Red Harvest Review

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.      

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?

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.      

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.   

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.  

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 16^th 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

  

Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth's psychological breakdown is due to all of the murderous events that both she and Macbeth have done. For instance, when Lady Macbeth says "Here's the smell of blood still. All/ the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand" (5.1.53-4), she is describing that her hands are stained with so much blood, that they will forever smell like blood, no matter how much perfume she puts on them. These murders include Duncan's, Banquo's, and Lady Macduff's. It appears that Lady Macbeth is most distraught about Lady Macduff's death and Duncan's. Lady Macbeth says "The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where/ is she now?"(5.1.45) and Yet who would have thought the old man/ ti have had so much blood in him? (5.1.42-3). Lady Macbeth is portrayed deeply upset in the movie and is truly affected. Shortly after she says these quotes, she also begs her lord to stop "that" , most likely referring to the murders. The core of Lady Macbeth's breakdown is her husbands rampage murders wearing her down. Her husband has turned into a mad men who sees ghosts and kills every "threat".

Sonnets

Sonnet : Traditional Sonnet

Toaster’s True View

Innocent they seem, with springs and dials

Plugged in waiting for the command to brown

Toasting bread to perfection with style

No effort they use to make a great frown

They humbly wait for your command each day

With only the intentions to please you

They fulfill your command without a pay

And always make crunchy toast that you chew

But the great machine is an evil beast

Turning your white bread into a burnt brick

It does not care about your morning feast

It waits each day with eager to burn your toast

Turning each morning into a dark roast

Sonnet 2: Untraditional

The Drop Fly

The fly whipped upstream of the Musconetcong

Free-falling into the ripples below

Plunging into the depths, forever gone

Streaming the line out of the reel quite slow

The fly clumsily darts through the clear stream

Catching the eye of the glimmering beast  

It spontaneously jumps at the nymph

Creating tension, the weathered line creased

Old in age they are, living life day-by-day

The trout keeps fighting, losing ground

The trout is in the net, still

The man looks through its mouth, the fly now found

The beast is released, slowly gliding away

The flys’ casted back out, it lives one more day  

Trout= Life

Fly=day

Man= death

Explication:
The meaning behind the three characters are life, time and death. The trout represents your life, swimming around freely, with no knowledge of death. The fly, with no life itself, mirrors time. Each it is reeled in shows time moving forward and at one point, a creature will hit time and no longer have life. The man behind the reel is to represent death. This death would not be your typical grim reaper, but more of a godly figure, deciding as to when it is one's time to go. The inconsistent rhymes are to create of sense of awkwardness as the fly would be creating in the water. Also, death is a misplaced phenomenon in the world, making death  awkward in life as well. During lines 10 and 11, there is a major loss in syllables, wavering from the traditional 10. The reason behind these lines is to create distress from the pattern, much like the fish is feelings now that it is caught. In near death experiences, your breathing slows down and it is shorter. Thus when the trout was about to be "killed", it would be slowly breathing, thus the reason for not using as many syllables, then when the trout escapes death, it resumes its life normally, with the iambic pentameter resuming. In short, this poem is about becoming old and living each day without the true understanding of death. When you think you are hooked by the fly and cannot escape, death might just through you back on into the stream, because there is a bigger fish to fry than you.