In Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye a theme that is noticeably repeated in his chapters is the distinctions between the worlds of high class and low class. Marlow gets the chance to coincidentally enter into this labyrinth of the elite through Terry Lenox and as he rolls deeper into this new discovered world he meets a man that is highly influential even among the high class, Harlan Potter, Sylvia Lenox’s father. However, it is clear that the distinction between the two worlds in this story is an all-round illusion created, not by the nobleness of the high class characters, but instead by masking their true ugliness through the money and reputation constructed with that money. We can see this through Terry’s description of Sylvia’s father where he says “Harlan Potter is a cold hearted son of a bitch. All Victorian dignity on the outside. Inside he's as ruthless as a Gestapo thug” (Chandler 24).
As the story progresses our main protagonist’s high conviction in his own moral compass motivates and aimless belief in the justice system, makes his struggle even more difficult upon his encounter with the corrupt police force. Once Marlow is in jail due to his slight rebellion against telling the police force about Terry, lawyer Sewell Endicott enlightens the readers with the reality about the justice system.“The law isn't justice. It's a very imperfect mechanism. If you press exactly the right buttons and are also lucky, justice may show up in the answer”(Chandler 56). As we further discover, the “right buttons” (56) that he seems to be talking about are the monetary and reputational bonuses that the elite can use to get away from facing justice.
I believe that the author further plays on this theme by emphasizing more intricate details such as with the repetitive use of the color green to symbolize money and eliteness. He names one of the police officers interrogating Marlow, Green, which makes his fight against him seem almost like a larger battle between justice and corruption caused by money and the rich. It is interesting to also note that we later get hints that Green is possibly not really part of the lower class after being revealed that he has “four children and a rose garden” (47).
The other interesting implementation of the color green that seems even more unrevealed is the use and the symbolism of “eucalyptus trees” (6, 27, 118) in the story. Marlow seems to always find eucalyptus trees and while at first it may seem like a coincidence, the repetitive mention of eucalyptus whenever he is around private mansions of sorts feels almost intentional. Upon further research, I found that the nature behind the eucalyptus tree is not only intriguing but may be even more symbolic for the character’s dislike of the corruption that money brings to the justice system. Eucalyptus tree roots can in fact pilfer gold from the ore deposits in the soil, but as the gold is seemingly deadly to the roots the tree transports the gold into its leaves in turn explaining why the leaves can be found to be highly poisonous. It is almost as if there is a correlation between Marlow’s mention of the tree due to its connection to money and toxicity that this peculiar tree represents. I am intrigued to see whether and how this symbolisation will repeat itself as we finish the book.
by Angelina Not (Lina)
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