Started in the 1920s and perfected in the 1930s, the hardboiled detective was one of the most popular forms to arise from the pulp fiction magazines. Philip Marlowe was a character who had to live on the mean streets of the city where fighting, drinking, swearing, poverty, and death were all part of life. The American detective story may look like it’s about tough guys with guns chasing beautiful blondes but actually, it takes the inspiration from one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, Ernest Hemingway. And, like Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Chandler is really about loneliness, loss and despair. In his essay, “The Simple Art of Murder,” Chandler describes the kind of hero that he creates in his detective stories: Marlowe is 33, unmarried, and went to college. He smokes and drinks and worked for the District Attorney’s Office as an investigator. He was fired because he tested high for insubordination. “Marlowe is a common man and yet unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor- by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it.” In The Big Sleep, we will explore how Chandler’s character, Philip Marlowe, exemplifies honor and the hidden truth that he is pursuing. This story is this man’s adventure in search of a hidden truth and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. The following is a quote from The Great Detective: The Art of Philip Marlowe, which the pulp fiction detective lives by: “'A man can stay honest if he wants to; you have to play the game dirty.' Marlowe states, 'Blackmail is a dirty business. I was hired by old General Steinwood to protect his two daughters, Carmen and Vivian. Carmen, in her early 20s, who sucks her thumb, was pretty, spoiled, not very bright little girl. She had gone very, very wrong and no one was doing anything about it. And, Vivian, late 20s, has been married three times and the last man she was married to was a bootlegger named Rusty Regan. Now, the first blackmailer, Geiger was dead and the body had disappeared.." In the mean streets of Los Angeles, in the 1930s, the police force was being paid by the public. This is also known as corruption. The streets were receiving immigrants and the community wa