little scarlet essay

Andrew KnoxStudies in the Novel – Analytical EssayMay 18, 2010

Good Cop, Black Cop:

Comparing Easy Rawlins with the Standard Gumshoe Detective Archetype.

Midnight. A dark, littered alleyway in any town in America. A desperate man, with a desperate

knife at the throat of a lovely girl. Fear in their eyes, eyes pointed at our hero... a stoic, tall, ruggedly

handsome figure with a .38 special in his right hand. His face shows nothing but a steel resolve to get

his man. A standoff, the wind blows a crumpled up newspaper through the no-man's-land. The time

for talking has passed, someone isn't walking away from this alive. Simultaneously, the glint of each

others eyes cues the action. The woman gasps and struggles as the knife gets closer to her neck, the

detective takes calm and careful aim. A bang, a scream and a thud. The girl rushes to the arms of the

gumshoe. The criminal is retired, and the couple plans their honeymoon.

A scene like the one above illustrates the climax of a stereotypical American private detective

story, or, at least, the series of images conjured up in the imagination when the phrases detective,

private investigator, private eye, gumshoe, hard-boiled, femme fatale, pulp stories or film noir are

released into the air of a room. The American private eye archetype is a romantic figure in the popular

consciousness, one on par with the Wild West Sheriff, a man of conviction, action and justice. The

universal sense of alternative justice creates the role of the detective, who else do call when the

conventional authorities fail to resolve an incident? The detective can produce results superior to those

of the police since his procedures are often controversial, unethical or even downright illegal. The

client, assured that the detective will find the ends by any means necessary, gladly pays expenses.

Today, the detective genre is known best for the novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell

Hammett, as well as film noir works starring Humphrey Bogart and Marlene Dietrich, but it's roots

stretch farther than the 20th century. The detective archetype has its origins in Europe in the early

1800's, where growing urban centers experience unprecedented rises in both crime and literacy rates.

These two factors created a market for “crime fiction,” a genre considered sensationalist and low-brow,

but also intriguing and exciting1. Crime stories began to catch on in the United States when Allan

Pinkerton, a real life detective who had founded the famous Pinkerton National Detective Agency and

thwarted an assassination attempt on President Lincoln, published the non-fiction The Expressman And

The Detective. Pinkerton's book established two precedents for the American crime fiction genre: a

1 Marling, “Overview”

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protagonist who was “an extra-legal agent who explores a lawless world” and a distinctive writing style

that was “understated... employing objective descriptions and short, clear sentences”2.

America seems to have an obsession with idolizing the everyman hero; the ordinary man of

ordinary beginnings who rises to meet an extraordinary challenge. With the protagonist being so

“average,” it seems obvious that the target audience should be average, too. Rising literacy and

disposable income led to the development of “dime novels,” paperback books made with low-grade

yellowish wood pulp paper that retailed for ten cents3. Dime novels (also called “yellowbacks” and

“pulp fiction”) in the 1860's were predominately set in the Wild West, and were often accused of

encouraging juvenile delinquency.

The 1920's was the dawn of the modern detective genre: America was a world power, more

people lived in cities than in the countryside, the Wild West was exhausted, and pulp fictions began

focusing on the urban version of the sheriff, the detective4. The 1920's was a time when America was

coming into it's own mold. Many parts of American culture began to diverge from their European roots

to become uniquely American. Literature scholar T.J. Binyon noticed the divergence of the American

and European detective models:

Early in the 1920's a new type of fictional detective came into being in the United States. Whereas

the conventional private detective always has literary precedents, going back to Sherlock Holmes, and

through him, to Dupin, even if the connection is attenuated at times, the new type, variously called private

investigator, private eye, or...hard-boiled dick, is the product of American reality. Sometimes he belongs to a

detective agency...sometimes he is a lone individual, a modern knight, defending the hapless and oppressed.

But in both cases the gangsters, the violence and the gun-play reflect American life during and after

Prohibition. 5

Binyon's next sentence struck me as extremely important: “though similar superficially, the

private detective and the private eye are radically opposed to one another”6. As the private eye was a

fundamental change from the conventional fictional detective, so was Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, the hero

of Walter Mosley's Little Scarlet, a departure from the conventional hard-boiled dick. While private

2 Marling, “Overview”3 Marling, “Overview”4 Marling, “Overview”5 Binyon, qtd. in Smith6 Binyon, qtd. in Smith

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eye fiction liberated the conduct of the characters, there was still the race boundary: there were no

black characters that were more substantive than another minstrel caricature. While inhabiting separate

worlds, Easy is still within the domain of the private eye within the domain of the conventional

detective, new, but still derivative. Now, with these three domains defined, the following pages will

compare and contrast the actions, decisions and values of the two archetypes and Mr. Rawlins.

