Women's in Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep and Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums - Essay Example

?Women’s in Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep and Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums In sizable societies all over the world, women are always stereotypically viewed as inferior individuals and also as sexual ‘objects’, due to historical, social and even physical reasons. That is, as an extension of that subjugation, women are viewed as objects of sexual gratification. This being one perspective, the other perspective is, women themselves want to use their sexuality or their physical body as sexual object to fulfill their desire. In order to achieve their certain wishes, which are dependent on male members, a woman could ‘use’ themselves in relation to those male members. Although, there are these differing views regarding the usage or viewing of women as sexual objects, certain authors have used women from the latter perspective. For example, authors, Raymond Chandler in The Big Sleep and Jack Kerouac in The Dharma Bums have portrayed women has sexual objects, who intentionally or unintentionally to use their sexuality to entice men, test them, thereby fulfilling their wants. This paper will discuss this particular portrayal of the women characters in The Big Sleep and The Dharma Bums, comparing and contrasting how the female characters test the masculinity and celibacy of the male protagonists in different ways. The Big Sleep, written by Raymond Chandler in 1939, was the first in a series of novels, featuring the detective Philip Marlowe as the main protagonist. The Big Sleep features Philip Marlowe as the private detective hired by an old wealthy man, General Sternwood to investigate a blackmail involving his younger daughter, Carmen. After he starts the investigation, he gets drawn into a world of deceit, ugly revelations and number of murders. Although, various characters get ‘sucked’ into it, ‘drive’ forward the story and even gets murdered, the main ‘catalysts’ who initiate the deception and lead to the murders are the two daughters of General Sternwood, Vivian and Carmen, who exhibit characteristics of femme-fatale. Thus, both of them play major roles in the novel. The author Chandler portrayed them as the cause of all the complex and grave situations, and importantly how they impede Marlowe from unraveling and solving those situations. On the other hand, Jack Kerouac wrote The Dharma Bums as a kind of semi-autobiographical novel in 1958. The narrator and main protagonist is Ray Smith, who is actually based on the author himself. He along with his friend Japhy Ryder, who is based on Gary Snyder, a poet, essayist and real-life friend of Kerouac, goes on a adventurous journey. During that journey, Ryder introduces Smith to Buddhism, which makes a profound impact on his lifestyle, particularly in relation to the women. That is, due to the influence of Buddhism, Smith wants to be a celibate, however the girl friends of Ryder particularly Princess test him. Although there are quite few women characters in The Dharma Bums, the character of Princess plays a major role in relation to the male protagonist. However, unlike the female characters in The Big Sleep, Princess is not featured throughout the novel, and does not initiate the plot nor maximally drive the story forward. She only tests and impedes the male protagonist, Smith, like the characters Vivian and Carmen did to Marlowe. This can be understood when the characters and their actions in relation to the male protagonist are discussed further. Chandler portrays Vivian as a beautiful woman, who has ulterior motives. This can be gleaned from the words spoken by Marlowe to describe her, when he first sees her in General Sternwood’s mansion. “She was worth a stare. She was trouble.” (Chandler 15). This line implies that although she was strikingly beautiful and can entice men with just her looks, there is something ulterior behind that facade. Even, Marlowe at first glance seems to be attracted to Vivian especially her legs. “I stared at her legs in the sheerest silk stockings. They seemed to be arranged to stare at. They were visible to the knee and one of them well beyond.” (Chandler 15). The key perspective is, she was fully aware that she can use her beauty and sexuality to draw the attention of the men towards her, thereby manipulating them to her advantage. She tries that with Marlowe by seducing him in a beach, mainly to make him involved with her emotionally. This way, she wanted to impede him or divert him from finding the actual killer of her murdered husband, Rusty Regan (which is actually her sister, Carmen) and thereby test his masculinity. Marlowe refuses her advances and understands that she is a ‘vixen’, who should be approached with a degree of caution. He further understands that she is testing his virility as a man, and if she accomplishes