42 pages • 1 hour read
Raymond ChandlerTrouble Is My Business
Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1934A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Greed
Marlowe’s work as a private detective brings him into daily contact with the worst side of human nature. The quality that he encounters most frequently is greed, and most of the stories in this collection depict murderers who are driven by this deadly sin. In “Trouble Is My Business,” Jeeter is already a millionaire who brags that he survived the Great Depression without losing a nickel. Despite his wealth, the old man covets the inheritance intended for his adopted son and concocts a scheme to have his chauffeur murder the youngster and blame it on a gold-digging girlfriend.
In “Finger Man,” Frank Dorr is so greedy that he has a councilman murdered because the latter threatens to end Dorr’s lucrative city contracts. Lou Harger loses his casino because he is unwilling to pay exorbitant bribes to stay open, but Canales is willing to feed the greed of local officials and prospers. By the end of the story, even Canales finds there’s a limit to how much corruption he will stand in the name of good business. Just before he kills Dorr, he says, “I have been bled by your organization for a long time. But this is something else again […] I am wanted for the murder of this Harger […] That is just a little too much fix” (112).
“Goldfish” depicts a number of unsavory characters who will go to great lengths to satisfy their greed. Peeler Mardo is a cocaine addict willing to betray a former cellmate to receive a finder’s fee for the valuable Leander pearls. His buddy, Sunset, would be willing to murder for the same objects. Carol Donovan and Rush Madder torture Peeler to death for the location of the pearls, and Carol later shoots Sunset to eliminate the competition. The thief who initially stole the pearls resorts to stitching them inside the bellies of two exotic fish. His wife later tries to con Marlowe into giving her the pearls by pretending that they’re fake.
Greed of a different sort features in “Red Wind.” Copernik is the quintessential dirty cop, but he is greedy for glory. He takes full credit for collaring Al Tessilore by cutting his partner out of the case. Later, Copernik’s fear of losing his newfound fame tempts him to shoot Marlowe to protect his cover. Greed also motivates Waldo’s behavior when he perpetrates a dual blackmail scheme on the Barsaly couple. Frank Barsaly’s go-between is also murdered when greed gets the better of him.
All these characters show that greed doesn’t pay. While the substance and tone of the stories concentrate on unsavory aspects of life, none of the characters with dark motives succeed. While no character presents an entirely altruistic attitude, there is a clear line between those with ethically acceptable motives and those without. In this way, readers will feel satisfied that justice can be served even in a world without firm moral boundaries.
The Quest for Truth
While the actions of the murderers and various criminals in the four stories can all be attributed to the simple motive of greed, Marlowe’s motivation for apprehending them is equally simple. He seeks to find out the truth at all costs. The task the P.I. sets himself is no mean feat to accomplish. Over the course of the stories, he is drugged, gets knocked unconscious numerous times, and is repeatedly threatened at gunpoint. In one instance, he’s actually shot in the ribs. Yet, he persists in his quest anyway. Marlowe is determined to ferret out the real facts in a world that seems determined to keep them from him.
Los Angeles in the 1930s possesses a corrupt municipal government that allows highly placed malefactors to buy their way out of trouble. This is the status quo in Marlowe’s world. Given the odds stacked against him, the detective’s dogged search for answers achieves heroic proportions. He cannot automatically assume that the court system or law enforcement will do their jobs. More often than not, Marlowe is forced into a moral twilight to accomplish his mission.
In “Trouble Is My Business,” he can only implicate Jeeter indirectly for the murder of his stepson. Marlowe must be content with an outcome in which the old man suffers a debilitating stroke rather than the gas chamber. Marlowe also can only hold George accountable for one murder rather than the three he actually committed. The detective must settle for having the right man locked up, even if not for all the right reasons.
In “Red Wind,” Marlowe must allow dirty cop Copernik to receive praise for falsely capturing a criminal. Marlowe also gives the police credit for solving two murders for which he, himself, collected all the evidence. Justice is still served in that the proper culprits are punished. Clearly, Marlowe isn’t in the detective business for the glory. If self-effacement serves the needs of truth, he is willing to hide in the shadows while others claim the spotlight.
Personal Integrity
Given the corrupt environment in which Marlowe operates, as well as the unsavory characters he encounters, he exhibits a remarkable code of ethics. While the P.I. rarely plays by the book in solving his cases, he serves justice, nonetheless. His internal moral compass makes it possible for him to distinguish between people who are corrupt and those who are sincere. In “Trouble Is My Business,” Jeeter does everything in his power to blame Harriett Huntress and Marty Estel for his stepson’s murder. Superficially, these two individuals make easy targets. One is a fortune hunter, and the other is a professional gambler. In contrast, Jeeter occupies a respectable position in business and society. Nevertheless, Marlowe is able to separate the criminal Jeeter from his innocent targets and places blame accordingly.
In “Finger Man,” Marlowe becomes a target by testifying before a Grand Jury about a murder he witnessed. He could easily avoid danger by keeping quiet about the crime, but he doesn’t. Later, he is offered Lou’s casino winnings if he will enable Dorr to escape prosecution for the murder. Marlowe’s own financial situation would be improved immensely by taking the bribe, but he refuses. His code of ethics requires that he find out who killed his friend and bring that murderer to justice.
In “Goldfish,” Marlowe ensures that the finder’s fee is evenly divided between himself and his friend Kathy. He doesn’t try to cut her out of the deal even though he incurs most of the risk in retrieving the Leander pearls.
The best example of Marlowe’s ethical behavior is the way he treats Lola Barsaly in “Red Wind.” He quickly perceives that she’s a woman in trouble rather than a murderer or con artist. Even though she isn’t his client, he tries to keep her from being implicated in Waldo’s murder. When Lola saves the P.I.’s life, his integrity demands that he offer her his services for free. Marlowe doesn’t simply protect Lola from a murder charge; he also protects her emotionally on two separate occasions. First, he knows Lola’s husband is having an affair but refuses to hurt her by revealing the truth. Second, Marlowe realizes that Lola’s pearl necklace is a fake, but he destroys it rather than allow her to discover that her dead lover lied to her about the value of the gift. Marlowe wants to preserve Lola’s belief in true love, even though it’s nothing more than an illusion.
Through Marlowe’s careful treatment of Lola’s innocence, readers can believe that perhaps there are extremely rare people with pure motives, but an awareness that the rest of the world is impure will tarnish them. Such “golden girls” (another archetypical character and foil to the femme fatale) should be protected even at the expense of the truth.
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By Raymond Chandler
