论文总字数：44557字

摘 要

《漫长的告别》是雷蒙德·钱德勒1953年的小说，小说用第一人称讲述了侦探马洛在酒吧门外帮助了一个酒鬼，进而和他成为朋友，在酒鬼被疑杀人逃亡之后，排除万难找出事件真相的故事。本书是钱德勒的代表作，同时也是硬汉派侦探小说中的名作。过往对钱德勒小说的研究比较鲜有同时也较为分散，已有的研究包括对其小说中个人主义体现与骑士精神体现的研究，也有作为罪案小说的一类进行的研究。然而，作为硬汉派小说的代表作，出场的人物绝大多数都是男性，且具有的男性气质各不相同。因此，本文将以澳大利亚社会学者康奈尔的《男性气质》为依托，对小说中出现的各色男性角色进行分析，从而研究20世纪中期美国西部男性所具有的不同的男性气质。

论文分为六个部分，第一部分为引言，主要介绍作者，其开创的硬汉派小说以及文献综述。第一章关注具有支配性男性气质的男性角色。第二章介绍体现从属性男性气质的男性角色。第三章分析共谋性男性气质和具有该气质的人物。第四章则是边缘性的男性角色。最后一部分是结论，简单概括研究发现。通过分析《漫长的告别》中的男性气质，希望对研究钱德勒作品的人提示了一种新鲜的解读方式，同时也给研究男性气质的研究者们提供了一种崭新的角度。

关键词：康奈尔 男性气质 钱德勒《漫长的告别》

Contents

Acknowledgements i

Abstract ii

中文摘要 iii

Introduction..............................................................................................1

Chapter One Hegemonic Masculinity....................................................5

1.1 Hard-boiled Detective: Philip Marlowe......................................5

1.2 The Cruel Mafia, the Powerful Millionaire and the Arbitrary Police Officer............................................................................................7

Chapter Two Subordinate Masculinity..................................................9

2.1 Homosexual Roles: Dr.Verringer and Earl.................................9

2.2 The Coward Husband :Roger Wade..........................................11

Chapter Three Complicit Masculinity..................................................13

3.1 The Parasitical Drunkard: Terry Lennox.................................13

3.2 The Incompetent Police...............................................................15

Chapter Four Marginalized Masculinity..............................................17

4.1 The Belligerent Mexican Houseboy: Candy..............................17

4.2 The Undervalued Black Driver: Amos......................................19

Conclusion...............................................................................................21

Works Cited............................................................................................22

Introduction

Raymond Chandler and his Hard-boiled Detective Fiction

America suffered from the Great Depression during the early twentieth century. In the aftermath of the economic crisis, society had fallen into decadence, and the underworld business became rampant, and even the celebrities, lawyers and the law enforcement were in league with criminals. Traditional moralities were going to break down, thus law and order meant no other than humbug. Chandler once pointed out sharply, “The law was something to be manipulated for profit and power. The streets were dark with something more than night(5)”.At that time, hard-boiled fiction, as a literary genre, began to develop and could often be seen as a vehicle for social criticism. Hard-boiled detectives gained popularity, because they could step forward to fight for justice with more or less a cynical mood. Chandler’s Philip Marlowe is the typical hard-boiled character.

In the beginning, hard-boiled fiction was always associated with pulp magzines, Black Mask was the most famous pulp magazine at that time. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler were among the contributors of it. Generally speaking, hard-boiled fiction pays much attention to authenticity and has a sense of realism, encouraging colloquial language and the use of humor. The kind of crime fiction deliberately breaks the rules of traditional crime fiction, blurring the lines between guilt and innocence and making victim, criminal and investigator act as protagonists. Besides, the protagonists in hard-boiled crime story are usually antiheroes.

Raymond Chandler (July 23, 1888 -March 26, 1959) had not published his first book until his forties, when he lost his job in an oil company. His first story, Blackmailers Don’t Shoot, was published in Black Mask in 1933. His first full-length novel The Big Sleep was published in 1939 and he wrote seven novels and about twenty short stories all his life, among which, Farewell, My Lovely(1943), The Little Sister(1949) and The Long Goodbye(1953) are often considered as masterpieces. The Long Goodbye received the Edgar Award for best novel in 1955 and was also listed the thirteenth in “The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time”by MWA(the Mystery Writers of America).