The most important part of a mystery story is, obviously, the mystery. The type of mystery that

happens in Little Scarlet is called a “whodunnit.” A whodunnit is merely a murder with an unknown

culprit. While the question is simple enough, finding the answer will be difficult, time consuming and

possibly deadly. In Little Scarlet, Easy hunts for the killer of Nola Payne, a young, red-haired black

woman who saved an unknown white man during the Watts riots. While this white man is Easy's only

lead on the case, the police, in the interest of political expediency, imply they would prefer he find a

different perpetrator:

On the second day of the riots we had a report that a white man was dragged from his car down on

Grape Street. He was harassed and beaten but finally managed to escape. No one has heard about him since.

Under any other circumstance we could ignore the report. Maybe the man got away and went home. But a

story about a black woman being murdered by a white man across the street from where a white man fled

could cause rumors that might flare up into something ugly. 7

From this point on, Easy struggles with the law, and his feelings about playing ball with them.

Empowered by a letter from Deputy Police Commissioner Gerald Jordan giving him legal immunity

throughout the investigation, Easy does their dirty work. Private eye fiction commonly pits the

detective against the authorities, as opposed to conventional mystery fiction where the detective and the

police have a cooperative relationship. Also, in private eye fiction, the police are often corrupt and

accepting of bribes, whereas conventional mystery fiction policemen are honest and trustworthy8. The

police corruption of Little Scarlet is the overt racism of multiple police officers against Easy. There are

several points in the book where Easy realizes the only thing preventing his head from getting bashed

in is the presence of the commanding officer: “there I was... with Captain Fleck staring death down on

my head... “Sit down, Lee,” the tall white man said... He faltered and I smiled. If we were alone he

would have drawn his pistol, I'm sure. But all he could do was obey his master's call”9. Easy was so

7 Mosley 258 Binyon, qtd. in Smith9 Mosley 22

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used to the police abusing him and his community that he didn't recognize police diplomacy when it

came to him. Upon first meeting him, Detective Suggs offered a handshake and Easy was blown away:

“I looked at [his hand]. Not many policemen had offered to shake hands with me. Outstretched hands

of the law held wooden batons and pistols, handcuffs and warrants but rarely a welcome and never an

offer of equality.10”

The 1960's were the most tumultuous decade ever in the course of American race relations. It

was the last decade where blatant racism was socially acceptable, as well as the first where standing up

to racism was acceptable. Easy has led a life of tolerating prejudice, and he just can't take it anymore.

The fact that the police need his help emboldens him to mock and insult them freely for the first time in

his life. Nevertheless, his new-found authority is not universally recognized by white society, with an

example being the belligerent neighbor of Jocelyn Osterberg, who intended to either “get his gun or

call the police”11.

Danger being part of the job, a detective has to be both quick-witted and quick-footed, tough

and diplomatic, to survive. Easy displays these traits with his fighting prowess (defeats men his size

easily and ties with the much larger Harold Brown) and his agile, improvisatory mind. His physical

and mental toughness serves him well throughout the novel, variously granting him access to restricted

areas, extracting information from witnesses, negotiating sticky situations and helping him survive

multiple bullet wounds. Several lines from Norman Mailer's essay, “The White Negro,” while written

with Beatniks in mind, reminded me of the archetypical detective in general, and Easy in particular:

Any Negro who wishes to live must live with danger from his first day, and no experience can ever

be casual to him, no Negro can saunter down a street with any real certainty that violence will not visit him on

his walk... So there was a new breed of adventurers, urban adventurers who drifted out at night looking for

action with a black man's code to fit their facts. The hipster had absorbed the existentialist synapses of the

Negro, and for practical purposes could be considered a white Negro12.

