Compare and contrast the Murders in The Rue Morgue and The Big Sleep.

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Compare and contrast the Murders in The Rue Morgue and The Big Sleep

The extract taken from Murders in The Rue Morgue is from when Dupin is going over the police investigations of the murders and showing the narrator that there is more to the murders than the police have found e.g. the police believe there is a motive yet nothing had been taken from the house.

Although the story is written in the first person narrative this extract is written as direct speech.  Through this direct speech, Dupin shows his attitude to the police when he says ‘The conclusion here is absurd,’ as this shows he is undermining the conclusions of the police.  

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Rhetorical questions such as  ‘…why did he not take the best…’ involve the reader and make them think about possible answers to Dupin’s questions.  It also makes you think along the same lines as Dupin.

The Big Sleep extract shows Marlowe questioning Brody about his involvement with Geiger.  The Big Sleep is written in the first person narrative, as is The Murders in The Rue Morgue.  In this extract this helps show Brody’s attitude to Marlowe (e.g. ‘Brody was breathing hard,’ shows Brody is scared of Marlowe.)  This extract also shows direct speech as in the extract in ...

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