Often in crime fiction the investigator must choose between adhering to the letter of the law or following a personal code of justice. We see this occur in the works of several of the writers we have read this semester. Sometimes the detectives break the law to capture criminals, and sometimes they allow the guilty to escape legal retribution. Furthermore, private detectives, especially hardboiled ones, frequently find themselves at odds with the police and legal system during their inquiries, so much so that several of these detectives are suspected of committing the crimes that they are attempting to solve. For this paper compare and contrast the conflict between personal codes of justice and impersonal ones (i.e., those of the legal system) in any two assigned authors, including Cain (since Keyes is an investigator of sorts); if you choose to use Conan Doyle as one of your two authors, you must use at least two Sherlock Holmes stories. Among other things, your paper should consider what this conflict suggests about each author’s attitudes toward the police and legal system.
Write an essay of approximately 1250 words, quoting or paraphrasing from the assigned texts as necessary to support your thesis, in which you explore the above questions. Any material from either our texts or outside sources must be properly documented according to MLA guidelines, which you hopefully mastered in ENGL 1020; however, if you need a refresher or have questions, the University Writing Center’s website has online handouts about MLA parenthetical citation. Papers lacking proper MLA documentation will be penalized. I will report any violation of the academic honesty requirements in the student handbook to the Coordinator of Academic Misconduct Review in the Office of Academic Affairs. Such violations may also result in failure for the course. Remember – ignorance is NOT a defense. Ask me or a tutor at the University Writing Center (located in Walker Library) if you have any questions whatsoever about proper documentation.
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