“You might expect a hunter searching through the jungle for some half-fabulous beast to look like that – before the kill.”
Pinkie’s main objective in this extract is to let Hale know that he only has a few hours to live so therefore intimidate him as much as possible; this builds a lot of tension for the reader. We also learn about Ida Arnold, a character that Greene introduces to us as a buxom female who is a main input to the narrative. At this point it is narrated as events appear to Hale; in other chapters there is no neutral narrative viewpoint. The tone of this passage is a very nervous one, as represented by hale throughout by using dark similes and metaphors.
Ida is presented to us as someone whose “hearty sensual confidence goes with a common humanist assumption that she knows what is best for others”. Hale realises when he sees Ida that she is able to save his life:
“ ‘What’ll you have’ he said approaching the big woman with starved gratitude.”
Greene is able to portray his characters by giving the reader very clear mental images. Throughout the novel, he uses descriptive language and especially in this chapter where it is so important that the reader is able to gain a clear image.
Ida is shown to be an almost motherly figure to Hale in this chapter, using her large figure as a protective one and using her experience to shelter Hale from what she thinks is sickness. Ida also seems to suffer from a kind of irony; when she might have unknowingly been able to save Hale’s life by not leaving him she went to “wash up and fix her face.” Later in the book we see the irony again when she was about to find out vital information from Cubitt involving Hale’s murder, and she again went to “wash up and fix her face.”
The character of Pinkie is known as ‘the boy’ in this chapter. This could be because of the possible insignificance to everyone else in this chapter or Greene wants to point out the image of Pinkie being so young, as a boy, early on in the novel so that we
can compare it with the image of an older man that we see ‘the boy’ trying to compete with. The boy is also analogous to the Grim Reaper, a good example of his personality “Spirit of hatred” predicting death.
The song that Ida sings in this extract is one that I think she is singing about herself, maybe even something she has predicted herself. It seems to the reader that she is talking about Hale’s death and the events afterwards – how she goes on a mission to find out who killed him, this is obviously a perplexing time for her,
“The expression of her features
Was more thoughtful than before.”
Hale related to the song as if he were “gazing at his own life”.
We can associate Hale to all the other tourists in Brighton because he has no knowledge that the gangster underworld exists up until he realises that Pinkie is aiming to kill him. All the visitors are there to have a holiday, undisturbed by any low-life member of an underworld gang such as Pinkie. We see the stark contrast between people who are happy with their lives – Ida, and the people who aren’t – Pinkie:
“Three old ladies went driving by in an open horse-drawn carriage: the gentle clatter faded like peace. That was how some people still lived”
Hence, this passage can be seen as elucidating many of Greene’s preoccupation in “Brighton Rock”; Pinkie’s paradoxical personality, Ida’s function as protector and Hale’s position as destined to death target of Pinkie’s hatred.
