The Honorable One In Raymond Chandler’s novel The Big Sleep our hero Phillip Marlowe is one of few savory characters that display a certain amount of honor. In Raymond Chandler’s “
The Simple Art of Murder: an Essay” he describes his character build for our sleuth Phillip Marlowe. Chandler describes his character from Chandler’s “The Simple Art of Murder: an Essay” as follows, “He is the Hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man.” This is the mold for which Chandler styles his Character into for the novel The Big Sleep. The following is written to explore the main characters honor and discovering what the hidden truth is in In Raymond Chandler’s novel The Big Sleep. Discussing how Chandler builds and intertwines his story around Marlowe’s justice system and how it serves him. Phillip Marlowe is first introduced to the General in chapter two. In this scene the General and Marlowe are feeling each other out and seeing whether, or not Marlowe will get the job. They have some light verbal jabbing which ends up setting the stage for a mutual respect of each other. A good example of this banter is:
“And a little bit a cynic,” the old man smiled. “You didn’t like working for Mr. Wilde?”
“I was fired for insubordination. I test very high on insubordination, General.”
“I always did myself, sir. I’m glad to hear it. What do you know about my family?” (9).
This shows the reader that the General and Marlowe have gained repertoire with each other and have gained a certain level of respect. This is just in line with Chandler’s character build for Phillip Marlowe being someone “…talks as the man of his age talks-that is with rude wit” (18). It also sets into motion the verbal contract Marlowe and the General agree upon for Marlowe to start investigating the blackmailer Geiger. In regards to finding the hidden truth Marlowe does not disappoint. We are given some foreshadowing into the future from this statement made by Marlowe “The Rust Regan part, maybe. But I always get along with bootleggers myself. This gives us some insight into Marlowe’s almost super human ability to have a hunch and for that hunch to be correct. Philip Marlowe has many encounters with different vixens in this novel. He in no way is a man who is against carnal relations, but would never take advantage of or do anything that would be considered out of bounds to his sense of duty. In “The Simple Art of Murder: an Essay” Chandler describes him as follows “I think that he might seduce a Duchess and I am quite sure he would not spoil a virgin;” Carmen and Marlowe are having a discussion about the “unwanted” photos of her. Carmen is very flirtatious and basically throws herself at Marlowe. Although she is very attractive her manner and Marlowe’s intuition give us some great insight into how he thinks. “She giggled. That gave me a nasty feeling. If she had screeched or wept or even nosedived to the floor in a dead faint, that would have been all right. She just giggled.” This shows how Philip Marlowe’s intuition works. He knows that there is something not right and his insight tells him that there is something very wrong with this particular girl. Marlowe is employed by this girl’s father the General. He must find the truth and find out who swiped the photos of her. By doing this he fulfills his sense of obligation that he has to his new employer, the General. This is another example of how the author show’s that Marlowe is a model of someone who exudes honor even when dealing with some of the more unsavory characters. Philip Marlowe meets another man in this story who shares a common honor system with that of himself, Harry Jones. In this scene Harry Jones is being questioned by the thug Canino. Harry tells a lie here to protect Philip Marlowe, ‘Harry Jones laughed again. “I’m seeing him tomorrow. I have high hopes.” ’ Unannounced to the other characters, Marlowe is