Author: saravechinski

I was not certain of many facts while reading Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler, but I was always certain of the location. Chandler uses the space of Los Angeles extensively, from the hills to the ocean, and name drops just about every city surrounding it, including America’s finest city and my home, San Diego. As someone who knows all of the mentioned locations and has been to several of them, I was surprised at how I still felt uncertain and unsafe in the space. Chandler uses the darkness of Los Angeles to implement the darkness of the noir theme into the novel. He creates such vivid scenes of despair and descent into darkness that even places I had positive associations with became tainted by noir. Ventura, where my boyfriend’s grandparents own avocado and lemon orchards and cousins are always around to swim with, now is the line where the police will catch a murder if he makes a run north. The Pacific Ocean, where I surf and swim with sharks, now hides gambling ships, murders, and anyone else trying to hide secrets. San Diego, my home and the city I know like the back of my hand, (presumably) hides an elusive and powerful man. The novel imbeds my home with secrets and uncertainty, proving no one and nothing is safe from the darkness, even places bright during the day can change with the setting sun. This reality has helped me grasp noir and has helped me realize the mindset of the writers at the time. Chandler lived in Los Angeles, but he could still write it as this dark and scary place where corruption and murder infect every aspect. Even he could see his home as a place filled with darkness, and that cynicism, which has been difficult to grasp, became clear in the new telling of Los Angeles.

The female characters in Raymond Chandler’s Farewell, My Lovely challenge the role of innocence placed on them, instead causing conflict in their roles that must eventually bridge over to conflict with the men of the story. The first woman in the novel, Velma, worked in a bar with implications of prostitution and currently has a criminal looking for her. These glimpses into her character portray her as an imperfect victim, since she engages in a profession that society looks down upon. Even the reveal of her death, which comes from another conflicted female character, Mrs. Florian, does not fix her image and leaves readers wondering about her true involvement with Malloy. Mrs. Florian actively creates conflict by hiding a picture of Velma and revealing her death. Besides raging alcoholism, Mrs. Florian clearly has issues she refuses to address and provides no further clues to Marlowe, which means the mystery surrounding Velma remains unsolved and a criminal remains at large. Anne has layers that slowly peel back, however due to her known lying, readers find it difficult to trust her. She possesses some sway within her world as seen in her conversation with the police, but she steals and lies and continues to complicate matters.
Until now, the violence seen directly by readers has involved men physically assaulting other men or women complicating matters, particularly surrounding the other women characters. However, these two spheres will have to bridge in order to solve the mystery of what happened to Velma. Velma and Malloy must connect in order to clarify the mystery surrounding their past and their future. Before the story ends violence and conflict will affect men and women simultaneously, equalizing them in some respects. The impure and troublesome roles women take on within Farewell, My Lovely counter the damsel in distress expectation and offer women some agency, which will only increase from this time period onwards.