The Big Sleep: Personal Connection

Kaitlyn Gardner

Professor Sinowitz

Noir, Film, and Novel

November 16, 2017

The Big Sleep: Personal Connection

        Raymond Chandler’s “The Big Sleep,” was a obviously Noir in many ways. Written in 1939 it was in the golden age of Noir. I picked the book to read and saw the cover, a man smoking a cigarette in black and white and I remember rolling my eyes and thinking, “Oh no, here we go again.” I thought it was going to be a cookie cutter plot with the stereotypical hard-boiled detective and femme fatale. I rolled my eyes and prepared for the bad ending. However, I found myself pleasantly surprised by this book. There were false femme fatales, such as silver wig, and a false antagonist, in Eddie Mars as this big gangster character who is the traditional antagonist. We see many complexities and misleading parts of the characters, which allowed for more room and development for them to grow. However, what I was most surprised about was the fact that the ending was left so open and ambiguous. We never get to know if the real antagonist gets any help or what happens to her. “The Big Sleep” was unique in its portrayal of the femme fatales as able to be as wicked as men, with the same vices; I believe that the portrayal of Vivian and Carmen was actually an empowering act for women at the time by allowing them behaviors outside that of the typical femme fatale role.

        General Sternwood, an extremely wealthy man, hires Marlowe was hired to work for him in order to stop the blackmailing of the younger daughter Carmen. Marlowe, who is a casual person, wears a suit stating that he was playing his part as the well off private detective because he was, “calling on four million” (Chandler 3). The town is small and seems to know everything tracking all their movements. Marlow is able to hear gossip about them immediately, and although this is the case with anyone in power in any small town. Believe me, coming from a small town anytime that anyone has any molecule of success people start to talk about anything that could possibly be of interest: the person's family, where they have been, who their friends are, nothing is off limits. However it is the type of gossip that Marlowe hears about these girls that separates them from other typical rich femme fatales. They do not have a reputation for simply being romantically involved with unsavory characters and hide their wrongdoings behind those of the man they are with. Instead, Vivian and Carmen do not even try to pretend that they the well-mannered, innocent, rich girls that were typically praised in decades before. Carmen and Vivian readily admit their involvement with gambling. Vivian especially enjoys gambling and holds court in the casino. The girls don’t have to be there because they are not desperate for money. Carmen most definitely does not have to pose for nude poses for Geiger but she did simply because she wanted to. Although their vices did get them into trouble each girl was able to carve out a niche in their respective environments that allowed Vivian as a prime patron of the casino and Carmen as a promiscuous girl who was associated with many men of the pornography industry. Vivian sunk so much money into the casino that Mars allowed her to collect a debt and because of her status, “any gambling house owner would lend a good client money in a pinch.” (Chandler 129). Vivian is eventually is overpowered in her position when she allowed Eddie Mars knowledge that no other person had about her sister, however, he used this knowledge against her. This does not mean that Vivian lost the power she had from her public image, even though the public knew that the Sternwood family was being blackmailed, Vivian continued about her normal routine and even helped Marlowe solve the mystery faster in order to preserve her sister’s image and keep her out of jail, as well as, using it as a chance to get back at Eddie Mars.

Like the typical femme fatale these girls are allowed to show more harsh sides of themselves which usually serves as a way to get themselves something. Even the general acknowledges that his daughters’ attitudes are somewhat difficult saying,

“’I think they go separate and slightly diverging roads to perdition. Vivian is spoiled, exacting, smart and ruthless. Carmen is a child who pulls wings of flies. Neither of them have any more moral sense than a cat.’” (Chandler 13).

The fact that The General is aware of his daughter’s attitudes and continues to let them do whatever they want can speak to one of two mindsets: first, he simply does not care stating, “I need not add that a man who indulges in parenthood for the first time at the age of fifty-four deserves all he gets” (Chandler 13).  The General simply might not care what his daughters do as he is going to die soon and it really will not affect him. He seems very eager to get rid of the blackmailer. However, it shows that he has some care for his girls as the blackmail is of Carmen so he is paying on her behalf. And has paid for Carman’s blackmail before. I think that the general cares more than he lets on. Part of why he hires Marlowe is because he is so worried about his daughters that he needs to make sure their name is cleared. He also could be influenced by the Sternwood family name. However, because he has only two daughters the Sternwood name would die after this generation anyway. At first, it is hard to see how The General hiring Marlowe to solve Carmen’s problems and paying the blackmail money transfer into any type of feminism. However, we see that instead of being afraid to live, the girls are doing whatever they want. This comes from a lack of fear. They sisters are secure in their position in the family whereas other women from past generations may have been scared to do what they want. They had to worry about things like overbearing fathers or having to maintain their reputation for marriage. Some might say that the girls making these mistakes were extreme and they were taking advantage of their father. However, they were honest mistakes on Vivian's part and she did her best to take charge of the situations and was responsible for what she could. Vivian protected their father from what she could, especially concerning her sister and Regan. Even Marlowe realized that Vivian was doing was right and that the general should be spared from the truth saying,

“Me, I was part of the nastiness now. Far more a part of it than Rusty Regan was. But the old man didn’t have to be. He could lie quiet in his canopied bed, with his bloodless hands folded on the sheet, waiting…And in a little while, he too, like Rusty Regan, would be sleeping the big sleep” (Chandler 230-231).

Vivian uses her power to be a responsible, to the best of her ability, while indulging in her vices and Carmen abuses her power.

        Carmen also abuses her sexuality, which gets her into a lot of trouble. At the basis of this book is Carmen’s sexuality. She is convinced no man can resist her. Though her portrayal can be seen as anti-feminist. She is not the brightest bulb; she does understand that men are not supposed to be able to resist her because she will be the one blamed for seducing them. Society at the time would not hold a man responsible for sleeping with a woman he should not as women were seen to be deserving of whatever happened to them. At this time it seemed that women were always blamed for a man’s actions so why should this be any different? In my time working with NEWS, an organization representing those who experienced sexual assault or domestic violence survivors were always asked what they were wearing or what they were doing to provoke the attack. Carmen was used to being allowed to sleep with whomever she wished without caring what was happening on their end. She has become so used to this that when Marlowe refused her just as Regan did she felt slighted, “But, you can’t do that to Carman.” (Chandler 226). However, Carmen is not ashamed to be women and use their sexuality to their advantage while also not caring if they are going up against men or women.

Overall, these two sisters demonstrated more freedom of behavior, sexuality, and mentality than I have seen in the femme fatales of this genre. These women had their own niche of power to control and did not sit in the background manipulating people but instead went after what they wanted. They had behaviors that were stereotypically male behaviors and they were not shamed for it. I think allowing women to display behaviors that miz stereotypes, masculinity and femininity, and good and evil is very important.