Gabe Zimmerman

Gabe Zimmerman

Christina Black

ENGL 1147-101

12/16/13

Who Took My Eraser?

The morning sunlight crept into the class

Friday already… My this week has gone fast

All the dew on the ground and the green grass

Is dried up and gone, but my tears, well they last

Please do not think that I always just cry

When I play on the swings I feel I can fly

Its just that I used my money to buy

A brand new lucky eraser, its gone and I don’t know why

I bought the eraser on Monday after school

The rainbow colors, nothing is so cool

But Now I feel like the biggest fool

And someone here is nothing but cruel

I told the kids at my table who are all students

That “one of you has betrayed me, just like Judas,

A Perfect Murder: A Study in Detection, I am fluent

So confess now or prepare for the truth to be proven”

Dupin would say to these suspects “adieu”

But I must start at the beginning before I find what is true

So here is a list of the possible who’s

and why they might have done such a dreaded thing too

I could understand why Henry my neighbor and friend

Would want such an item, I was starting a trend

He was always jealous of the money I could spend

If it was him, this boy might have just met friendship’s end

Daisy is the apple of my eye

I don’t think she likes me, I do not know why

I should have charmed her like a handsome guy

But instead I was shy and was on the wall like a fly

Then there is Robert, and not to be frank

But after my eraser, what’s next, a bank

All year long he has pulled prank after prank

This time I’ll catch him, right at point blank

I want to clarify, before I get a contusion

It is not right to Robert to have such a conclusion

Everyone is a suspect, until their exclusion

So let me dive deeper, and end this confusion

Which logically leads me to the smart young Jerry

Whose collection of school supplies is so big its scary

And my eraser, if on top, would be quiet the cherry

If he took it, however, this situation could get hairy

Only these four knew of my eraser’s existence

They combine to make up all of my suspicions

I need to push forth, continue with persistence

Not just a few feet, I need to go the distance

I thought long and hard about what I should do

This case had gone cold, I need a break through

I searched my brain, I went over clues

I had to take risks, after all its my detective debut

So I tied my shoes then bent my knees to the ground

I stuck out my nose to sniff like a hound

My heart felt heavy and my stomach weighed pounds

I searched left and right and I searched all around

I search up up up and I searched down down down

I looked under crumpled papers… OH LOOK what I’ve found

Holmes, Dupin, and Spade, the realm of the profound

I had entered this realm, I am now world renowned.

But who took my eraser you may just wonder

I was upset too, don’t strike down with thunder

My heart aches so much I need to recover

Because Daisy is the thief who stole my plunder

Why she took it, I may not learn

And since I got it back, it is not my concern

The justice she faces may be very stern

But all that matters is my eraser’s return

ANALYSIS:

Gabe Zimmerman

Christina Black

ENGL 1147-101

12/16/13

Analysis of “Who Took My Eraser?”

         Although my initial plan was to write a children’s story, my topic evolved into a poem that chronicled a small child emulating a detective to solve the mystery of his missing eraser. When I began writing, I found myself wanting to include references to the many texts we read this year. For a children's story I felt that these references would cloud the plot and detract from the reading experience. With a poem, however, these problems seemed like less significant issues. Unlike a traditional story, my poem has consistent four line stanzas with rhyming lines. This structure allows the reader, even when unaware of the exact meaning of a word or phrase, to continue on without too much confusion, which is ideal for a younger audience. Originally I hoped to have the protagonist use the same phrases as some famous detectives—Dupin, Holmes, Spade—symbolizing their brilliance. I quickly realized, however, that within the poetic scheme it was nearly impossible to insert a quotation that fit both the style and context of the poem. I therefore had to reassess how I would incorporate the important aspects of the mystery genre. The following paragraphs will illustrate the new approach to incorporation, modified because of these issues, and in doing so provide an analysis of the poem.            

            Rather than explain, stanza by stanza, the reasons for various instances of diction, setting, and action, I think it will be more insightful to start with a broad analysis and then focus on specific sections. I chose the repetitious structure for this poem—four line stanzas in which the last word of each line rhymes—when thinking of Tzvetan Todorov’s “The Typology of Detective Fiction”. To me, the most interesting proposal by Todorov was the eight rules which could be used to define the detective genre (Todorov 49). These defining rules had a tremendous influence on my poem. Generally, I tried to incorporate the idea of following rules, hence the formal structure. More specifically, each rule is applicable to the poem in some form. For example, I interpreted rule one, that “Love has no place in detective fiction” by having Daisy be the culprit (49). The protagonist did not consider Daisy as a suspect because of his feelings toward her. His detective skills were adversely affected by his affection for Daisy. This mode in which I involved the rule was not necessarily the same as that of other authors, but I believe it is an applicable and appropriate implementation nonetheless. Another rule that appeared in my poem was that “The novel must have at most one detective and one criminal, and at least one victim (a corpse)” (49). It is immediately clear that I used some artistic license given that there is no dead body. This choice was driven by the younger audience; I did not think it was realistic for a children’s poem to be based on a murder. Rather, I chose the McGuffin to be an eraser. I thought it was important for the plot to be revolving around one clear crime, just as is common within the books we read. An eraser seems fairly insubstantial, and that was my intention, as it really could have been any item. My main priority was for the protagonist to be looking for something special to him but not necessarily something as valuable as a maltese falcon. Many children have an item that they believe to be lucky, which makes the poem relatable. While on the subject of mystery genre critics, I mention David Lehman’s A Perfect Murder: A Study in Detection briefly in the fourth stanza. The protagonist tells the children who may have stolen the eraser that he is fluent in Lehman’s work, implying that a lot about detection can be learned from Lehman’s critiques. I emphasized Todorov’s work far more than Lehman’s because I felt that Todorov had more important and insightful perspectives on the genre.

