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 Week 5 Movie vs. Print**
 * Stephanie Pajak

Movies separate themselves from books in several ways and most people either prefer to read a book or prefer to watch a movie. There are several aspects of books and movies that will attract its audience including, plot, characters and setting. I really enjoy “The Maltese Falcon” it is suspenseful and interesting. Once I began to read it, I couldn’t put it down. I was extremely eager to begin watching the movie because I enjoyed the book so much but the movie was not as I pictured it to be. The movie lost its appeal because all of the qualities that I love about the book the movie lacked. I prefer to read print rather then watch a movie because in print, I am able to use my imagination, and read the story from my point of view. I feel as though when I am reading, I am more closely involved in the story line and characters.

The most important reason I prefer the book over the movie is because I am able to create an image of the characters from the descriptions given in the book. In reading a story, time stops and for a few paragraphs we get a description of the setting or of the characters. There is no time in a movie to explain what each character looks like because the actual film itself is always moving. As I read each description, each character had a certain appearance. I pictured Brigid O’Shaughnessy to be a beautiful mysterious woman and in the movie she is unattractive and awkward. She was not exactly breath taking. “Sam Spade’s jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth.” They also referred to him as a blond Satan. I feel that those characteristics that were described did not correspond to the Sam Spade in the movie. In the movie he does not act like Satan and being that it is in black and white who knows what his hair color is. All of my preconceived notions where ruined once I watched the movie and I think that’s what ruined the movie watching experience.

Also I find that in books there are more scenes. The more scenes there are the more suspense the reader experiences. There were several scenes that were removed from the movie that I liked in the book. I feel that the scene with Gutman’s daughter pretending to be drugged is a vital part of the plot because it shows that his daughter is in on it just as much as Gutman is. In addition, showing the involvement of his daughter also creates more suspense for the readers because now I am wondering “Why did they drug her?” That scene was cut out from the movie because of lack of time but I feel it takes away from the plot in the movie. Another scene that was removed is the scene where Effie Perine begs Spade to go look for Brigid and the scene where Spade goes to look for her. I think this scene is important because this is when the reader learns about the boat catching on fire and that Brigid just happened to be on that boat. The reader also learns that Captain Jacobi is the captain of La Paloma the boat that is on fire.

Lastly, the point of view is different from a movie to a book. In each scene in the book “The Maltese Falcon,” the reader is able to focus on the point of view of any character. In a movie the audience is forced to see the point of view of the person the camera is focusing on. I will focus on the character I find more interesting.

I do feel that in “The Maltese Falcon” the movie is able to grab the audience with the facial expressions of the actors, the type of music that is playing and the tone in the actor’s voices. Those three things are unable to be shown and heard in the book but in a movie they help to create the suspense. The reader is always able to tell but the facial expressions and tone of the actors what will happen next but in a book you are unable to tell unless you keep reading. Music is also something that creates suspense; I know if I hear music that is spooky something bad is going to happen.

In conclusion, I prefer to read a book then watch a movie. I like to create my own characters’ from the descriptions given in the book and I also like to create the setting. Moreover, I enjoy reading the book from my chosen point of view, which in detective fiction stories is usually from the point of view of the detective.

**Classic vs. Hard Boiled 6/17/09**
 * Stephanie Pajak**

Detective fiction can be broken down into two categories. The first is hardboiled detection which has three major components violence, sex and crime. It is an unsentimental portrayal of crime. The second is classic detection which focuses on the intellectual puzzle, ratiocination, and moral order. The detectives use logic and deductive reasoning to solve the crime instead of using violence and sexual acts. Some popular classic detectives are Sherlock Homes and Auguste Dupin and some popular hardboiled detectives are Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe. One way to tell the difference between classic and hardboiled is to look at how the crime is solved. In classic detection, Dupin gathers facts, formulates a theory based on those facts and takes steps to prove his theory. Once he has proven the theory he takes the time to explain his methods. Whereas in hardboiled detection the detective is actively involved in the crime and in order to solve the crime he puts himself in danger to get the facts. For example Spade was placed in danger plenty of time trying to figure out where the falcon was hidden As I stated in the paragraph above, the detective places himself in the path of danger to solve the crime. Sam Spade spends a minimal time sitting in his office looking over the facts. Instead he works alongside the criminals to understand the crime even if this means going against the police. In classic fiction the detective is a detached observer. He spends time analyzing the crime scene it arrive at the suspect. Dupin spends more time behind the desk and in his house rather than out in the field. In hardboiled fiction, the detective confronts danger in order to solve the crime. The detectives are cocky and confident that they will be able to solve the case without any harm to themselves. Another way to differentiate between the two is the lingo that is used. In hardboiled detection there are plenty of words that are not used in classic detection, such as roscoes, slugs and twists. The lingo that is used in classic detection is more from an analytical stand because the detective is trying to solve an intellectual puzzle. I feel that the lingo used in hardboiled detection really helps to draw the reader into the story and the suspense of the crime. I found classic detections lingo to be long winded and at times not entertaining. The absence of sex marks detective fiction as classic rather than hard boiled. In hardboiled detective fiction there is an emphasis on sex and even homosexuality. There was plenty of sexuality in “The Maltese Falcon.” It is clearly suggested that Cairo is homosexual and Spade is involved in plenty of sexual encounters. He was not only having an affair with Miles wife Iva, but he also is sexually involved with Brigid O’Shaughnessy once he laid his eyes on her. Both classic and hardboiled detective fiction have their strengths and weaknesses. I prefer hardboiled over classic. I feel that classic has more weaknesses, such as more analysis then crime and the detectives in classic fiction spend a great deal of time looking at the plot over the character which I feel begins to get very monotonous. I also find it more interesting when the murder has a little more blood and violence just as in hardboiled fiction. The violence brings a little more excitement into the story. I have to say I do like that moral order is restored at the end because It gave me a sense of closure.