In A Reader's Guide To Private Eye Novels, the author proposes three criteria (called theorems)

for unifying the private eye genre, the idea being, if a book meets these three criteria, it is a private eye

book. Each theorem has several corollaries for dealing with any contingencies that arise to challenge

the theorem. I decided to put this unified theory of crime fiction to the test with Little Scarlet:

10 Mosley 911 Mosley 25712 Norman Mailer, qtd. in Charters 586-87

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“Theorem #1: The detective must have a license to practice as a private eye.”13 Easy does not

have a license, but this inconsistency is resolved by the second corollary, “the detective is

prevented from applying for a license.14” Easy is not allowed to get a license since he is black

and the white establishment thinks him incapable for that. Incapable until he solves the case, at

least. At the end of the story, Jordan rewards him whether he likes it or not: “I don't hate you,

Rawlins. I like you. I like you so much that I recommended to the chief that we give you an

investigator's license. So the next time you're out there hustling, nobody will be able to say you

have no right to be there.15” This affirmation of his humanity by a high-ranking official may be

the most important event in Easy's life. He can now practice his profession legally.

“Theorem #2: The detective collects a fee.16” The book does not meet this one literally. Easy

harshly rejects an offer for payment when the case is presented to him. He does take a

figurative fee, he earns their respect. No, not earn, Easy takes their respect. In the beginning,

they try to use him as a pawn in their political game, but he won't play by their rules, stunning

them with his intellect:

“I'm Captain Fleck,” the bald cop said. “And I asked you a question.”

“No, sir, Captain, you did not. You said the word ' investigate' in an interrogative tone. But tone

alone does not a question make.”17

He denies the fee to make an important point, he can't just be bought, he isn't anybody's slave. At the

end, when they give him the license, it is the only token of respect they can give.

“Theorem #3: The detective must carry on in the traditions of the sub-genre of the P. I.18” Easy

meets both corollaries for this one, “the detective must have some type of investigative

experience” and “the detective must maintain a method of communication that allows clients to

find his/her services.19” The book implies that Easy has been doing odd jobs for the community

in his spare time since he came back from World War II. Former clients turned friends include

Theodore Steinman20, the cobbler, Musa Tanous, a man Easy proved innocent of murdering his

13 Niebuhr, qtd. in Smith14 Niebuhr, qtd. in Smith15 Mosley 322-2316 Niebuhr, qtd. in Smith17 Mosley 2018 Niebuhr, qtd. in Smith19 Niebuhr, qtd. in Smith20 Mosley 290

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wife, and Albert, the restauranteur who lets Easy eat free of charge21. Easy is easily accessible

since he has an office and a telephone. Even when he is out and about, the police seem to have

no trouble finding him.

A detective would be more of a thug than a modern honorable knight if he didn't have a strong

set of morals and ethics guiding his actions. This set of morals is called the detective code. While the

code varies from one detective to another, five general rules are basically standard. The first rule is

dedication to the client, or faithfully attempting to solve the case 22. While Easy holds no love for his

client, the LAPD, he feels a familial connection to Little Scarlet and Aunt Geneva and a sense of

responsibility to his community to find the killer:

“Are you related to those poor women?” she asked.

“Yes I am,” I said. And I didn't feel that I was lying. Over the past few days, I came to feel a new

connection between myself and the people caught up in the throes of violence. It was as if I had adopted Nola

Payne as my blood sister. 23

The second rule of the code states that the detective should be “economical, if not thrifty, in his

expenses and personal habits”24. This one was difficult to pin to Easy. He didn't actively spend and

waste money throughout the book, but he made several decisions that some would call financially

irresponsible. While these were conscientious decisions, he could have done well with the money. For

instance, when first discussing the case with the police, he chooses his dignity over being an Uncle

Tom; saying to Deputy Commissioner Jordan in no uncertain terms, “'I don't want no fee whatsoever' I

said. 'I'll do this thing, but not for you. I'll do it for the people I care about'”25. Near the end, he gives

away the hefty sum Mouse had given him to Juanda, as well as a gift ring she had given him.

Returning the ring signified the end of their romantic potential and the monetary gift was a consolation

prize to begin a new life with. This transaction was a translation of their relationship from flirtatious to

platonic.

Easy follows the third rule, loyalty to the profession, in two ways. One is his loyalty to

Raymond/Mouse. Mouse is essentially his former partner, and as such, they lend each other their

21 Mosley 14722 Marling, “Detective Code”23 Mosley 3624 Marling, “Detective Code”25 Mosley 31

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services in times of need. Mouse is the brawn while Easy is the brains. This propensity to teamwork

shows when Easy misuses the note from Jordan to save Mouse and his crony, Hauser, from certain

incarceration26. Mouse returns the favor by going along with Easy to what is believed to be the final

confrontation with the killer, Harold27.

