General Themes Within A Wild Sheep Chase and A long Goodbye

 In reading Chandler's "The Long Goodbye" paired with "A Wild Sheep Chase", I found a few similarities in the main characters and certain concepts that changed my reading experience as I read. A similarity that was common in both Boku and Marlowe's personality was recklessness. Towards the beginning of The Long Goodbye, I often became frustrated with Marlowe's actions. His actions were so reckless in that he presented himself in such a rude, uncaring manner no matter who he was speaking to. This ended up being dangerous in many cases and led to fights and injury. In A Wid Sheep Chase, the recklessness that Boku showed was more along the lines of underestimating the situation he was in.

I felt like Boku had more of an excuse in terms of explaining his recklessness, in that there was clearly an aspect of the story that revolved around warped-reality. Many times throughout the story, Boku mentions how things seem less real to him and how he holds on to things like numbers to stay grounded. This factor makes explaining his attitude towards the sheep situation more palatable. However, Boku was very reckless in that knowing the power and the influence the secretary had, he just continued to ignore the reality of the situation and find the sheep at his own leisure. The sense of urgency only hit him towards the end and that was not even due to the consequences (in my opinion). When I read the part where Boku smashed the guitar in front of the sheep man, I immediately knew that Boku wasn't angry because he would be ruined if he didn't find the sheep, but because of the lack of control. The secretary, The Rat, and fate had been throwing Boku around for a loop, and he had not been able to retain any sort of control over the situation. He was always following leads and missing many details and frankly, without the help of the woman with the special ears, he wouldn't have gotten as far as he did.

One last similarity I saw in both stories between the characters was need. Both characters always seemed to have what they needed. This extends to food, money and connections that ultimately lead them towards their goals. Their attitudes towards money are also very similar in that they have a very nonchalant attitude towards it. This factor made some points in the story very interesting because the little details about food, coffee and long excerpts about history that seem, so random really bring the stories together.

After finishing The Long Goodbye, I noticed that I liked it more than A Wild Sheep Chase. I believe this is in part to the reality aspect of A Wild Sheep Chase. Chandler's story was outrageous at many points and fell into the dramatic category due to its noir nature, but was based in some sort of reality and was a straight shot towards a satisfying conclusion. For me, A Wild Sheep Chase was very chaotic and had me asking too many questions that didn't really contribute to the overall story. There were so many small details and on top of that, the reality was so in the air that I had trouble at times connecting with characters. I have not finished A Wild Sheep Chase, so my opinion may change, but for now this is my opinion.

Ariel