberstein let out a small grunt, but began to lower his gun. He looked down for a brief moment and with his eyes still directed at the floor started to reach into his pocket. He handed Spade three folded papers. Spade took them and looked Oberstein in the eyes. “You helped me enough” Spade began, “No one will know you were ever involved”

Spade then stood up off Oberstein’s bed and left the apartment. He opened his car door, tossed the remaining Bruce-Partington papers onto the passenger seat, and drove off.

ANALYSIS:

Terrill Jones

Christina Black

ENGL Mystery in the Story

16 December 2013

Spade and the Adventures of the Bruce-Partington Plans Analysis

            Throughout the course, the most interesting points for me were discussing the progression of the protagonist in mystery stories. We moved from the Dupin and Holmes detectives, who had genius minds and were never threatened with harm in their investigations, to Spade who was a hardboiled detective whose investigations were anything but linear, to spies who had no clear goal or conclusion to their work. I always wondered how the stories would change if one of the detectives had been placed into a completely different story genre. This hypothetical question led me to wonder how two detectives would approach their cases differently. Therefore, when writing my composition, my goal was to effectively portray the insertion of the rough-edged Spade and his more disorganized universe into Holmes more ordered environment and character assortment seen in, “The Adventures of the Bruce-Partington Plans.” When considering my work product, the most important aspects are the overall plot progression, the tone of the investigation, the method in which characters are profiled, and the conclusion.

            The overarching aspect of my proposition was the way in which I adjusted the plot of the story. All of the main components were derived from Doyle’s work. Just like Doyle’s storyline, my narrative begins with the detective waiting for his next case. Doyle reveals Holmes frantically pacing around his office, anxious to challenge his mind with another complex investigation. Similarly, I position Spade sitting at his desk, rolling up a cigarette  (something he constantly does throughout The Maltese Falcon) also waiting to be hired for a big case. While both private investigators wait for a case, each reacts with a different level of anxiety which underscores a common theme that was discussed throughout our class: varying motivations for work. In Holmes’ case, he is a super genius who works as a criminal investigator because he needs to challenge his mind, since solving puzzles provides his entertainment. In Spade’s world, while he needs to make a living, his emotional motivation to work still remains unclear after reading The Maltese Falcon. Readers are confused about whether Spade works for justice, his own financial gain, or if he relishes playing the legal system like a game. These varying detective motives play a central element in my story, as I will elaborate.

            As my story unfolds, I introduce a fictitious character named William Hensly, who enters Spade’s office to seek help in confirming ongoing embezzlement at his shop. This situation plays another key role in bridging Doyle and Hammett’s respective plots. In “The Adventures of the Bruce-Partington Plans,” there is a scene in which Holmes asks Watson if there are any major cases in the newspaper that he could begin investigating. After Watson states that the crime scene that day remains fairly dull other than “numerous petty thefts,” Holmes “[snorts] his contempt” (Doyle 38). Holmes’ disregard for cases that are not complex enough to stimulate his expansive mental faculties parallels Spade’s disdain for cases that offer him little to no financial gain. In one short scene in The Maltese Falcon, a shifty business owner enters Spade’s office, imploring Spade to investigate employees who are suspected of defrauding him. Instead of spending a lot of time thinking about his case, “Spade hurried him through the story, promised to ‘take care of it,’ asked for and received fifty dollars, and got rid of him in less than half an hour” (Hammett 151). Spade did not believe there was much value to be gained by investing material time in this opportunity.

The preceding elements emphasizing that both Holmes and Spade only gravitate to major crimes relates to another main component of our course. All of the stories we read followed investigations of great significance, such as the theft of major government plans in “The Adventures of the Bruce Partington Plans,” the hunt for a priceless treasure in The Maltese Falcon, and the security of national defense in both Our Man in Havana and The Spy who came in From the Cold. Therefore, I included the scene with William Hensly to emphasize how detective Spade did not care to linger on considering minor infractions, but instead, waited to focus his energy upon more material high-profile opportunities.

The next major feature of the plot that I evaluated was in regard to Spade’s investigation at the train tracks. In each of the novels we read, the protagonist has his own knack for solving cases that he maintains throughout the book. For example, Holmes and Dupin’s method to crime solving was reliance upon sheer brainpower to piece everything together. Each detective completely worked out cases in their heads providing readers with a very linear sequence from crime to clues to solution. On the other hand, while Spade worked cases out in his head, he also received input from others around him. Also, as readers, we received a better glimpse into how Spade’s mind functioned since Hammett supplied long descriptions of his thought processes. For example, when trying to find Brigid when she went missing, Spade meticulously reads through a newspaper with “his eyes [running] swiftly over the front-page-headlines and over those on the second and third pages” hoping to find a clue (Hammett 119). Furthermore, Wormold and Leamus, as spies, had to be very observant to try and develop their own hunches about how to progress through their missions.

