How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I went away wondering why the green toe of her left slipper was dark and damp with something that could have been blood. (1.38)
Mrs. Willsson seems to be hiding something important from the Op, but she dismisses him too quickly for him to know for sure. Is Mrs. Willsson a potential femme fatale figure? Why are women so often depicted as sinful and deceptive?
Quote #2
"Was she jealous?"
"She was," he said, not yelling now, "and domineering, and spoiled, and suspicious, and greedy, and mean, and unscrupulous, and deceitful, and selfish, and damned band – altogether damned bad!" (2.35)
This isn't exactly a flattering portrayal of Dinah Brand. She sounds like a spoiled brat crossed with a domineering matriarch. Dinah exercises a strong hold over many of the men in the novel, despite (or perhaps because of) her selfishness. Does this initial portrait of Dinah accurately reflect the way she develops over the course of the novel?
Quote #3
"You'll be disappointed at first. Then, without being able to say how or when it happened, you'll find you've forgotten your disappointment, and the first thing you know you'll be telling her your life's history, and all your troubles and hopes. […] And then you're caught, absolutely caught." (3.93)
Albury explains to the Op how mysterious Dinah's power is over men. How she's able to lure them in without them even knowing it. She's like a black widow spider catching her prey in her silky web. But Dinah isn't a completely black-and-white character: she's neither purely evil nor an innocent victim of circumstances.
Quote #4
The girl's square chin was tilted up. Her big red mouth was brutal around the words it shaped, and the lines crossing its ends were deep, harsh. (10.2)
When Dinah gets angry, she's not looking to win any beauty pageants. She looks harsh, fierce, and defiant. In many ways, these are positive qualities because how else would a woman contend with all the aggressive men around her if she's meek and mild? But at the same time, there's also an animalistic quality to this description that presents Dinah as an untamed, dangerous animal.
Quote #5
The girl scowled and said disagreeably:
"I can expect anything I want. And he's got no right to talk to me that way. He doesn't own me. Maybe he thinks he does, but I'll show him different." (10.40)
Dinah's defiance and self-sufficiency really shine through here. She refuses to let anyone push her around, and even though she's unashamed of her obsession with money, she won't allow anyone to "own" her. This assertive femininity is a key characteristic of the femme fatale figure.
Quote #6
She caught one of his thin wrists and twisted it until he was on his knees. Her other hand, open, beat his hollow-cheeked face, half a dozen times on each side, rocking his head from side to side. He could have put his free arm up to protect his face, but didn't.
She let go of his wrist, turned her back on him, and reached for gin and seltzer. She was smiling. I didn't like the smile. (10.54)
Men aren't the only ones who like to get violent in Red Harvest. Dinah also exhibits her own fair share of violent temper tantrums. When she gets angry at Dan, Dinah slaps him forcefully a dozen times, right in front of the Op. Not only is this embarrassing for poor Dan, but the Op is also taken aback by the smile on Dinah's face. There's something unnatural and unsettling about Dinah's violent behavior.
Quote #7
She looked as if she were telling the truth, though with women, especially blue-eyed women, that doesn't always mean anything. (11.10)
This is a pretty misogynistic comment made by the Op, which isn't that surprising considering how overrun the novel is with male characters. Women in hardboiled detective novels are frequently presented as deceitful and manipulative, and often the more innocent a woman looks, the more deadly she actually is.
Quote #8
She twisted toward him, socked him in the belly with her other fist. It was a very respectable wallop – man-size. It broke his grip on her arm, sent him back a couple of steps. (13.53)
Dinah again gets a chance to flex her muscles when she gets into a scuffle with Jerry. Notice how the words used to describe Dinah sound as if they should be applied to a hardboiled gangster: "socked him," "respectable wallop," "man-size." She can pack quite a punch.
Quote #9
"You seem to have a gift for stirring up murderous notions in your boy friends. There's Albury waiting trail for killing Willsson. There's Whisper who's got you shivering in corners. Even I haven't escaped your influence. Look at the way I've turned. And I've always had a notion that Dan Rolff's going to have a try at you some day. […] You use him for errand boy, you slap his face in front of me, and slap him around in front of others. " (20.63)
The Op tries to put Dinah in her place by accusing her of being a bad influence on the men in her life. Even though it's true that Dinah has been romantically involved with no less than five men that we know of (and there's probably more), the Op also seems to be on the defensive. We suspect that the Op is starting to have feelings for Dinah and he's trying to keep her at a distance.
Quote #10
"Every time I mention killing, you jump on me. You're a woman. You think if nothing's said about it, maybe none of the God only knows how many people in town who might want to will kill you. That's silly." (20.70)
The Op uses a slightly misogynistic, infantilizing tone towards Dinah when she admits to being scared that Whisper is out to kill her. The Op seems to think that because she's a woman, she's acting jittery and flighty. But Dinah's fears weren't at all unfounded because later that night she is brutally murdered.