Red Harvest

“I can tell you that any other damned numbskull notions you've got are way off the lode.”

Personville is a mining town. Even though the actual mines themselves are kept away from the narrative, the money and power that the mines bring to men like Elihu Willsson seep into everyday life in the city. This is further illustrated by how mining language seeps into the everyday parlance of Personville. The Op is “way off the lode” (15), Elihu says, using a mining term that is familiar to him but unfamiliar to an outsider like the Op.

“She's so thoroughly mercenary, so frankly greedy, that there's nothing disagreeable about it.”

Every character warns the Op that Dinah Brand is only interested in money. While many male characters are explicitly derogatory when speaking about women, they almost respect Dinah’s mercenary attitude because she has no pretenses about what she wants. Amid The Poisonous Nature of Corruption, Dinah’s honest love of money is a welcome surprise that insulates her from criticism.

“What kind of a gunman would use a .32?”

Dinah is fully immersed in the violence of Personville. When she speaks to the Op about the murder of Donald Willsson, she is not just familiar with the caliber of the weapon used, but also the personality of the person who might wield such a weapon. Her easy understanding reflects the central motif of guns and bullets in the novel (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“I would rather have been cold sober, but I wasn't. If the night held more work for me I didn't want to go to it with alcohol dying in me.”

Alcohol is found everywhere in Personville. Surrounded by violence, death, and corruption, the prevalence of alcohol seems like a coping mechanism for everyone involved. The Op has only been in the town a few days, but he is already learning how to mediate his alcohol intake to numb himself to the brutal reality of life in such a corrupt environment.

“Everything was blurred in front of my eyes, like I was crying. Maybe I was.”

The Op is a tough individual who has built up a wall to the outside world. In doing so, he has become so alienated from his own emotions that he is not even sure how it feels to cry anymore. He may be crying, or his eyes may be watering; either way, true emotion has not penetrated his numb psyche.

“Attempted assassinations make me mad.”

While the Op can no longer recognize whether he is happy or sad, he knows when he is angry, invoking The Importance of a Moral Code. Repeated attempts to kill him—including attempts by the so-called police— have struck a chord with him. The Op is now committed to cleaning up the corruption in Personville. This has become a personal vendetta, a determined attempt to turn the violence back against his persecutors.

“I gave him a name, something like Hunter or Hunt or Huntington, and asked him his.”

The Op has no name. Even when he provides a cover name to someone, this fake name is never precise. The name is defined by its ambiguity, existing at a nexus between three different names. The only similarity between the names is “Hunt,” a carefully chosen verb that suggests the hunting of prey is very much on the Op’s mind. He may not offer his name to people, but he can tell them his purpose.

“So I poked him to give him back some of his self-respect.”

The Op beats Rolff and then frames the beating as an act of kindness. He feels that it is shameful for Dinah to be physically stronger than Rolff, so he claims that by beating Rolff as he would an equally strong opponent, he gifts Rolff a degree of self-respect. The Op is using violence to reconstruct a fading masculinity, illustrating The Impacts of Male Violence.

“It's hell to die ugly as this.”

Myrtle is dying alone in a hospital bed. Not long ago, she was a glamorous figure who flitted among the rich and powerful of Personville. Moving in those circles brought her into contact with violence and corruption regularly, so she is not afraid to die. Instead, she loathes that she must die in such an unglamorous manner. The circumstances of her death bother her more than death itself.

“The wall creaked under the strain, and a framed photograph of Noonan and other city dignitaries welcoming somebody in spats dropped down to the floor with the hit man.”

Noonan keeps a framed photograph of himself surrounded by the figures of civil authority. In reality, the men who run the city are corrupt criminals and men like Noonan, reflecting The Poisonous Nature of Corruption. Since Op’s arrival, the truth about Personville is beginning to emerge. The photograph falls to the floor as a symbol of the collapse of the façade of legitimate rule in the city.

“Talk money, darling.”

Dinah is blunt about what she wants. The warmest language she uses, ironically, is a sarcastic quip to the Op when they are negotiating how much she will receive to act on his behalf. Dinah conflates affection and remuneration, turning everything into a transaction. Even a violent standoff is a chance to improve her financial situation. In a novel filled with liars and cheats, Dinah is at least honest about her emotions.

“I grinned after it. Poisonville was beginning to boil out under the lid, and I felt so much like a native that even the memory of my very un-nice part in the boiling didn't keep me from getting twelve solid end-to-end hours of sleep.”

