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.