that, she could use that in her favor. To avert that, Marlowe decides to present himself as a stoic and hardened man in front of Vivian. He also does the same in relation to Carmen as well. Carmen is also a beautiful at the same time an innocent looking girl. However, she gets involved in various illegal and grave activities. Due to these dubious activities, she goes to the extent of killing Regan, and in association with her sister Vivian covers it up. When she understands that Marlowe is on her ‘tail’, she also tries to seduce him. When that did not work, she also goes to the extent of murdering him. Thus, it is clear that both the female characters in The Big Sleep, by testing the masculinity of Marlowe, tried their best to deviate him from the course of solving the mystery behind various crimes. Marlowe for his part was able to preempt all their overtures, thereby finding the real killer. That is, although, he appreciated the sexuality of both the female characters, he did not felt comfortable at the outset, to interact with them, as he had the feeling that they were intently testing his masculinity. In addition, his lifestyle was maximally focused on his profession, and so he did not wanted to mix personal life with his profession. Those initial apprehensions stood him in good stead, as he was able to block the advances of both Vivian and Carmen, and reach the case to the logical end. When these prominent roles of the women characters in the novel, The Big Sleep, are compared with the women characters or character in The Dharma Bum, there are major variations, although their role in testing the male protagonists’ masculinity or celibacy remains the same. In the novel, only few women characters are featured by the author. Among those few women, the author as the narrator categorizes them into two groups. The first group includes prospective unmarried women who are sexual objects, who can be focused and courted, and Princess come under that group only. The other group is the married women, who are unavailable and thus uninteresting. With this categorization and mindset, Smith tried approaching and courting various women. This is in contrast to the mindset of Marlowe, who did not have that inclination due to his focus on his professional career. However, when Smith becomes attached to Buddhism due to his friends’ ‘education’, he started exhibiting Marlowe’s mindset regarding women, by becoming a celibate. However, when he sees Princess, her celibacy is tested and comes under threat. Smith is hypersensitive in regards to the physical features of the women, and so he firstly identifies any women he meets, mainly by their hair color, body features, etc. In that way, he describes Princess as follows, “Princess had gray eyes and yellow hair and was very beautiful and only twenty. I must say one thing about her, she was sex mad and man mad” (Kerouac 5). By describing her like that, it was he who falls for her, without her making any move. This perspective is the key difference between the roles of women in both the novels. That is, in The Big Sleep, the women characters understanding their sexuality initiate steps to attract Marlow. However, in the novel, The Dharma Bums, the female character did not make any intentional move to attract Smith. The similarity is in the way, the female characters test the male protagonist in their ways. Vivian and Carmen test Marlowe’s masculinity to fulfill their desire of diverting him from the goal. On the same lines, Princess test Smith’s celibacy vow during her act of fulfilling her personal desires. Ryder brings Princess to Yabyum, which is a Buddhist ritual, and the one conducted by Ryder was a clothes-optional session. Princess wanted to be part of that ritual, as she believed that if she plays her role as part of the ritual, she can become Bodhisattva, an enlightened one. This participation of Princess in the ritual strongly tests Smith, because his mind becomes conflicted between his intense yearning for her and his personal commitment to celibacy. From the above analysis, it is clear that the women characters play key roles in testing the masculinity and celibacy of the male protagonists. However, there are major differences, with female characters of Vivian and Carmen intentionally testing Marlowe, to make him emotionally connected to them, and thereby divert him. On the other hand, Princess does not intentionally test Smith, and instead does that for her personal desires. The aspect of women acting for personal desires is a similar one, as Vivian and Carmen as well as Princess acted in a dubious manner to save themselves. However, the key similarity or the bottom line is, both the male protagonist’s masculinity and celibacy were tested by the women characters, but in different ways. Works Cited Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep: Farewell, my lovely; The high window. A.A. Knopf, 2002. Kerouac, Jack. Dharma Bums. Penguin, 1976. Read More