The High Window Analysis

With various weeks of on and off reading and a brief analysis after several handfuls of chapters The High Window kept me on the edge of the seat, but fell short to effectively reach its full potential with the conclusion conclusively being the issue. With a vague and left in the air conclusion for certain characters Chandler didn’t completely satisfy me as a reader but didn’t ultimately lose me. He aimed the novel away from typical cliché mystery novels and took a different approach toward a mixed styled inverted detective story and whodunit novel. Unlike similar novels, however The High Window briefly reflected how the real world actually is and kept away from being too fiction although being a novel. Despite that, with the conclusion my major complaint Chandler makes up for the brief and rushed conclusion by giving the reader a slight resemblance of how life literally is and as a mystery novel Chandler goes beyond boundaries and explicitly displays how cruel and dark society can actually get.

Nonetheless, despite being a surprisingly acceptable novel I noted that at times novels are occasionally dragged out and can frequently be skipped around. With The High Window concisely supporting this observation, the novel is bluntly understood after reading the first three chapters and the last three chapters of the novel instead of going over all 36 chapters. This in my opinion is irritating as a reader, but is comprehensible since the novel revolves

around mystery and is ideally supposed to hook the reader instead of urging the reader to skip around. However, I feel like Chandler’s unordinary writing style conclusively hooks the reader and although defined by an anonymous source Chandler depicts his novel toward a blended inverted detective story and a whodunit type novel. As a result, it’s safe to say Chandler develops a well blended novel, but rushes several character plots and forgets about others. However, this isn’t uncommon with the genre he’s working with and although it does bug readers like me Chandler is able to ultimately answer the major questions about Marlowe’s case.
Despite that like most things, everything eventually comes to an end, unfortunately but for The High Window I felt as if the ending wasn’t enough or pleasing. While wrapping up on the last few chapters of The High Window and eventually reaching page 265 I felt as if the novel was missing a few additional chapters to fully understanding the anticipated climax and pending resolution. With a sense of what’s next for Marlowe left in the open Chandler focused more on other characters and didn’t develop much of a background story for the protagonist. With this in mind, it’s slightly understandable with The High Window being considered an array of incidents of Marlowe, Chandler utilizes past and future novels to further perceive Marlowe and how he fits into the bizarre cases a private eye like himself takes on. Despite that, shifting back to my complaint was the conclusion. The conclusion for me somewhat seemed as a sense of a different story with no mystery just extra. It was rather vague, but subtle as it aimed away from the havoc and chaos of the case ultimately creating the mystery less mysterious. Nonetheless, with a romantic side of Chandler attempting to split from the novels ominous ambient, he only eventually fails after Marlowe’s remorseful dissatisfaction of how the case resulted was brought up. This in fact angered me like most readers would agree despite being a dark novel, we would hope for some sort of happy ending. But that wasn’t the case. Chandler in fact used this time to show the reader an important rule of thumb about life, it isn’t fair. Seeing Marlowe and Merle together would have made the novel slightly better, but Chandler goes beyond a boundary where most fiction authors tend to stay from and that’s tying their novel to actual life. Although fiction deprives from imagination rather than fact or history Chandler’s unorthodox style of writing is actually favorable. While using his protagonist’s remorseful decision to leave Merle a letdown for readers saying, “I had a funny feeling as I saw the house disappear, as though I had written a poem and it was very good and I had lost it and would never remember it again.” (Chandler 262). Chandler ultimately creates a slight motif which I find incredibly interesting. As Marlowe looks back at what he conclusively let go away, he feels resentment and the decision of giving Leslie a “get out of jail free card” a sense of displeasure. With this in mind Chandler reflects Marlowe’s emotions with similar experiences we as readers can relate to when dealing with decisions that will benefit some but affect others.
To close, The High Window was an enjoyable novel, but the conclusion was my ultimate complaint.

It had a great plot with a memorable protagonist and upheld the mysterious atmosphere throughout the novel. Chandler’s ability to keep readers like myself on the edge of the seat was exciting as the novel unfolded with a blended style of unorthodox writing. As a result, Chandler was able to go past boundaries and tie his novel with the real world and as a reader, I could relate to experiences Marlowe had to endure and

decide.