I emphasize this difference between protagonists solving methods when I describe in detail how Spade, in contrast to Holmes, more methodically arrives at the conclusion that the body of Cadogan West had been initially placed on the roof of the train. In “The Adventures of the Bruce-Partington Plans” Holmes almost instantaneously supports the theory that the body must have been on the train car roof and had fallen when the train turned a corner. In contrast, Spade analyzes a situation with great detail, with descriptions of his thought process being open to readers, before making a claim. As I describe Spade’s method of examining the train, I attempted to align the way in which Hammett describes Spade reading through the newspaper, with his ability to sift through random data before reaching a rational outcome.

The final major component of the plot was the interaction between Oberstein and Spade in Oberstein’s apartment. In this segment, my goal was to emphasize the idea of “detective immunity” and how that evolved throughout our semester’s readings. Initially, the detectives were able to conduct their investigations free of any potential harm. In the whodunits, Dupin and Holmes were never placed into any seriously dangerous situations. Just as Todorov describes how the whodunit genre evolved into the suspense thriller category, detectives no longer remained immune to danger. In Spade’s world, he is often confronted with danger in the form of a gun, such as when Cairo “took a short compact flat black pistol out of an inner pocket” and points it at him” (Hammett 44). Furthermore, in spy fiction, Wormold and Leamus each faced constant danger. For instance, Wormold becomes involved in a fight with Carter that ultimately leads to Carter’s death. Similarly, Leamus, as an undercover British agent in East Berlin during the cold war, faces the risk of having his cover blown and becoming subject to communist punishment.

To demonstrate this evolution of detective immunity, I arrange for Spade to face direct forms of danger that Holmes would not have confronted. When Holmes breaks into Oberstein’s apartment, readers do not fear an altercation with a suspect, because in the whodunit model, nothing bad can happen to the detective. In my rewrite, however, Spade clearly faces danger as Oberstein returns to his apartment and confronts Spade with a drawn weapon.

For me, one of the biggest risks I took when drafting my composition was developing a plausible ending. I wanted to write something that credibly reflected different novel conclusions encountered in our class. In books such as The Maltese Falcon, in which Spade’s motives for working as a detective are not always clear, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which ends with the possibility of a gun being drawn, major plot elements are left to the reader to theorize. I wanted this type of thoughtful ambiguity to be present in my paper as well. When Spade receives the three remaining Bruce-Partington Plan papers, he simply drives off and that is the end. In a mystery story, once a gun is drawn, it must be fired. How will this play into what happens after Spade drives off because Oberstein never fired the gun after putting it to Spade’s head? Also, where Spade goes remains up to the reader to decide. Is Spade a good guy? Is he going to return the papers to the government and turn in Oberstein for his crimes, or will he protect Oberstein’s anonymity? Will Spade turn in the papers at all and, instead, use their immense value to better himself financially? I wanted to create uncertainty similar to The Spy who came in From the Cold when Leamus discovers that Mundt was also a double agent and that they actually worked on the same side. By leaving the conclusion open-ended, the reader can assess what they believe to be the outcome. For the other components of my story, I tried to tie in other major themes from the class. One idea was that love has no place in mystery novels. While this idea usually applies to romantic love, I utilized this notion in the interaction between Spade and his brother Mycroft. The two men act as business associates rather than lifelong dear brothers.  Similarly, Spade manipulates his characters making any intimate scene dubious. In spy fiction, it was expected that the spy always keep important intelligence to himself or herself so that information never falls into the wrong hands. In, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, Karl dies because he disclosed confidential information to his female companion. In my story, Spade specifically does not tell Mycroft about how he discovered the body was on the roof of the train because the fewer people knowing that information the better. Another big component of the mystery genre was in-depth descriptions. I tried to incorporate this technique when introducing characters for the first time. Additionally, just as spies had to skillfully influence people to extract information, I include Spade’s dialogue with Oberstein to reflect this. Spade never told the police about the information he knew about Oberstein, but he told Oberstein he had, cleverly attempting to compel Oberstein to give him the missing papers. 

Overall, I would say that this analysis not only effectively links The Maltese Falcon and “The Adventures of the Bruce-Partington Plans,” but many themes analyzed in our class. I strove to include dialogue extracts intended to emphasize either the general evolution of the mystery genre, or its key supporting elements.

           

Works Cited

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Adventure of the Dancing Men and Other Sherlock

     Holmes Stories. New York: Dover Publications, 1997.

Greene, Graham. Our Man in Havana. New York: Penguin Books, 1986.

Hamid, Mohsin. The Reluctant Fundamentalist. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007.

Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon. New York: Vintage Books, 1992.

Le Carre, John. The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. New York: Penguin Books, 2012.

Todorov, Todorov. “The Whodunit.” The Poetics of Prose, pp. 44-48. 1988

     <http://www.victorianweb.org/genre/PIlit.html>.