First Assignment
I decided to do Option #1.
Consider the ways in which the main characters are
similar. Based strictly on these two
stories, formulate a description of protagonists in neo-noir.
To be honest, I was thinking of ways how these two protagonists
in “The Kidnapper Bell” and “City of Commerce” were similar. I couldn’t really
think of anything until we had class and discussed it. Then it became clear to
me that they are very similar. They are similar in the way of how they only
think of themselves. And how neither one of them care about their wives. In “The
Kidnapper Bell’’ the protagonist in that story only cares about himself and
getting laid. He seems like he is only into making himself happy, and getting
into the “dating scene again then actually spending time with his wife. But he
does save that girls sister. But what I questioned was when he kept the bell
that the kidnapper used for himself, and rang it at the end of the story. In
the second story “City of Commerce” the protagonist in that story only cares
about Poker, and that’s it. In the story he gets in kind of a pickle with some
Russians, and he doesn’t worry about saving his wife’s life from them all he
worries about is winning more money from Poker.
Second Assignment
Out of the four short stories that I read, the one that I
think most signifies noir is “The girl who kissed Barnaby Jones”. I think this
because the femme fatale in this case Cherie knows that she is beautiful and
can seduce any man with her sexuality; she uses that to her advantage. She
calls Tate to help her with something, so he goes only to find out that she
wants him to help her hide a body of the person she just murdered. But unlike
other film noir stories he doesn’t let her manipulate him into committing/accomplice
to a murder. So he gets out of there as soon as he can. That was probably the
only part in this story that didn’t classify as noir.