The other sign of loyalty to the profession is how Easy develops respect and a friendship with

Detective Melvin Suggs. Their relationship could have easily been hampered by racial boundaries, as

“he was a cop by trade and I was a criminal by color,28” but they managed to get past that through their

shared desire to find the killer. While Easy does not hold an investigator's license, or even claim to be a

detective for hire per se (the sign on his door says “Research and Delivery”), he and Suggs treat each

other as peers. Suggs is the only white man, and certainly the only cop, that Easy respects.

Despite Suggs' relative tolerance, Easy doesn't want to surrender any of his new found racial

equality, so he thinks of the entire thing in power plays. When Suggs suggests he come down to the

station with some evidence, Easy flips the script, demanding that Suggs come to him:

“I need to speak with you, Detective.”

“You got something?”

“Enough to talk about.”

“Bring it in,” he said.

“No. Let's meet. At my office. I'll be there by nine.”

I hung up after that. I couldn't help it. The letter in my pocket gave me true power for the first

time in my life. I didn't have to answer to Suggs but I wanted even more. I wanted him to answer to me.29

Suggs either doesn't recognize Easy's attempts to take the dominant role in their relationship, or

doesn't care. He brings coffee and doughnuts, a move which astounds Easy:

Another seminal moment in my life that I associated with the riots: a cop, a city official, bringing me coffee

and cake. If I had gone down to the neighborhood barbershop and told the men that tale, they would have

laughed me into the street.

Easy and Suggs are effectively partners and share a special relationship that Easy would never

have with another cop. This partnership is made somewhat official when Deputy Commissioner Jordan

demands results quick, “you have forty-eight hours. Either you have a killer in a cell by then or I will

26 Mosley 10527 Mosley 31628 Mosley 24829 Mosley 210

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have your ass. Both of you”30. The fact that the police chief holds them mutually responsible

reinforces their equality. In the tradition of the brotherhood of police, Suggs respects Easy enough to

cover up for any possible vigilante action he undertakes:

“I'm surprised you brought me this [picture],” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“I figured you would go after this clown yourself. I was ready to cover you if he showed up dead

after havin' fallen on a bullet or some shit like that.”

I laughed then. My head bowed in mirth and I had to hold on so as not to fall off my stool. It

wasn't the joke but the notion that a white cop would let me do my business without interference or

condescension tickled me. It was as if I'd died and gone to another man's heaven. This man whose soul I

inhabited had been white, and his heaven was filled with ordinary things that were like magic to me...

I felt the weight of Melvin Suggs's hand on my shoulder. Another friendly gesture.

The police detective stood up and threw a dollar bill on the counter.

“Have some eggs, Rawlins,” he said. “You look like shit.” 31

The fourth rule of the code is to (partially) cooperate with the police32. Easy does not want to

help the police, he merely cooperates due to their threats. His disdain for the police is directed at the

foot-soldiers and the brass, but he treats his main liaison, Detective Suggs, better. Detective Suggs fills

three roles in the classic private eye structure, he is the police, the client and the partner. Detective

Suggs, as the client, is the only cop that Easy discusses pertinent details of the case with, and even then,

he holds back. Easy does not share every detail because he believes the higher-ups will jump to rash

conclusions and hinder the investigation somehow. Since Suggs is charged with solving the case and

has access to police resources such as case files, he furnishes his partner with helpful information and

helps substantiate Easy's theories about the suspect's identity. Suggs works tirelessly to find a pattern

in the killings:

“While I've been waiting for you to come up with something,” [Suggs] said, “I've been taking up my time

looking at the files of the open homicide cases of women in the neighborhood. At first I only went back one

year but now I'm up to seven...”

It had only been a couple of days. That kind of work would have meant he was on the job almost around the

clock.

“... and I found something disturbing... thirty-seven unsolved homicides of women under forty. Most of

30 Mosley 24731 Mosley 288-8932 Marling, “Detective Code”

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them were in relationships with violent men. But six were not and four more were involved with men who

had no history of violence. Your Jackie Jay [murdered wife of Musa Tanous] was one of those.” 33

The fifth and final rule of the detective's code is to remain anonymous but familiar34. A

successful detective is at the margins of the community but still inside it, nobody really knows who he

is or what he is doing but he fits in. With the disguise of anonymity, the detective can pretend to be

anybody the witness would be willing to give information to. Multiple times throughout the novel,

Easy will invent a fake name on the fly, and a cover story for why they should trust him, be it a second

cousin of the suspect or a down and out bum. His stories seem to work better within his own

community, when he goes asking for answers in the white neighborhoods, some people are predisposed

to hate him before he opens his mouth35.

