Revised Analytical Essay:
The expository extract from “The Long Goodbye” by Raymond Chandler thrusts the reader into a world characterized by cold materialistic concerns, superficial love, and reckless decadence. It is told in first person retrospective by an unnamed narrator recounting his first encounter with Terry Lennox, who is drunk in the parking lot of The Dancers nightclub. In the climactic moment of the scene, Terry Lennox is abandoned by his girlfriend the as well as the attendant when they learn of his lack of wealth, yet he is assisted by the narrator. The narrator’s sardonic and blunt tone towards the corrupting influence of the wealth on the upper echelons of American society establishes his firm sense of morality marked by a dry humour, in stark contrast to the heartless, duplicitous world he is in.
The narrator opens the passage with an unflattering, almost cruelly cynical, description of the drunk Lennox. His “Rolls Royce Silver Wraith” is a clear status symbol with its flashy ostentatiousness, juxtaposed with his dissipated drunkenness, as the narrator described with dry humour how his “left foot was still dangling outside [the car], as if he had forgotten he had one.” Perhaps this description of his physical vulnerability in his current position foreshadows his marginalization and eschewal by the people around him that happens thereafter, when he reveals his actual financial situation. The narrator continues with describing Lennox’s drunken appearance in a lightly mocking voice while also revealing a light scorn of society when he described how he “looked like any other nice young guy in a dinner jacket who had been spending too much money in a joint that exists for that purpose and for no other.” In addition to suggesting the corrupting and wasteful influence of money, Chandler firmly establishes a strong narrator who is evidently knowledgeable and disdainful regarding this stratum of society. His experience has led him to adopt a voice betraying a certain resigned acceptance tempered with a sarcasm.
The narrator’s description of the Lennox’s girlfriend exemplifies the pretentious and ruthless materialism which is an archetypical portrayal of the upper classes. Her beautiful and vividly colored hair as, “a lovely shade of dark red,” and the “blue mink” over her shoulders delineates a character with an obvious care for exterior appearances and has a certain amount of money. However, Chandler gradually reveals that her beauty is, ironically, a fake facade, as her initial “distant smile,” subtly implies a cool emotional detachment and lack of real love or feeling for Lennox. She is apparently protective of Lennox, as when she gave the attendant “a look which ought to have stuck at least four inches out of his back”, when he threatened to let Lennox fall out of the car, a hyperbolized metaphor which exemplifies the woman’s dominant personality and the narrator’s laconic but humorous perceptiveness. Yet her attitude is subsequently shown to be driven by an ulterior motive for money and powerful connections. When she suggested they “run up the coast to Montecito” for a “dance around the pool”, Chandler leverages on the historic associations with wealth and fame that the Montecito county in California is known for, and further delineates exhibits the hedonistic lifestyle of partying and socializing of the wealthy.
Lennox’s girlfriend and the attendant promptly abandons him in the climactic moment of the passage when they realize he is, in actuality, “in a low income bracket”, an action in marked contrast with the narrator, who steps in to assist him. The girl’s shift in tone is brusque, as the narrator sardonically put in the metaphor, “A slice of spumoni wouldn’t have melted on her now.” Here, the connotations with fine dining with this Italian dessert continue to evoke the icy influence of her affluence. Even as the attendant releases the door and Lennox “promptly slid off the seat and landed on the blacktop on the seat of his pants”, the girl behaves with callous indifference. She drops to a lower register, harshly insulting Lennox by saying, “He gets so goddam English when he’s loaded.” Her use of profane language is ironic given her outward prettiness and previous civility, which Chandler uses to satirize the cold heartlessness which materialism engenders. The word “English” used in derogatory manner to suggest his foreignness and alienation, manifestly exhibiting how money as the primary determinant of relationships in this harsh world. Ultimately, despite Lennox’s drunken helplessness, Chandler stirs the reader’s sympathies about his vulnerability and powerlessness in the face of these cruel truths, and suggests that it actually is the cold-hearted wealthy that deserve our contempt.
By firmly establishing a world of transactional relationships marked by an overt materialism, Chandler incisively satirizes the corrupting influence of wealth on the American upper classes. He subverts our notion of what it means to live the American Dream when even the drunken and helpless Terry Lennox seems to be more genuine and earnest than his rich girlfriend. The narrator’s frank and forthright tone marked by a degree of humour gives life to the voice of Chandler, demonstrating that a society which elevates money is a society that banishes the common decencies of kindness and sincerity.
Chandler, Raymond. The Long Goodbye. 1953.