Dashiell Hammett's "Red Harvest" opens the door into a California town called Personville, in which the Op takes part of a job to clean the town up. After being called for a job, Hammett's protagonist opens and exposes the town after a critical murder.
Hammett keeps the reader engaged with character shifts and plot twists at a page's turn. Hammett shows an abnormal, yet extraordinary, approach by the Op's identity a being unknown through the book, and exposing the character's true thoughts and emotional changes. Hammett keeps your pulse pumping with each word while still satisfying the reader's perception of justice and killing. Hammett's views and meanings in the book coincide with the text, resulting in a true emotional attachment, sympathy, and hatred toward characters. Despite keeping the text reserved to only the events in Personville, Hammett shows the harsh decisions a detective has to make, and the cruel world of mobs and gangs. The reader feels the world of Personville crumbling around him as the Op digs deeper into the twisted,corrupted web of the town.
"Red Harvest" has the traditional detective feel, with a fresh breath. The book flows through moral decisions such as following regulations, the "fun" of killing, and true allies. As the Op solves the murder and cleans the town(with the help of some alcohol), the reader is bound to be swept away as the Op retells his views of the case, and how he was unwilling to keep with the codes. After reading "Red Harvest", you will never be able to view Sherlock Holmes as the true detective.
Adam's English Blog
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Monday, May 18, 2015
Red Harvest Reading Quiz: Top 10
Ten reading Questions from Chapter 1-16
1. Why does Noonan hate Thaler?
2. What does Mcswain say that is a game-changer?
3.Why doe Elihu want the gangsters gone, and why did he bring them in the first place?
4. Due to the "fixed" boxing match, what happens to the inhabitants of Poisonville?
5. What does the Op send Dick and Mickey to do, and is it important?
6. How does the shootout with Thaler, at Dinah's, end?
7. What was going on while the Op and Noonan were at Cedar Hill Inn?
8. What does the Op tell Mickey and Dick to do if they want to send deatils of the job to the Old Man?
9. What happens when the Op goes to talk to Thaler at his place?
10. How killed Donald?
1. Why does Noonan hate Thaler?
2. What does Mcswain say that is a game-changer?
3.Why doe Elihu want the gangsters gone, and why did he bring them in the first place?
4. Due to the "fixed" boxing match, what happens to the inhabitants of Poisonville?
5. What does the Op send Dick and Mickey to do, and is it important?
6. How does the shootout with Thaler, at Dinah's, end?
7. What was going on while the Op and Noonan were at Cedar Hill Inn?
8. What does the Op tell Mickey and Dick to do if they want to send deatils of the job to the Old Man?
9. What happens when the Op goes to talk to Thaler at his place?
10. How killed Donald?
Friday, May 15, 2015
Prediction for Red Harvest #2
Based off what we have learned that the Donald's case has been closed and the Op has not gone rouge yet, I believe the rest of the book will be less gruesome than first predicted. I believe that keeping Noonan and Thaler separated will not go as planned and Noonan will get whiff of Thaler's location. Then Noonan will somehow realize that the Op purposely kept it a secret and will try to kill him. Meanwhile, the Op is slowly pitting the gangsters against themselves and watching them fall one by one. As the money starts to get low, he will ask Elihu for more. His co-workers, Dick and Mickey, will start leaking information to the Agency and the Old Man either go to Poisonvlle himself or tell Dick and Mickey to take him out. Either option will result in the outcome of the the Op going rouge for his own life, even after the gangster are dead. Noonan and the Old Man might team up to take out the Op. Thaler will somehow have stayed alive and the Op and Thaler team up, against Noonan and the Agency. There will be several quick fights, but the main characters will eventually have a final fight where, Thaler, Noonan, and the Old Man all get killed. The Op, now realizing that even the agency is corrupt, resigns and moves on to be a man for hire.
Red Harvest In Class Essay 1
Like every superhero movie and comic book, the hero goes on a quest against his arch enemy while at the same time cleaning up his city. Similarly in Red Harvest, the Continental Op (Op) cleans up Personville from its corruption. The Op has many reasons as to why he cleans up the city, which are: he wants to clean up the town from personal matters,he deeply despises the injustice, and it was part of his job.
The first reason that drives the Op for cleaning up the city is it is part of his job. He was hired by Donald Willsson, who was killed shortly after the Op arrived. By finding Donald’s murderer, the Op starts to clean up the town by discovering how the town truly works and putting away one crook. After the Op goes to Elihu to tell him the job is done, Elihu asks to have his money back as the Op did not use it all. The Op replies with “I’ll give you nothing except a good job of city-cleaning. That’s what you bargained for, and that’s what you are going to get” (64). Here the Op forwardly states that he is going to clean up the town because that is what the job asked. Elihu’s job further asks that the town be restored by getting rid of all the gangsters, resulting in the newspaper being able to write freely. The Op demands money for the cleansing, reinforcing that his entire reasoning is just part of the job. “I’m not hiring out to help you kick them back in line...If you want a complete job gone you’ll plank down enough money to pay for a complete job” (44). The Op offers his services, and since Elihu wants it done, he pays the money, which is given to the Continental Agency as funding.