Stephanie Pajak Essay 2 Male vs. Female 6/10/09 In my opinion, the epitome of detective fiction is the male detective with the hard stature who is willing to take on any case whether as small as a missing letter or as big as a murder. In any situation the detective will use logic and deductive reasoning to solve the crime at hand. When you think of woman sleuths you can never really put a finger on what they are going to look like, how they might act or even how the crime will be solved. I think that is why I find women detectives to be intriguing. Instead of using ratiocination to solve the crime the women will use their intuition. There are many different types of female sleuths that have been read over the course of this semester including old spinsters such as Mrs. Marple, housewives such as Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale and there are also professionals just as Violet Strange is in “Missing Page 13.” There are several ways the woman sleuths diverge from their male counter parts such as emotion, gender roles and the ways the crime is solved. I am solely focusing on “A Jury of Her Peers” because I feel it best represents the way I perceive female sleuths. I would first like to discuss the emotions the women feel throughout the story “A Jury of Her Peers.” A murder has been committed in the Wright house so the male detectives spend time searching the bedroom and barn for clues to who murdered Mr. Wright. While the men are working diligently to solve this murder the women spend time observing the house. The emotions begin to flow once the women form a bond through discussion of Minnie Foster. As the women spend more and more time in Mrs. Wright’s house, they start to express sympathy for Mrs. Wright because of her isolated life. They notice her broken furniture, the rundown kitchen and her shabby clothes. As the women stood in the kitchen they noticed several things unfinished, which in turn made Mrs. Hale feel bad for Mrs. Wright because she never leaves anything unfinished. This is when Mrs. Hale says “What had interrupted Minnie Foster? Why had that work been left half done?” Mrs. Hale notices this because she can relate to Mrs. Wright because as a woman working on a farm she is constantly in the kitchen. These are things that the Male detectives ignored calling them “kitchen things.” The men are unable to relate to Mrs. Wright like the women can because they have never spent a day in the life of a woman. The men disregard women as the weaker sex and are only good in the domestic area, an area the men feel to be insignificant in this case. Not only can the women relate to the objects in the house but they can also relate to Mrs. Wright in general. They feel her pain living in a male dominated society and that’s why they conceal their knowledge of the bird and the messy stitching on the quilt. As I said earlier the women are considered weak and only good for house work but because they are women they are able to solve the case. The women want to protect Mrs. Wright because they know although she killed her husband he figuratively killed her on the inside. That was the type of murder that would have never gone to trial. These are aspects of this case that the male detectives would have never considered. They would have found the bird called it murder and locked up Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter’s emotion’s and intuition are strong enough to bring them to clues, clues that they weren’t even searching for. As the women were gathering Mrs. Wright’s belongings to bring to jail, they happen to come across a few clues that lead them to believe that Mrs. Wright is the murderer. By letting their emotions get the best of them Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale end up solving the case without even searching. The women are just doing what was asked of them without judging or assuming anything like the make detectives did. In conclusion, the women sleuth’s are different from their male counter parts because they are emotional, considerate and use their intuition. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are able to solve this case because they were observing instead of just seeing. I believe that Susan Glaspell wrote this because it shows that women are just as intelligent as men but use their intelligence in a different way. Mrs. Wright was subject to her environment and the women understood that.