Of course, this code of chivalry would have to be accompanied by a woman in distress, the

femme fatale archetype. A femme fatale would be a beautiful woman, sometimes beginning as a client,

sometimes ending as the killer, almost always ending up as the detective's lover, this girl would get him

into a dangerous situation somewhere36. This archetype is widely considered dated and sexist, so it's

not too surprising that a newer book like Little Scarlet wouldn't have a direct comparison37. The closest

character to a femme fatale in the book is Juanda, because, although she is only an ancillary witness

and dead end, she represents the temptation to Easy to give up the life he has built and be young again.

Although their relationship is mostly flirtatious, and never moves past a harmless kiss38, Easy is

frightened by the idea of an affair with this much younger woman destroying the family life he has

established in the suburbs.

That's right, unlike most detectives, Easy is the father of a scrappy young family. He has an all-

weather girlfriend unafraid of Easy's adventures in the storms of conflict; her name is Bonnie39. Easy

and Bonnie are the parents of adopted children, Jesus and Feather. Jesus was a Mexican orphan who

wanted to build a professional sailboat instead of graduate from high school. Feather is Easy's Baby

Girl, and he dotes on her40. For the most part, Easy's family life is completely removed from the

33 Mosley 167-6834 Marling, “Detective Code”35 Mosley 25736 Marling, “Femme Fatales”37 Johnston38 Mosley 14939 Mosley 4240 Mosley 44

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physical universe of the murder mystery thriller. It exists as his ultimate safe haven from fear and

violence, only being informed of outside dangers invading the peace via telephone calls.

Detective stories originally had appeal because they were unique, but the mass production of

pulps and the blending of the popular culture with the culture of violence led to the Detective being a

stereotype, more specifically, an archetype. It has become such a general literary commodity that I felt

comfortable defining my assembled definition of the detective archetype against a solid, and genre-

bending hero. Easy Rawlins displays many of the traits and survives many of the standardized dangers

that the Detective claims his own. Little Scarlet's champion defies the conventions by being a family

man, at odds with the police, the national guard and the neighborhood, solving a mess for the Man, and

demanding payment in respect. The detective novel is just a newer incarnation of a tradition of lurid

mystery dating back to the Middle Ages, a cheap rag with seductive appeal. Walter Mosley and Easy

Rawlins are a huge marker on the timeline of mystery story evolution. In a class of their own, they

stand alone. At this point in time, I declare Easy Rawlins to be the face of the Detective Genre for the

Millennium. Easy is the New Detective, but is still derivative from his lineage. Gumshoes.

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Works Cited and Sourced:

Bates, Karen Grigsby. "'Little Scarlet': Easy Rawlins, Through the Flames". National Public

Radio. 5/18/10 <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3410079>.

Charters, Ann. "The White Negro". The Portable Beat Reader. New York: Penguin, 1992.

Johnston, Sheila . "Whatever happened to the femme fatale?". The Independent UK. 5/20/10

<http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/whatever-happened-to-the-

femme-fatale-1633088.html>.

Marling, William. "Overview". Case Western Reserve University. 5/18/10

<http://www.detnovel.com/index.html>.

Marling, William. "Femme Fatales". Case Western Reserve University. 5/18/10

<http://www.detnovel.com/FemmeFatale.html>.

Marling, William. "The Detective Code". Case Western Reserve University. 5/19/10

<http://www.detnovel.com/DetectiveCode.html>.

Mosley, Walter. Little Scarlet. New York: Warner Books, 2004.

Niebuhr, Gary Warren. A Reader's Guide To Private Eye Novels. New York: G.K. Hall, 1993.

Smith, Kevin Burton. "What the Hell?". ThrillingDetective. 5/18/10

<http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/triv78.html>.

Willett, Ralph. "Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction, Pamphlet #23". British Association for

American Studies. 5/18/10 <http://www.baas.ac.uk/resources/pamphlets/pamphdets.asp?

id=23>.

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http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3410079

http://www.baas.ac.uk/resources/pamphlets/pamphdets.asp?id=23

http://www.baas.ac.uk/resources/pamphlets/pamphdets.asp?id=23

http://www.thrillingdetective.com/trivia/triv78.html

http://www.detnovel.com/DetectiveCode.html

http://www.detnovel.com/FemmeFatale.html

http://www.detnovel.com/index.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/whatever-happened-to-the-femme-fatale-1633088.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/whatever-happened-to-the-femme-fatale-1633088.html


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little scarlet essay

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