Another aspect of how he drivenness to clean the city is part of the job is because he brings in extra agents. Since the Op realizes he needs help for this job, he brings in his own people, Mickey and Dick. If the Op was doing the purge own his own terms, he wouldn’t need to bring in his men. Instead, Elihu paid for the city to be cleaned up, meaning that the Op has to use his agency and his own men. Besides just finishing the job, the Op also the is driven personally.
After finding Donald’s killer, the Op has seen the true colors of several characters such as Noonan, Dinah,and some of Thaler. The Op despises these people because they are either corrupt, tried to kill him, or morally ill people. For example, Noonan and the Op go to Thaler’s joint. After a long-standoff, the Op goes to Thaler to talk to him. As soon as he does so, Noonan shoots at “the gang”, with the Op in direct crossfire. As the Op puts it, “Noonan had slipped me a pretty dose” (52). After surviving the incident, the Op then goes to Elihu and asks for the money to finish the job of cleaning up the city. Being shot at by your so-called allies would give anyone a good reason to clean up the town of backstabbers. The Op knows that this town clearly needs to be cleaned up from the beginning, as Donald’s wife tells him “You’ll find it a dreary place” (4). Perhaps the Op just wants to give the town justice as he comes to clean it up with full force and hidden guns. As Mickey and Dick leave, the Op says “don’t kid yourselves that there’s any law in Poisonville except what you make yourself” (119). So there is definite hatred toward the town.
Much like a ourselves, the Op drives himself to clean up the town through personal matters and his job titles. Like every other man on earth, the Op is driven to do good from some form, resulting in a better outcome for Personville.
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Detective Book Cover and Back Cover
The Op, for he needs no further defining, guides you
in his critically acclaimed book through the methods of his own outstanding
detective work to show you how to be a super sleuth. He will show you how to
use techniques such as deception, interrogation, and intrigue to your own
advantage. For example, rigging an already rigged wrestling match to catch a
crook and expose a crime boss. He will also tell you about how he used a
corrupt political chief’s cash to bring down his own empire. The Op shows you
how to get away with drinking and questioning criminals at the same time,
rather than putting them in a small dark room. Have you considered working with
a criminal to take down a villainous police chief to take down a criminal to
dismantle an empire? While it may sound like an explosive method to take down
crime, the modern detective knows this is how you get true justice. He will
show you how the classic detective of clues and deduction is clueless compared
to his method of to-the-point investigation of villains. Tearing apart towns
with literal and metaphorical sticks of dynamite, you’ll find, is a much faster
way of justice than what you learned in elementary.
Thursday, May 7, 2015
What will Happen in Red Harvest
I believe based of pages 41-48, that the Continental Op
doesn't actually know who the murderer is despite his answer to Mr. Willsson.
He is going to arrest Whisper and probably interrogate him “wrong” questions to
expose the real culprit. He will either go down the civil path and keep interviewing
people, especially the Noonan, and slowly piece together the puzzle. Or, which
I hope happens, but probably won’t: the Continental Op keeps the ten thousand
dollars for himself and becomes a self-employed hit man, who takes out the
gangsters of Poinsonville, or brings them to prison. Either way, the Continental
Op will go away from the Agency and do what he thinks as justice. Along the way
as he is cleaning up the town, he will interrogate each gangster, either manipulatively
or ruthlessly, and find the true killer from one of them squealing. He will
then go into a state of shock, got drunk, and go on a man hunt for the killer.
He will lose all sense of right and wrong, hunting down the killer. There will
be an epic gun fight, as the killer hired protection. After eliminating the thugs,
and maybe having a short chase, the Continental Op stares down the killer.