            While Todorov’s piece influenced the structure that my poem took, Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, Sir Author Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans”, Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, and Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist influenced the content to an even greater degree. The first two stanzas are meant to mirror Sir Author Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans”. The beginning of Doyle’s story describes the dense fog in London. I too began with the setting—sunlight and dew—emphasizing the environment. Doyle then continued by introducing the mystery, which for Holmes was the missing submarine plans. My second stanza, paralleling the path of “The Bruce-Partington Plans”, introduces the mystery of the missing eraser. The last manifestation of “The Bruce-Partington Plans” comes when the protagonist, after realizing that Daisy took the eraser, is indifferent to her punishment. This reaction parallels Holmes’ mentality once he catches Colonel Valentine.

            I incorporated Poe’s “The Murder in the Rue Morgue” more than another other text we read because it was one of the first pieces of detective fiction and it paved the way for the future stories of the genre. Within the poem the protagonist thinks, in one instance, that, “Dupin would say to these suspects ‘adieu’”. On the surface there is the fact that Dupin is French so he might actually say adieu. Another, more meaningful layer is that the protagonist’s comparison of himself to Dupin came knowing that Dupin would find the thief, thus hoping to embody the main characteristics of Dupin. Following this line about Dupin, I proceed to list the suspects and briefly describe them. This format is practically identical to the manner in which Poe lists the different suspects and his suspicions. Just as Poe is careful to not give too much away, I also wanted to direct the reader’s attention to certain suspects such as Robert and away from others like Daisy. My hope was for this character list to also act as a red herring—the reader might be led to think that the thief was Robert because of his previous behaviors towards the protagonist. Furthermore, providing a list of suspects helps to ensure that “Everything… [is] explained rationally”, one of the Todorov’s eight rules (Todorov 49). I therefore could not introduce some mystical being or impossible solution to the murder, making the mystery a closed room problem just as “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”.

            The influences of Hammett and Hamid are less pervasive, but I still thought it important to have them present in some form. The protagonist, after thinking about the case, decides to take a risk and search for the erasers in the students’ desk. This action is consistent with the way in which Sam Spade approaches a case. He is willing to take some risks, often with the police, and get his hands dirty; these elements more generally represent suspense stories and hardboiled detective fiction. Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist was least impactful in the novel. I did, however, try and address the audience as “you”, just as is done in Hamid’s entire novel. This incorporation of Hamid’s style was limited and also has little to do with the mystery genre but this is because I felt the The Reluctant Fundamentalist was least important in the genre’s evolution.

            At the conclusion of the poem I also have the protagonist, once he finds his eraser, compare himself to Holmes, Dupin, and Spade. Again I am paying homage to the great detectives and, after the protagonist embodies them all in different ways, he feels a real connection to them.

            When I started this creative assignment I was struggling with how to approach it. I knew I did not want to create visual art and wanted a challenging but also intriguing topic. While I initially thought I wanted to write a children’s story, with some inspiration from Dr. Suess—minus the beautiful pictures—I found myself writing a rhyming poem. Once I had my topic, I knew that the mystery was not most important. I wanted to emphasize some key characteristics of both the novels and the critical pieces from the mystery genre over the past one hundred and fifty years. I placed more emphasis on the texts from which I learned the most in addition to those that I found most insightful. I hope that I have arrived at a poem that is both enjoyable to read and that accurately touches upon many of the foundations of the mystery genre and its multitude of layers.

Works Cited:

Doyle, Arthur C. The Adventure of the Dancing Men, and Other Sherlock Holmes Stories.            Mineola, N.Y: Dover Publications, 1997.

Hamid, Mohsin. The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Orlando: Harcourt, 2007.

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

Lehman, David. The Perfect Murder: A Study in Detection. New York: Free Press, 1989.

Poe, Edgar A, and Matthew Pearl. The Murders in the Rue Morgue: The Dupin Tales. New York: Modern Library, 2006.

Todorov, Tzvetan. The Poetics of Prose. Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press, 1977.