Tom Resents Dickie, or Dickie resents Tom?

We talked in class Wednesday about how Tom wanted to morph into Dickie, so I was thinking about how Tom resented Dickie for being well-off and having his own income, home, and career in Rome. Originally, Dickie and Marge are welcoming of Tom, but once Tom overstays his welcome, Marge and Dickie start to become annoyed by Tom. Tom had no real motive behind his resentment of Marge and Dickie, except for the fact that they had it better off than him. Tom feels a sense of jealousy towards Dickie for having so much expendable money and having a father who is loaded with cash.
Honestly, I think Dickie begins to resent Tom once Marge accuses Tom of being in love with Dickie. Tom begins mimicing Dickie's mannerisms and trying on his clothing, which really makes Dickie mad. Tom resents Marge for petty things, such as her appearance, which is "unsophisticated," her clingy nature, and just the fact that she is a blockade Tom has in spending all his time with Dickie. Marge and Dickie had a weird relationship, which made assessing both her and Dickie hard. Was she in love with Dickie, which is why she was so mad at Tom for taking Dickie away from her?

The Talented Mr. Ripley, Marge, and Sexuality

I found The Talented Mr. Ripley to be a disturbing novel.  However, I thought that Ms. Highsmith did a good job with getting me to feel Tom's annoyance and hatred towards Marge.  Her character was very unappealing and seemed to me to represent the negative aspects and stereotypes about women.  Marge was excessively clingy and how she was described made me resent her.  I didn't think that she was a likable character, and maybe that was Ms. Highsmith's intention.  From today's class discussion about Ms. Highsmith's personal life, we learned that she was a very open lesbian.  I wonder if that had anything to do with her characterization of Marge.  Maybe in the past she had an annoyingly clingy girlfriend or was just upset by how some women acted and decided to vent through this character.  Did anyone like Marge?

In terms of Tom's sexuality, I don't think that he was necessarily gay.  I think that he was more disgusted by Marge as a person than by the whole female population.  He doesn't describe his friend Cleo with disgust, only Marge.  I felt that there were more hints that Dickie was gay and didn't want to acknowledge this fact, and since he was in denial, decided to pin it onto Tom.  I thought that Tom was a psychopath that couldn't form attachments, more than a gay man coming to terms with his sexuality.  What does everyone else think?

The "incompetency" of noir police

I find that police in all of the novels and movie we have encountered are not really incompetent but rather a nuisance. They are like a thorn in the side whose only accomplishment is to further irritate and creating more paranoia within the protagonist. Not only that, some of them are depicted as kind of corny. For example, in In a Lonely Place, they accuse Dixon of murder, but Dix, being the witty, suave, cynical guy that he is completely plays the police captain and detective. What I mean by "plays them" is that he answers their questions honestly, but does it in a way that is completely condescending. We see the same thing in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Tom completely dupes the detectives in pursuit of him. They are not incompetent because they do manage to attract the attention of the protagonist, and make him change his behavior, but Tom easily shrugs them off with his trickery. This also happened in The Postman Rings Twice. He is not a cop, but it seems like the judge has Chambers cornered, but by luck and a little help he is easily able to evade him. To me, I get the feeling that the law enforcement in noir are bitches. Like when they are presented in any of the movies and stories, I kind of can already predict they won't do shit. Even though some protagonist commit some pretty heinous crimes, I still root for them against the police. They may scratch the surface of a crime, but the protagonist is easily able to out clever them. In light of all this, I found this video would describe the protagonists' attitudes towards police:

Is Dix Different?