Final Draft Before I even began reading “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” I wanted to better understand exactly what detective fiction entailed. I found several definitions but in general I found that detective fiction is a type of fiction where a detective or an ordinary person solves a crime that has been committed. For the time period in which this detective story was written, it exceeded my notion of what detective fiction should be. On the other hand, it is a detective fiction story with no real crime just an unfortunate event. So my assessment will explain why “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” exceeded my notion but also why I feel it could have had a better ending. The story was published in 1841 and during that time period crime scene investigators were non-existent and the type of technology we have now was not available. So for Dupin to be able to rely on logic and hard facts to solve this crime was extremely impressive. From the very first paragraph of the story the unnamed narrator is explaining that a man with superior analytical abilities enjoys exercising those talents. We will experience Dupin exercising those talents in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” The police are the exact opposite of Dupin, spending more time concentrating on the witnesses and the undistinguishable voice instead of the crime scene. Just as Dupin said on page 17, "You have observed nothing distinctive. Yet there //was// something to be observed." Once Dupin had the authorization to spend time analyzing the crime he noticed several clues that indicate the crime wasn’t committed by a human. Dupin noted the bruises on the neck of Camille and also Dupin stated, "The gold //was// abandoned” showing that robbery was not the motive for the murder (if you could even call it that). Edgar Allan Poe paved the way for other detective stories because he created a character, C. Auguste Dupin who was able to solve a crime that seemed simply unsolvable. This was a crime that even the police were unable to solve; not only did Dupin solve the crime he was able to explain all of the clues that brought him to the solution. Dupin even went into such detail to explain the hair that was found at the crime scene " You are aware of the great force in tearing thus from the head even twenty or thirty hairs together." As the ordinary person that I am, I would naturally assume that the hair came from one of the women, but not Dupin. Although the analysis and intuition that Dupin used to solve the case was very impressive, once I found out who killed Camille L’Espanaye and Madame L’ Espanaye my feelings changed about the story. Detective fiction stories include many different crimes but in this case no crime was committed; instead, it was a missing animal case. The Orangutan had no motive for killing the two women he just happened to escape. Poe took each step to create this detective fiction story but he forgot one important piece of this puzzle, the crime. That is the exact reason that I have mixed feelings about this story. If I were to write the ending of this story and wanted to keep the original plan Poe had created with the orangutan, I would have created a motive just as in "The Adventure of the Speckled Band." In conclusion, I feel that this story is full of suspense and plenty of twists and turns but without an actual human crime it leaves the reader with an empty feeling once the story ended. I definitely prefer “The Purloined Letter” over “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” because this story involved people and a motive for the crime. The character Dupin solved the “crime” using intuition and logic in both the stories except in “The Purloined Letter” I felt closure knowing there was a motive.  Stephanie Pajak Draft 1

Before I even began reading “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” I wanted to better understand exactly what detective fiction entailed. I found several definitions but in general I found that detective fiction is a type of fiction where a detective or an ordinary person solves a crime that has been committed. For the time period in which this detective story was written it exceeded my notion of what detective fiction should be. On the other hand, it is a detective fiction story with no real crime just an unfortunate event. So my assessment will explain why “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” exceeded my notion but also why I feel it could have had a better ending for a detective fiction story.

The story was published in 1841 and during that time period crime scene investigators were non-existent and the type of technology we have now was not available. So for Dupin to be able to rely on logic and hard facts to solve this crime it was extremely impressive. From the very first paragraph of the story the unnamed narrator explained that a man with superior analytical abilities enjoys exercising those talents. We will experience Dupin exercise those talents in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” The police are the exact opposite of Dupin. They never bothered to examine the crime scene instead they interviewed several witnesses and without any hard evidence arrested Le Bon. Whereas, once Dupin had authorization to spend time analyzing the crime he noticed several clues that the crime wasn’t committed by a human. Dupin noted the bruises on the neck of Camille and the fact that robbery was not the motive for the murder (if you could even call it that).

Edgar Allen Poe paved the way for other detective stories because he created a character, C. Auguste Dupin who was able to solve a crime that seemed merely unsolvable. This was a crime that even the police were unable to solve; not only did Dupin solve the crime he was able to explain all of the clues that brought him to the suspect. Although the analysis and intuition that Dupin used to solve the case was very impressive once I found out who killed Camille L’Espanaye and Madame L’ Espanaye my feelings changed about the story. Detective fiction stories include many different crimes but in this case no crime was committed instead it was a missing animal case. The Orangutan had no motive for killing the two women he just happened to escape and go insane. Poe took each step to create this detective fiction story but he forgot one important piece of this puzzle, the crime. That is the exact reason that I have mixed feelings about this story.

In conclusion, I feel that this story is full of suspense and plenty of twist and turns but without the true crime it leaves the reader with an empty ending. I definitely prefer “The Purloined Letter” over “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” because this story involved people and a motive for the crime. The character Dupin solved the “crime” using intuition and logic in both the stories except in “The Purloined Letter” you felt closure knowing there was a motive.