The Op has spent several days in Personville and, with each passing day, he has witnessed an increasing level of violence. He is often implicated in this violence, both giving and receiving. The problem for the Op is that he is beginning to feel at home, which puts him at odds with his usual belief in the importance of a moral code. Poisonville is a suitable nickname, as the violence of the town is seeping into the Op’s mind and corrupting him (See: Symbols & Motifs).

“It's right enough for the Agency to have rules and regulations, but when you're out on a job you've got to do it the best way you can.”

The detective agency that employs the Op has rules and regulations about how its employees should act in the field. Faced with a monumental problem like Poisonville, however, the Op believes that the rules must be bent to achieve success. Morality is not fixed in this world, and good men must do bad things to triumph. The Op knows the rules, which allows him to know exactly how far he can push the rules before he is in trouble.

“I need dynamite—something to blow them apart.”

The Op has spent some time in Personville, and he is beginning to adopt the city’s sensibilities as his own. Since he is in a mining town, he is beginning to adopt mining solutions. Needing something drastic to clear his path, he refers to the use of dynamite. He plans to treat the people of the mining town as though he were a miner, speaking to them in a language that they will understand.

“SEND BY FIRST MAIL FULL EXPLANATION OF PRESENT OPERATION AND CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH YOU ACCEPTED IT WITH DAILY REPORTS TO DATE.”

The telegram sent by the Old Man is a demonstration of how the Op is operating beyond the boundaries of accountability. He is empowered by the detective agency and by Elihu’s money, but he is given free rein to conduct his mission in any way he sees fit. Despite this, the Op knows that his freedom cannot last forever. He needs to act fast, lest he have his agency reined in by his boss. The all-caps immediacy of the telegram reminds the Op of the fleeting nature of his independence.

“For the other, twenty-five grand will make it right.”

During the so-called peace conference, the corrupt heads of Personville reflect on the killing. Many people have died and the impacts of male violence in the town are attracting national attention, so it cannot be allowed to continue. Pete the Finn is a businessman, and he is quickly able to put an exact price on the bloodshed in recent days. The speed and precision with which he comes up with a price speaks to the cheapness of life in Personville.

“I've arranged a killing or two in my time, when they were necessary. But this is the first time I've ever got the fever.”

The Op is not a stranger to violence. The time he has spent in Personville has been violent but, importantly, he is beginning to fear the effect that this violence has had on his personality and his belief in the importance of a moral code. He is becoming too familiar and too easily associated with brutality; violence is a fever, one which he fears has infected him already.

“I tried to bring the knife out of my pocket with the other—and realized that I had gone off the edge of the roof with him.”

In his laudanum-induced dream, the Op lunges toward an enemy on a rooftop, only to go tumbling over the edge with him. The dream is a metaphor for the Op’s time in Poisonville, as he attempts to bring law and order to the town only to become mired in violence and corruption. He risks going over the edge of morality.

“I wanted a cigarette, but cigarettes were too well known as first aids to the nervous for me to take a chance on one just then.”

The Op is a seasoned detective. He knows that smoking a cigarette makes him seem nervous, thus making him seem guilty. The Op is nervous and guilty, but he recognizes the value of performance. He is performing the role of an innocent man, so he acts accordingly and denies himself a cigarette. The Op’s knowledge of these tricks of the trade allows him to overcome the corruption of the world around him. He can perform innocence which, in a guilty world, is advantage enough.

“Some of the other press associations and a big-city paper or two are sending in special correspondents, beginning to play our troubles up.”

The criminal underworld of Personville has spilled over into the mainstream. With so many dead bodies around the city, the national press cannot ignore the city any longer. Reporters are turning their attention to Personville and, in doing so, they are threatening the potential for profit. The bodies are not a moral issue for the criminals, but they do present a financial problem.

“The Herald called me ‘a man supposed to be a private detective from San Francisco.’”

The Op’s true identity is such a mystery that even the national press cannot identify him as anything more than his profession and vague place of origin. Even this statement is cloaked in uncertainty, as the Op is “supposed to be” rather than described as such a person (188). The anonymity of the protagonist reiterates his role as an outsider, something which is necessary when eliminating corruption from the city.

“We did our best, but we were too damned amalgamated for good fighting.”

In his attempts to clean up Personville, the Op has become concerned that he is becoming too like the violent men he opposes. Like them, he has welcomed the impacts of male violence into his life and made it familiar. Now, as violence takes over the city, he has become completely “amalgamated” and he is indistinguishable from the criminals he opposes.

“I'm giving your city back to you whether you want it or not.”

By this point in the novel, the Op is only interested in eliminating the poisonous nature of corruption from Personville. His original assignment and payment from Elihu are now irrelevant, as the mission has become personal. All that matters is victory over the corrupt forces of Personville.