The Shpilmans or the Corleones

In Chabon's fictional world of Sitka there are different families or sects of Jews that divide the district into neighborhoods. The Shpilmans are part of the Verbover sect. When we first meet this family, Landsman and Berko are met with heavy opposition. Even with Zimbalist with them, they have a hard time getting to see the Verbover rebbe. This is ironic since these people are supposed to be religious Jews, so why all the protection. Landsman and Berko must first pass three bodyguards, known a s Rudashevskys (another family), to get into the house. As if thats not enough, the two dectective must then face the family lawyer. In this scene, Chabon is playing with the fact that the minority races must stand together so they can hep protect each other. Through this network of Jews that are just trying to make it, Chabon has made many parallels to The Godfather. The Corleones are an Italian family trying to make it in New York. Similarly to Sitka, New York is divided into neighborhoods of families. The Corleones started as a respectable family, as I’m sure the Shpilmans did, but had to turn to crime for protection. By Chabon turning this religious group into a corrupt family of paying off people with influence and having power with in the precinct, he is playing with the reality that people will do what ever they have to do to survive.

The first thing that should comes to mind when putting a book on the big screen is what to cut. A book may be as short as a couple of days or a couple of year; its the job of the screen writers to make the book fit in an hour and a half of film. This is the single most important aspect of this process. There are so many tasks to consider like what scenes to keep or cut. After deciding which scenes to cut, they must make sure the plot will make sense and if not, they must determine how to add a scene to fix the problem. In Devil in a Blue Dress, the major sex scene between Easy and Daphne was left out. Without the scene the viewer doesn’t get an understanding of their relationship. The writers decided this wasn’t important and didn’t explain the gap. This scene was essential in the book because it showed how infatuated Easy was with Daphne. Later, when Easy discovers she is white he is no longer interested in her. Therefore, the decision to leave the scene out (and the one that reveals Easy thoughts after discovering Daphne’s secrete) removed a key point made by Mosley. Besides worrying about deleting the authors key points, the writers must also decide how much detail to put into each scene. In a book the author can spend as much time as they want on detail. With a movie, the time it takes the actors to deliver their line is as long as the writers have to express the detail. This can be easy or hard. In The Big Sleep, Geiger’s house is depicted very well. However, the writers failed in their depiction of the scene with Billie and the cotton in Cotton Comes to Harlem. Even though there are many more things that must be considered when converting a book to film, these two are key in producing a successful movie.

In the Indian Killer, scalping is an one of the things that the killer performs on his victims. The word itself evokes thoughts of savage indians attacking white settlers. However, the indians in this story are not savages, but common day indians trying to fit into a world that has rejected them for so long. So what is Alexie doing by portraying the killer as a savage indian. In the act of scalping his victims, the killer has just further enforced the stereotype of indians being savages. In a world where battles are settled in a court room, the killer rebells this civilized world by killing "innocent" white people. Not only is this killer avenging some kind of wrong done to him, but he is causing people to assume he is an indian. However, this stereotype gives the killer some cover. Since the white people are so caught up in the stereotype that they “know” the killer is indian. This slight laps of judgement on their part is responsible for all the problems that follow the killings. Since they are so quick to identify the killer as indian, Truck goes on his rampage and starts all of the hate crimes. Now, the killer is not only revenging what or whomever he is upset with, but he is indirectly causing the community around him to unravel.

 

Where Crime Belongs

Out of the three authors that have been read, Himes has done the best job of putting crime back where it belongs. Perhaps it is because he chose the most controversial racial group of all time. By putting crime in the heart of Harlem, Himes is saying that crime belongs to the black race and makes everything seem natural. Although there is one white character who is taking part in the crime of Cotton Comes to Harlem, he is overlooked and almost forgotten about. His crime also doesn’t fit in and gets away with it because he his white. Himes not only uses the setting of the book to convey this point, but also the black characters. Coffin Ed and Grave Digger say many times throughout the book that the people of Harlem are “hoodlems” and that they are the reason Harlem is the way it is. Himes takes it a step further and puts even more criminal activity on the black race. The two main cops in the book are black, and they are considered to be the ace detectives. However, both Ed and Digger break laws and help out criminals. So now the book has the criminal activity taking place in the heart of Harlem, but also has the two main black detectives characterized as crooked cops. Ed and Digger also believe that crime belongs to black people because of their “means justify the ends” attitudes. They treat their fellow citizens like crap and do not care what happens to them as long as they solve their case. Their attitude towards these “hoodlems” is also seen in the way they are so quick to shoot these criminals. In this book crime is committed by black people, covered up by black people, and is ramped in Harlem, the neighborhood of black people.

The Big Sleep, a look at Marlow

Is Marlow a modern man? No. To be modern is to be of your moment. Marlow’s Los Angeles is a corrupt city full of gambling and illegal rackets. Marlow does not fit in to this city. Although he is not a completely law abiding citizen, he is not morally corrupt or at least not nearly as much as his current surroundings. Marlow’s persona consists of cleaver thinking and deductive reasoning that keep him busy. Perhaps this is why he has not been caught up in the corruption of his environment. However, there are a couple very modern things about Marlow. The things that are modern about his character are not just in sync with his surroundings of Los Angeles, but in sync with the era. I am talking about his addiction to cigarettes and alcohol. The extent to which Marlow smokes and drinks can definitely be linked to the era he lives in. This is the only thing that I really did not like about Marlow and in result Chandler. The amount of time that Chandler spends on the description of Marlow’s bad habits is insignificant to the story line. If something this destructive and damaging has nothing really important to do with the plot it is annoying and a waste of time to read. Now, if the type of cigarette Marlow smoked was special and it tied him to a place and time of an event that would not have been so pointless. I guess it is just a personal opinion though, because I just hate when popular culture of a time promote and encourage such destructive habits.