The Meaning : “The Big Sleep” simply means death. The only time the phrase is mentioned is in the last chapter. You can find the exact quote in the “Memorable Line” section below.The Big Sleep was Raymond Chandler’s first in a series of novels about a private detective named Philip Marlowe. The book has been adapted for film twice: The first adaptation was in 1946 and starred Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The second adaptation—which wasn’t as well-received as the first—was in 1978 and starred Robert Mitchum and Jimmy Stewart. The Big Lebowski, a Coen Brothers film, is loosely based on The Big Sleep. According to some of Chandler’s letters published in Atlantic Monthly, Chandler was surprised to realize he never explained the murder of Owen Taylor—and, in fact, …show more content…
didn’t know who the killer was In addition to The Big Sleep, Chandler wrote six other novels that featured Philip Marlowe: Farewell My Lovely, The High Window, The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, andPlayback.
The Big Sleep is one of those novels that needs to be read a couple of times. While reading, I always had the feeling that I was missing something—maybe a plot connection, a reference, or something like that. Philip Marlowe is the star. He’s a loner private detective who is hired by a rich general to investigate a “rare book” collector who is blackmailing the general. Turns out, the general’s two scandalous daughters are involved—and the plot twists and turns to reveal much more than just blackmail. Everything hinges on Vivian—the older of the general’s missing daughters—whose husband has disappeared. Although Marlowe has been hired to investigate the blackmail—which involves pictures (if you know what I mean) of the general’s youngest daughter, Carmen—everything keeps leading back to the disappearance of the husband, Rusty Regan. Chandler is an incredible writer. He says a lot while only saying a little. In other words, his prose is descriptive and beautiful while staying concise and to the
point. The first time Marlowe meets Vivian Regan: “I sat down on the edge of a deep soft chair and looked at Mrs. Regan. She was worth a stare. She was trouble… Her hair was black and wiry and parted in the middle and she had the hot black eyes of the portrait in the hall. She had a good mouth and a good chin. There was a sulky droop to her lips and the lower lip was full.” His prose has such a good detail and rhythm—something that is often overlooked when it comes to writing. The sentences pop and the structure of each one is varied. The Big Sleep is a beautiful read.
While watching the movie, I could see that the main characters in the book, both their names and traits, were the same in both the movie and book. However, aside from that there were many different as...
Stephen King published his novella “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption in 1982. In 1994 this novella was turned into a movie called The Shawshank Redemption. Frank Darabont wrote the screenplay. A good adaptation will capture the same overall essence of the written book or novella. Darabont did a wonderful job of adapting this novella into a movie. He captured the overall essence in a way that makes a heart rejoice in happiness and relief. The adaptation of The Shawshank Redemption is very well done.
Film Noir is a genre of distinct and unique characteristics. Mostly prominent in the 40s and 50s, the genre rarely skewed from the skeletal plot to which all Film Noir pictures follow. The most famous of these films is The Big Sleep (1946) directed by Howard Hawks. This film is the go to when it comes to all the genre’s clichés. This formula for film is so well known and deeply understood that it is often a target for satire. This is what the Coen brothers did with 1998’s The Big Lebowski. This film follows to the T what Film Noir stands for.
Carmen Sternwood is described with profoundness but in a different (less sexual) sense than her sister is. Marlowe encounters her on many occasions and is thorough in describing her--from her first flirtations to her continuous irritations. In t...
Often, we hear commentary about films that reading the book before watching the movie ruins the experience or that movies are never as good as the book on which it is based. The difference between forms is not as much about already knowing how the story ends as it is about the dumbing down of the work for a broader audience. However, Chandler wrote The Big Sleep as a piece of pulp fiction that was read by a large populace.
To Kill a Mockingbird is considered a classic novel around the world. To Kill a Mockingbird was released in 1960. The movie was released in 1962 pulling in over $15 million. The movie followed the same plot line as the book, but had many differences that may have changed the outcome.
The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler’s first novel, served as the kickstarter to the hard-boiled detective fiction genre that his work would eventually come to represent. Philip Marlowe, a private eye on the sketchy side of Los Angeles, dons the archetypal role of a hard-boiled, fast talking hero on the edge of legal and illegal. Marlowe represents a character capable of communication with everyone; from a seedy criminal to a district attorney. The detective is able to converse with even the shadiest of characters as an equal due to his lack of fear, overabundance of confidence, and overall mental toughness. “ Tsk. Tsk.” I said, not moving at all. “Such a lot of guns around town and so few brains. You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail. Put it down and don’t be silly, Joe” (Chandler 79). This kind of calm, collected nature under intense situations is the mental cowboy equivalent to a victory in a shootout in the Old West. Marlowe’s collected presence under high...
Film and literature are two media forms that are so closely related, that we often forget there is a distinction between them. We often just view the movie as an extension of the book because most movies are based on novels or short stories. Because we are accustomed to this sequence of production, first the novel, then the motion picture, we often find ourselves making value judgments about a movie, based upon our feelings on the novel. It is this overlapping of the creative processes that prevents us from seeing movies as distinct and separate art forms from the novels they are based on.
When we first encounter Little Chandler in “A Little Cloud,” it immediately becomes clear that the protagonist in this chapter of James Joyce’s Dubliners is deliberately and aptly named. We are told early on that in addition to his small stature, Little Chandler “gave one the idea of being a little man” (Joyce 53). His smallness is underscored by the frequent and overpowering references to his friend and imagined competitor, Ignatius Gallaher, and relegates Little Chandler to an inferior position even within his own story. Yet Little Chandler’s implicit and explicit inferiority is punctuated by moments of courage and hope, and he does try, however briefly, to exalt himself as he walks the streets of Dublin. The narrator, expressing Little Chandler’s
...hen he was asked a series of questions about the murder he had no opinion or a reasonable answer to why exactly he had killed the man.
Macbeth is describing sleep as a wonderful thing. It gives you energy and nourishes you like food from a feast.
an individual is overcome by sleep. It is during these times where the mind is
Sleep, as a bodily function, regulates how the body heals itself and how people process events in their lives. Disruption of sleep can cause mild symptoms such as dizziness to a slight loss of fine motor skills to full on hallucinations. It is in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth that sleep plays very different roles in order to influence the plot; in this Scottish play, sleep, in its absence, is a way to express thoughts about troublesome events, a way of showing that a man has gone made, and a way to reveal truths about characters.
Dreams play a major role in the story, and, throughout the history of literature, sleep has often been consid...
(In this play, there are many main characters that are unable to sleep because of their uneasy mental state: Banquo is dreaming of the witches’ prophecy; Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking due to her overwhelming guilt; Macbeth is not able to sleep because of several issues he had faced.) (In the world of Macbeth, the motif of sleep was mostly associated with guilt and fear. As the characters experience these things, they were usually restless to show the extent of their guilt and fear.) (Sleeping, as we know, is one of the most basic and natural thing human beings have to do in order to survive. Only with applying this concept to Macbeth, can we fully understand the horror of inability to sleep suffered by characters in the play.)