Cornered, the killer goes into long detail as to why he/she did it. The
Continental Op gets flooded with emotions and either winds up killing the
killer or just arrests him/her, because he regained his felling of justice. The
town is now cleaned up, and the Agency calls with another case he needs to go
to. Then there are maybe a couple of pages at the end of the narrator reminiscing
about the Poisonville case.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Paradise Lost Album Release
• The songs that I titled and made (in no particular order):
In
Adamantine Chains
• The Narrator is talking of how the rebel
angels got kicked out of heaven (the ways of god to man) during lines 35-50 in the first book. He further talks
about the direct punishment that the angels are facing, such as being tied to
Adamantine Chains on a burning lake. I think that the genre of music for this
song is classical rock since you can make it remorseful but at the same time
reflecting in a positive way. The man instrument would be a bass, saxophone,
and a piano. It would open with a saxophone solo with a blues tone. The piano
would then pick up the tempo to more of a blues-jazz rhythm . For tempo, the
song would be around 86 (Andantino). The concept of the lyrics would be along
the lines of “We fought him real good, but we still got the boot, and now we
are burning in this lake. We are stuck on this rock, tied by/burning in these
ADAMANTINE CHAINS.” Finally, the reason I picked this song title was because
the Adamantine Chains is the best “prop” that is used to show how the devil is
stuck both physically, and metaphorically. Agony
of Hell
Serve
in Heav’n
• During
this passage (lines 260-265, book 1), the Devil is talking about how they can
rule here and need not to worry about God. It would be better rule in this Hell
then go back to Heaven and serve God. I think that this song title shows the
oppressive nature of god than theirs because serving in heaven means you are
under someone’s command instead of being equals. I think the song genre should
be hard rock since the passage has a rebellious and hatred aspect of Heaven to
it (like the Black Crowes’ Hard to Handle). The song would open with a drum and
bass. The drum would have high hats and a steady 16th notes on the
snare (with maybe some rim shots). The bass would be doing “slap-bass” (which
is just syncopated rhythms on the bass that are used with the thumb and palm of
the hand) similar to Push comes to Shove by Van Halen. The tempo would
be about 125 or Animato. The lyrics would about how to is better to be free in
Hell rather than be in Heaven and being in this fiery hell, and be along the lines of “Well I served my time
in Heaven till it came to judgement day. And I took to the roof, my eyes set
ablaze. Cause we fought and died and rose again. That battle was never gonna
end till HE called upon his friends. It was us against Stalin, Hitler, and
al-Qaddafi, um, some fine men. Well we shot out like a bullet from a gun, and
now we’re here in these flames. Cause its better to be in this eternal cavern
than ever to serve in “hell”. Oppressive Nature of God
Of
present pain
• The quote is from the book 2, lines 30-39. The
devil is talking how the pain that they have endured unites them and that they
are all equal. He also starts to open the debates on what to do next. I think
this title is better than others is because the demons are all united by the
same pain so that is what they fell brings them together. This genre would be
Rock anthem because the demons need a song that they can use as their
“national” anthem. The tempo would be slower than your average rock anthem. It
would be similar to the start of American Pie, but would speed up during
the middle and end of the song. The tempo would start at 90, and work its way
up to 130. The song would have trumpets, guitar, and piano. They song would
encompass their rise to seeking revenge. Like a Cats and the Cradle meets
Hall of Fame. The lyrics would talk
of fighting God well, and how they would rise up out of Hell and ‘show him’.
“We just here a day ago, and now let the madness ensue. “Dum Dum Dum We
will ruin him for eternity, and never let him live peacefully. So we will burn
his throne, break the clouds, tear down the gates from Heaven’s sound. Take his
heart, tear it out, cause we ain’t ever gonna let him live this down.” The
Unity of the Demons in the Devil’s Democracy
Receive
thy new Possessor
• During this quote (book 1, lines 245-253) says
goodbye to heave since he will never go back and hello to his new home which
will become a place that will never change. I think that this title is the best
because Satan completely discards Heaven and embraces his new life without the
tyranny of God. The song would have dark and happy lyrics to signify the lost
of Heaven, but the gain of Hell. The tempo would be fairly fast, around 140,
and the measure would be in 6/8 so it would be against a triplet. The song would
have a long guitar piano combo break during the middle of the song like Voodoo
Child. The song lyrics would be more dark of him saying good riddance and
getting used to his new world, “If this man ever wanted to be my friend, he
would’ve set me free. Oh, but no all he did was make us do his needs. Well, I
got tired of it and now I rule this place, cause I’m better than that ruler, I
am much chiller and they call me the new po-sses-sor, better than him, the new
po-sses-sor, I rule this land!” The Rebellious, Anti-Establishment of the
Devil
Deliverance
• This quote takes place in book 2, lines
260-270. Here the devil tells everyone that he will go up through heel, face
all the perils to get man kind on their side. Deliverance is the best title
because he is doing this deliverance for his people which is quite heroic. The
song genre would pop with some folk rock. The song would be played with only
acoustic guitars and a piano. It would have a similar feel to Don’t mess
around with Jim. The song would be fast and upbeat, about 110. The lyrics
would have them describing what they came out of and going to take over the
human world. “We were banished, yet we stand tall, we don’t know defeat but we
will live for infamy. So we rise out the pits and sail across the sea, we will
rule with an iron fist. This, this, this is our deliverance.” I feel like this
title is the best for the album cover because it captures the devil putting his
plans into action, and showing his ways. Also, the devils shows both his sides
during the debates, so we can see how he is manipulating all of his demons when
going to the human world. The Heroic Strength and Power of the Devil
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