The story begins outside a club, where Philip Marlowe meets a drunk named Terry Lennox and they develop an uneasy friendship. At one night, Lennox comes to Marlowe’s house to ask for help with a gun and then Marlowe takes him to Tijuana airport without being told what has happened. As soon as Marlowe returns to Los Angeles, he is held by police and is told that Lennox is suspected with murdering his wife and has fled to Mexico. Marlowe does not reveal anything about Lennox to the police though he has been threatened and whipped. After being released, he continues to dig the truth and prove Lennox’s innocence. Later Marlowe gets a job to take care of the writer named Roger Wade. At first he rejects, then a series of incidents connect the Wade family with the case. In the pursuit of the real murderer of Lennox’s wife, he suffers from many obstacles from different people, including millionaire Harlan Potter and villain Mendy Menendez, but he never thinks of giving up. After a series of incidents, Marlowe finally finds out that it is Eileen Wade who kills both Mrs. Lennox and Roger Wade and he knows the secret identity of Terry Lennox .

Research Background and Thesis Structure

Philip Marlowe, a hard-boiled detective, the protagonist of Chandler’s series novel, has long been studied by literary critics. He is a modern knight with chivalry, representing individualism in the late 1920s. John G. Cawelti notes “the resemblance to the chivarous knights of Sir Walter Scott” (151). For example, E.M. Beekman points out: “If Marlowe were an archetype he would be a somber knight on a never finished quest, recharging his faith by adversity”(166), describing Marlowe as a romantic hero.

Critics about Chandler’s work mostly focus on its hard-boiled detectives. It is well known that hard-boiled fiction usually values realism, but Knight criticizes that Chandler’s story is an elitist project, which is highly partial, and romantic, and its withdrawal from society indicates that it is far from a realization of objective realism (135-167). In The Simple Art of Murder, Chandler himself values the authenticity of the works of Dashiell Hammett, who is viewed as the creator of hard-boiled fiction: “He was spare, frugal, hard-boiled, but he did over and over again what only the best writers can ever do at all. He wrote scenes that seemed never to have been written before”(7). From this sentence, it can be understood that authenticity is much valued by Chandler.In his early times, escapism and romance did form a distinguished feature of Chandler’s works, but when years passed, his personal value and writing style came into maturity, and he finally found the way to integrate his romantic imagination with concrete and objective realism.

Joseph Navitsky views Chandler’s works through a new perspective, paying attention to “Marlowe’s penchant for quoting Shakespeare” and “the unique relationship between Chandler and Shakespeare”(199). With the help of Chandler, “the legacy of the playwright is recurrently bequeathed to readers who, as consumers of his “touch” as it is repurposed in Chandler’s writing, become transformative agents in the reproduction of a Shakespeare specifically conceived for”(212). Namely Chandler gives a modern approach to Shakespearean dramas by his own works, letting readers of his detective fiction be bequeathed to the legacy of Shakespeare.

There are also other interpretations of the novel from the perspectives of the analysis of characters, the genres, the language and the city life. Though the study of Chandler’s works contains different perspectives, a variety of male characters have rarely been studied in The Long Goodbye, and as the classic signs of hard-boiled fiction, the male characters are both symbolic and diversified. Therefore, this thesis will try to analyze various masculinities shown on the male characters in The Long Goodbye based on the theory of masculinities by Australian sociologist R.W. Connell. His theory is embedded in a social theory of gender, analyzing the relationship of the pluralism of masculinities in motion.

