In what way has the crime fiction genre reflected the concerns of its contemporary society, in both a
modern and historical context? Discuss with reference to at least two texts of your choosing, each
from different sub genres.
Crime fiction can reflect the concerns of society through its different sub genres. The movie
American Gangster and the novel Double Indemnity both fall into separate sub-genres of crime
fiction. American Gangster is part of the organised crime genre of Crime Fiction and is a modern
representation of the concerns of contemporary society. Double Indemnity is part of the sub-genre
of the hard boiled genre and is a representation of the concerns of society in the contemporary era,
but it is more representative of the concerns of the 1930s rather than the twenty-first century.
The film represents the concerns of contemporary society in a number of areas. The first concern is
corruption in the police force, and how the people that are there to protect society, are in reality
unethical.
“The cops seize it (the drugs), arrest everyone, and then they start taking it out of the evidence
room, whacking it down to nothing, and selling it back to us. They basically control the market
with it”
(American Gangster, 2007)
American Gangster features a few honest policeman, in amongst mostly corrupt police. The end of
the movie reveals that “Frank and Richie's collaboration led to the conviction of three quarters of
New York City's Drug Enforcement Agency” (American Gangster, 2007). In western society the
general assumption is that police are (in the main) honest, truthful, and seeking justice. For example
people assume that police do not re-sell the drugs they find, plant evidence or extract false evidence.
However this movie plays on an underlying fear that police may be dishonest and seeking selfish
gain. This reflects the perceptions people have on the police force, as it shows them to be corrupt.
Because the movie shows the police force having a corrupt system it shows the concern of systems
that work and run fairly.
Although the core themes of American Gangster are organised crime and corruption, there are also
three further sub-themes in the movie that reflect the concerns of contemporary society. The first
one of these is drug use, and the effect it has on drug users, families and society. “America's public
enemy number one in the United States is drug abuse” (American Gangster, 2007). Drug use is a
perennial problem in society, for example in the USA in 2010 over 31,000 people were arrested for
possession of drugs. (Drug Enforcement Administration USA, 2011). Because drug use is a
persistent issue, the movie reflects concerns about drugs in general, and whether drug users are a
cause of society's problems or if in fact they are victims of society's ills and greedy drug dealers.
The second sub-theme is parenting and family breakdown. In the US "50% of all marriages in
America end in divorce." (divorcerate.org). The movie highlights the concerns about custody battles
over children, and court hearings. Roberts is shown to be an excellent police man, but an unreliable
father. During his custody hearing the lawyer comments “We give him that responsibility to protect
us (citizens), but then we say 'oh we don’t trust you to raise a child'”. This raises the concerns that
people have in custody hearings, and the struggle in who to trust. The movie reflects the concerns of
its contemporary society because it contains a thread of an on-going custody battle between Roberts
and his ex-wife which are relevant to the modern era.
The third sub-theme that reflects modern society's concerns is about small businesses and their
struggle to stay in the market.
“The grocery store on the corner is now a supermarket. The candy store, now McDonald’s, and
this place, a super discount store? Where is the pride in ownership now? Where is the personal
service?”
(Bumpy Johnson, American Gangster 2007)
The trend in our society is for small businesses to be forced to close because of large business
chains, and personal service to be on the decline. Many people in modern society are concerned
about this as jobs are cut and individual enterprise is stifled. In 2009 in the USA a small business
went bankrupt every 8 minutes and only 50% of small businesses in the USA survive more than five
years. (businessinsider.com) People are concerned that small businesses can no longer compete in
the market and as they go broke, jobs will be lost and the fabric of society weakened. As use of the
internet and on-line sales grows, this situation is likely to worsen for small businesses.
Contemporary society is concerned about the issues of small business survival, they are common
topics for media reports and social media. The use of this theme in the movie shows that it is an
ongoing concern for audiences.
The novel Double Indemnity, a short novel written in 1936, is part of the hard boiled genre of crime
fiction. The book revolves around the themes of money and relationships, and the relative
importance of each of these. It reflects the concerns of individuals who value one more than the
other, and integrity and satisfaction. Phyllis, the main woman in this story, decides to take out an
accident insurance policy on her husband, and then kill him to get the money from it. She says “he
treats me as well as a man can treat a woman. I don't love him, but he's never done anything to me.”
Phyllis is willing to kill her own husband, for no other reason than to receive a large sum of money.
The 1930's saw the largest stock market crash in the history of the United States, and this started the
10 year Great Depression. The concerns of society in this period of time were focussed on money,
and the economic crisis. The stock market crash resulted in huge losses of money, and people had to
focus on new ways to earn and receive money. This book reflects the concern of people at that time
needing money. As well as this book revolving around the concern that people will do anything to
get more money, it also has the sub-theme of insurance claimers defrauding people. “They're (the
insurance company) not going to pay it (the claim)” (Walter Huff, Double Indemnity 1936). The
insurance company in this novel want people to think that they exist to help people, however their
main focus is to make a profit and not spend much money on a single person or claim. The book
shows how they try to avoid paying for the claim, for example by making the murder seem like an
accident or a suicide. This reflects the concern of people being sceptical to trust insurance
companies. Because of the poor economic situation of the 1930's, people did not have the money to
waste if insurance claimers were going to cheat them, if they were going to spend money on
insurance they would want a guarantee that it was legitimate, and not a scam, because there was no
money to waste.
The issue of insurance scams and lack of money were particularly relevant in this historical context.
This text is also set in a time when wives were much more dependent on their husband’s livelihood
– women did not leave the home to work and were not eligible for financial support if they
divorced . However the issue of seduction, demonstrated though Phyllis seducing the insurance
salesman, murder and illegally claiming money are still relevant to society today.
The context of American Gangster is more contemporary whereas the context of Double Indemnity
reflects issues that were a major concern in the 1930s, both reflect the concerns of their
contemporary society. Although they address different topics, both of these texts examine ethics and
values of society such as greed, corruption, family breakdown, and business operation. These
themes are relevant to most people and are based on universal values such as integrity, truth,
honesty, reliability, trustworthiness, loyalty, decency and honour. Both texts deal with very different
topics, however they both address relevant concerns of there contemporary societies, in both a
modern and historical context.
Bibliography
http://www.justice.gov/dea/statistics.html
http://www.divorcemag.com/statistics/statsUS.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_market_crash#Wall_Street_Crash_of_1929
http://www.mardecortesbaja.com/2007/06/17/noir-not-noir-double-indemnity/
http://www.justice.gov/dea/
http://www.businessinsider.com/
http://www.divorcerate.org/
James M.Cain (1939).Double Indemnity. United States: Vintage books.
American Gangster (movie), 2007