I was thinking about the characters that we've been exposed to in the various types of noir fiction that we've consumed, and I have to say, I think Dixon Steele, despite having the most impressive name of the lot and being played my Bogart himself, was much, much different than how I imagined a noir protagonist to be. I don't think it can be argued that he's not a noir guy, but I do think that he is different in some fairly key ways. He's hardly hard-boiled at all! He's just a talented guy with some anger issues. He's the only noir protagonist that we've come across that I think wasn't the agent of his own destruction - at first, at least. He definitely had some hand in his eventual unraveling later, mostly due to the aforementioned anger issues. But I feel that if the police hadn't decided to single him out, everything would have worked out for him. He was in a relationship, he had a really good script going on, it doesn't seem like there's anything stopping him until he starts to come under suspicion by the police. Even his personality is different, it seems. He's obviously intelligent, but he doesn't sling around one-liners and stays mostly away from "baby." His affections towards Laurel seem more genuine than the other relationships we've explored, especially when contrasted with Walter Neff, whose relationship with Phyllis was always tenuous at best. He definitely elicits some pity from me. I'm not sure that he deserved what he got, anger issues or no anger issues.

Dix: Victim?

In Friday's discussion, everyone seemed quick to condemn Dix for his short temper, as well his apparent lack of sympathy after Mildred's death. Sure his near-strangling of Laurel near the end is worthy of condemnation, but I also can't help feeling that Dix is, to some extent, a victim here. For one thing, nearly all of the characters present in the restaurant scenes are sycophantic leeches intent on feeding off of Dix. Mel, who is Dix's agent and claims to be his friend, is caught spying through his window shades and brazenly steals an unfinished script. Mildred's interest in Dix was wholly superficial, obviously arising from her star-struck desire to rub shoulders with a Hollywood screenwriter. When asked, Laurel merely stated that she “liked his face.” Even the (kids?) outside looking for autographs outside the restaurant accused Dix of being “nobody.” Perhaps the only character who comes across as genuine is the drunk actor, Charlie. It just seems like Dix's anger stems more from being fed up with greed and Hollywood superficiality than war induced post-traumatic stress disorder.

Masculinity in "In a Lonely Place"

Since this was brought up toward the end of class on Friday, there wasn't much time to talk about. After seeing the film and reading the article on shame it seems like we could connect Dix to a type of person talked about in the article..maybe the best fit would be Dix as someone trying to exert their masculinity..? Or other ways he could be seen as someone 'shamed'? (reminds me of the Ressentiment article)

Here's just some things I noticed in "In a Lonely Place" that could be tied to Dix trying to fulfill the masculine role.
- obviously his anger/aggressiveness-especially the scene when he almost hits the guy in the car. His first response to situations is anger.
- The part when he wants breakfast, and just yells to Laurel what he wants without even thinking twice about it
- He attempts to make breakfast one morning- but he's so awkward at it; bending the grapefruit knife back to the shape of a normal knife- shows his lack of domesticity. But, he's trying to change it seems-

What other things did anyone notice about Dix and masculinity?

The Talented Mr. Ripley is UNSETTLING

After completing this novel, I sat on my couch thinking about what exactly made this novel so different from the ones studied previously in the course, and why I was unhappy with the ending...it came down to two main differences: one, that I wasn't rooting for Tom after the murder of Dickie, and two, that he never learns his lesson!

During the last half of the book Tom was literally a half step in front of the police, and I was just WAITING for it to all come undone. Tom had this keen sense of entitlement that really turned me off to him, and when he discussed his past concerning his Aunt and his feeble attempts to make an honest living, I knew that he felt that the world owed him something (specifically the part about stealing a loaf of bread after he gets fired from his job).

And let's be honest, his obsession with Dickie is beyond intense. Right from the start, it was as if his whole purpose in life would be shattered, if he didn't get himself well-liked by Dickie. He was also resentful and jealous of the time he spend with Marge, which raises the question of homosexuality. I'm unsure if his obsession was based on love, sexual attraction, or just an unsound mind, but it also made me unable to empathize with Tom's plight.

So all of this is going on, and I'm expecting that at any point, Tom is finally gonna get what he deserves....but it doesn't happen! For almost all of our other Noir characters, the mistakes they've made lead to their eventual destruction, but not for Tom. He's able to get away scot-free and rich, and it leaves you wondering....is it really that easy?