The thesis contains six parts. The first part is a brief introduction to Raymond Chandler and the research background and significance. Chapter One will concentrate on Harlan Potter, Mendy Menendez and the protagonist of the novel, Philip Marlowe, who are characteristic of hegemonic masculinity. Chapter Two will explain subordinate masculinity, which is excluded by the mainstream of masculinity. Roger Wade and the suspected gay couple Earl and Dr.Verringer show traces of subordinate masculinity in the story. Chapter Three will discuss complicit masculinity. Characters of this masculinity benefit from hegemony, but they also avoid the potential danger of being dominant. In the novel, this type of masculinity is embodied by Terry Lennox and some incompetent policemen. Chapter Four will study men with marginalized masculinity, who are usually marked by their as their minority identities, such as Candy and Amos. The last part is a brief conclusion. The thesis uses R.W. Connell’s concept of “masculinity” to analyze the pluralism of masculinities shown in The Long Goodbye and hopefully will shed some light on the study of Chandler’s works.

Chapter One Hegemonic Masculinity

Masculinity studies have a long history in the western countries. Recently, masculinities has been studied more increasingly and widely, from the perspective of biology, psychology, anthropology, history and sex role theory respectively. After the 1990s, hegemonic masculinity became the mainstream of academia.

1.1 Hard-boiled Detective: Philip Marlowe

“The concept of ‘hegemony’, deriving from Antonio Gramsci’s analysis of class relations, refers to the cultural dynamic by which a group claims and sustains a leading position in social life”(Connell 77). Because of the dominant position of hegemony in hierarchy society, men with great power and high prestige are always regarded as characteristic of hegemonic masculinity, but it is not forever true. “Hegemonic masculinity is by nature paradoxical,since it seems to stand still but in fact is always on the move" (Mangan 13). In a certain period, hegemonic masculinity is static. However, in the historic view, hegemonic is dynamic.

In the early half of twentieth century, hegemonic masculinity, as the always “ideal” masculinity, was held in high esteem. The protagonist of The Long Goodbye does not belong to the rich or the powerful, but they could still be regarded as the representation of the hegemony. Philip Marlowe, the detective of Chandler’s novel, was once voted as the most famous detective image and even listed above Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes in The Crown Crime Companion: The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time selected by MWA. In a World Press Review interview, Haruki Murakami expresses the wish to live like Marlowe and he also thinks that Philip Marlowe is Chandler’s fantasy but he’s real to him. The reason Marlowe is so popular among the readers is that he is a clever, righteous, fearless, tough, determined, independent and confident man.

In the novel, Marlowe persists in proving Lennox’s innocence, even though their friendship builds on a couple of drinks and some casual chats, showing that Marlowe is a loyal friend. Besides, when Marlowe goes to jail because of being involved in Lennox’s case, he has no complains and he does not reveal any word of Lennnox. His uncooperative attitude towards the law enforcement results in a violent whipping. Even Mr.Grenz form D.A Office admits Marlowe is a “tough boy” and “quite a man”(Chandler 60). He has extraordinary ability as a licensed private investigator and all of this earns him high esteem and respect.

Marlowe would not give up seeking the truth, though he has been intimidated by gangster Menendez and warned by millionaire Harlan Potter. In other words, he is brave enough to challenge the authority and ready to face the possible danger. Marlowe is just like a modern version of questing knight and is rich in chivalry, which is the symbol of hegemonic masculinity in Europe of the middle ages.

On the surface, Marlowe does not perfectly match the traditional image of hegemonic masculinity. Rather, he is a classical antihero. But as Connell says, it is not to say that the most visible bearers of hegemonic masculinity are always the most powerful people(77), Marlowe gets only “eight-fifty” on a single job; his office is simple and crude; he has no connections with powerful guys: he says he is a lone wolf. In stark contrast to earlier hard-boiled heroes of the wildly individualistic 1920s, Marlowe symbolizes the Thirties urge for what Donald E. Westlake calls a need for people to believe in a “commonality rather than isolated individuality”(9).

1.2 The Cruel Mafia, the Powerful Millionaire and the Arbitrary Police Officer

According to Connell, “hegemony is likely to be established only if there is some correspondence between cultural ideal and institutional power, collective if not individual. So the top levels of business, the military and government provide a fairly convincing corporate display of masculinity”(77). And in the novel, there happens to be several corresponding male characters.

