Corruption In The Big Sleep Essay

Words: 531
Pages: 3

The corruption that occurs when the government does not apply justice to all crime, regardless of their socio-economic status.
This is portrayed in the novel, The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler.
In “The Big Sleep” detective Marlowe, the main character in the novel is trying to solve a shady case that later leads to murder. He is trying to solve this case for a high class man, General Sternwood. This book reveals the corrupt society in the 1930’s.
The corrupt society in the in Los Angeles during this time period is portrayed throughout the novel. It truly shows how people are so horrible to others who are considered lower than them, the police are even portraying this act.

Throughout the novel the characters even talk about how brainwashed
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The newspapers in The Big Sleep tell about what’s going on in the city but lie about what’s true. For example, when the murder incident happened with Geiger, they said that a blackmailer Joe Brody who was trying to take over Geiger’s business, killed him. But, this wasn’t true. Geiger was murdered by Owen Taylor, the General’s driver. These lies about murders are so durastic, it lets people in society think it’s okay to lie and make people look better. Marlowe notices these little things throughout the story and says “Their accounts of the affair came as close to the truth as newspaper stories usually come-as close as Mars is to Saturn”(ch.19). This shows that Marlowe knows that it’s normal for them to lie to the people of the city like that, this shows how corrupt Los Angeles was in this time period.

Second example, the citizens in Los Angeles are also corrupt and unpleasent. General Sternwood says “Carmen is a child who likes to pull wings off flies” (ch.1) about his own daugther. This shows a lot about someone if even a father is saying this about his own. General Sternwoods are given anything they want, they were raised into a wealthy well off family. Carmen is the younger sister of the