Blog Entry # 8

First Assignment: Option one

Jim and Nick are the protagonists on the neo noir short stories “The Kidnapper Bell” and “The City of Commerce”. Both men possess the quality of a troubled man and they found themselves in a distorted situation. Jim got involve on a kidnapping, see two dead people and save a girl who escape from him and all because of a girl, on the other hand Nick find himself in the arms of Russian gangs who wants their money back and the trouble is all because of his gambling problems. Both characters are very aware of the situation and they have the chance to run away from it as soon as the trouble started but they didn’t, instead they keep moving forward and getting along with the flow of the dark world they already in,. They create their own problems, and they allow themselves to be drag in the criminal behavior. Just like Jim who can just call 911 about the dead body he found under the bridge and Nick who can turn around and go home after his first win at the casino. These two protagonists are also driven by a woman, Jim’s date is consider as a femme fatale and Karen I would say is the good girl one. If only Jim didn’t listen to her and Nick did the opposite, it would be a whole different story, but once again it’s another example of protagonists who let other character manipulate them.

Second Assignment:

I will choose “The Girl Who Kissed Barnaby Jones” as the best example of Noir. The story has the two main characters of Noir, which are the protagonist and femme fatale.  Tate is the protagonist who falls under the spell of the gorgeous woman name Cherrie-the femme fatale. Tate think that he would hit the third base with Cherrie but little did he knows she wants his help to cover up a crime , in the end Cherrie is trying to kill him for insisting to be her accomplice. I really like reading this story. I picture everything in my head, the Burberry shop they work at, Tate, Gary’s mansion, the sexuality and the actions. I was smiling the whole time especially at the part where Cherrie is holding a gun and trying to control the situation, a man who thought he reach the heaven (sex) is now in hell and all helpless. Cherrie’s character possess a strong quality of a femme fatale, one who uses her sexuality to seduce her pray is exactly what she does with Tate and all other people around her. She’s also a psycho in the head and she reminds of Phyllis when she pulls that trigger in attempt to kill Tate. All in all it was a good read, there’s the element of crime, the sense of danger, sexuality, the setting and the characters of noir.

            The one that would be hard to classify as Noir is “Kinship” I like the main idea of the story, it revolves around family, not mentioning that I am very familiar of the places and how it is over there on the said country. There is gangs involve and the idea of revenge but I kind of thought that it is a little more of a drama, I feel bad/sad towards Emerson and the part where Tomas describe his relationship with Emerson is a bit dramatic for a Noir. How he used to be a gang banger and now he serve the church and help troubled kids overcome life’s hardship. I also thought that it was the first time that a religion is involve or the protagonist is a religious person and talks about God so much. Usually whenever I read or watch noir story I automatically feel the sense of danger or the thrill but not on this story, I sympathize more on Emerson and his situation. There’s a lot of emotions involve and it has the same response coming from me as a reader, I got emotional and thought how great it would be to have an uncle like Tomas. There some parts where I feel it is noir, the scene where he’s looking for his ice peak and the ending where he finally stuck him, other than that it is an action but more of a drama kind of story.