As a crime fiction, there ought to be a bunch of underworld figures. Randy Starr and Mendy Menendez are tough gamblers who secretly engage with underworld business. Randy Starr does not talk too much, but he is a tough figure acting as a legitimate businessman on the surface. Mendy Menendez has several conflicts with the protagonist Philip Marlowe and he is the kind of person who tends to “make lots of dough to juice the guys I got to juice in order to make lots of dough to juice the guys I got to juice”(76), showing his strong will to exploit women and men and subordinate them to his hegemonic value. He also uses violence as a vehicle to intimidate others in order to reach his final purpose. Money and power backed up with violence make him confident: “Mendy Menendez don't argue with guys. He tells them” (78).

Harlan Potter, who is the father of Lennox’s wife, is an influential millionaire who owns a few newspapers but values privacy. He is cold and ruthless. After the death of his daughter, he only cares about his family repute and prevents Marlowe from seeking the murderer of his daughter. Harlan Potter is the typical hegemonic man who has both political power and great wealth and is always on the dominant position.

When Marlowe is held in custody, he confronts many police officers from D.A. Office, those cops who “can push anybody around” (78). It is true indeed that the law enforcement has great power and has armed forces to back them up. Arbitrary arrests and detentions are everywhere. In the novel, Marlowe also suffers from illegal punishment from the police officers. The law enforcement usually leads a leading position in social life and most of the law enforcement agents are reflective of the hegemonic masculinity. But inside the law enforcement, the degree of hegemonic masculinity varies. As a rule, the hierarchy between the superior and inferior decide the difference. At the police department, Detective Dayton respects Captain Gregorius yet he bosses Sergeant Green around. At the D.A.’s office, Mr. Grenz yells at Spranklin and Spranklin asks Mr. Grenz for permission before he does every thing. Taking Detective Dayton for an example. He is a tough guy, and has outstanding working ability, but he respects the rank system. Aggressive, tough and dominant, he is a good example of hegemonic masculinity and his other tough fellows share some of his characteristics.

Connell has the opinion that it is the successful claim to authority, more than direct violence, that is the mark of hegemony (though violence often underpins or supports authority) (77). It is no doubt that hegemony is a well-accepted kind of masculinity. Philip Marlowe, Harlan Potter, Mendy Menendez and Detective Dayton are characteristic of hegemonic masculinity, while there are some differences between them: Harlan Potter and Mendy Menendez are both rich and powerful; Police officers like Detective Dayton have a bit of authority; Philip Marlowe is only a civilian. However, they share something in common. They are all firm, tough and dominant and their character is admired in the society at that time.

Chapter Two Subordinate Masculinity

Subordinate masculinity is the cultural authority of heterosexual men and subordination of homosexual men. Connell points out that “within that overall framework there are specific gender relations of dominance and subordination between groups of men”(78). In the case of the time and location of the novel, in contemporary American society, gay masculinity is the most conspicuous subordinate masculinity(78). However, gay masculinity is not the only subordinate masculinity. Some heterosexual men and boys too are expelled from the circle of legitimacy (Connell 79). Usually, the subordinate masculinity is associated with femininity. For those men who are characteristic of subordinate masculinity, they are believed to lack sternness and toughness. What’s worse, their social position is often very low in the social hierarchy.

2.1 Homosexual Roles: Dr.Verringer and Earl

Chandler talks of homosexual roles only by inference. Through the letter Roger Wade writes, Dr. Verringer and Earl, two minor characters of the novel, are mostly like homosexual men. Dr. Verringer does illegal medical practice and helps Roger Wade with his alcoholic symptoms secretly, and Earl is the child of Dr.Verringer’s best friend who has psycho problems.

From the point of view of hegemonic masculinity, gayness is easily assimilated to femininity(Connell 78), especially the fastidious taste for clothes and house decorations or the feminine manner and tone. When Marlowe first meets Earl, Earl represents an obvious feminine manner:

He wore a flat black gaucho hat with the woven strap under his chin. He

wore a white silk shirt, spotlessly clean, open at the throat, with tight wristlets and loose puffed sleeves above. Around his neck a black fringed scarf was knotted unevenly so that one end was short and the other dropped almost to his waist. He wore a wide black sash and black pants, skin-tight at the hips, coal black, and stitched with gold thread down the side to where they were slashed and belied out loosely with gold buttons along both sides of the slash. On his feet he wore patent-leather dancing pumps. (Chandler 119).

The appearance of Earl is feminine with no doubt, especially his skin-tight pants and patent-leather dancing pumps. Normally, there is no straight people who would like to wear like this. His gay taste makes him subordinate to the majority of men, whether he is gay or not.

Judging from Roger Wade’s negative description about the relationship between Dr. Verringer and Earl, Connell’s statement “oppression positions homosexual masculinities at the bottom of a gender hierarchy among men(78)” is proved right:

Then you call Verringer. All right, Verringer, here I come. There isn't any

Verringer any more. He's gone to Cuba or he is dead. The queen has killed him. Poor old Verringer, what a fate, to die in bed with a queen—that kind of queen. [original italics] (Chandler 204)

The drunken ramblings Roger Wade writes down not only prove the assumption that Dr.Verringer and Earl have hidden relationship, but also show the disdainful attitude of straight men towards gay men, who are viewed in the same light as women. Because “gayness” is viewed as the opposite of what masculinity entitles a man to be; therefore it is politically, economically, and culturally denied.

The dominance of heterosexual men and the subordination of homosexual men are easy to be inferred from this story. In political or economical circle, men of homosexual masculinity are excluded by heterosexual community. Compared with the heterosexual marriage, they are not accepted by the mainstream society and often suffer from language abuse.

2.2 The Coward Drunkard :Roger Wade

The Long Goodbye is a personal novel, and the novel contains two characters bearing resemblance to Chandler himself: Roger Wade and Terry Lennox, who are alcoholic and insecure. Just like Chandler, the works of Wade are always best-sellers, but when he gets older he finds it more difficult to write. Also, like Chandler, Wade's novels are viewed by many as not real literature, which hurts Wade a lot, because he has the desire to be thought of as a serious author. Chandler quotes Roger Wade to speak of his literary preference and literary ambition.

Besides the gay people who are believed to possess subordinate masculinity, some of the heterosexual people also fall into the category of subordinate men. These straight people are usually weak and timid, lacking the ideal masculine features, and are often compared to women. Roger Wade and Eileen Wade are symbolic of subordinate husband and dominant wife. Their family life shows a reverted power relationship. In this novel, Roger Wade lives by his wife’s will. The reasons for the emergence of an array of subordinated and marginalized masculinities are immensely complex. But as Connell points out, three of them are central: “challenges to the gender order by women, the logic of the gendered accumulation process in industrial capitalism, and the power relations of empire” (191).

Roger Wade is a romantic novel writer who worries about exhausting his creativity and fools himself with alcohol. According to his wife Eileen, when Wade is drunk, he always loses his temper and becomes a horrible man who “threw his wife downstairs and put her in the hospital with five broken ribs”(Chandler 93). The publisher Howard Spencer believes “he’s losing his grip and there’s something behind it” (93). Actually, Roger Wade is running from something he wants to forget, which he knows. That is, his wife has killed Sylvia, he wants to bury it so he uses a little statuette to hit Sylvia’s face. Although he is drunk at that time, he clearly knows what has happened. Instead of confronting with his wife or telling the truth to the police, he chooses to run away and seeks help for alcohol. All he does is self-pitying and moaning, lacking decisiveness and toughness, which are signs of hegemonic masculinity. Instead, he presents a submissive attitude towards his wife. On the other hand, Roger’s wife Eileen accuses Wade of killing Sylvia when she is confronted with Marlowe and Spencer. Eileen is ignorant of what Wade does for her and thinks of her husband as “a weak man, unreconciled, frustrated” (Chandler 306). In his marriage life, Roger Wade never owns a hegemonic masculinity but stays as a man of subordinate masculinity.

Gay or straight, men who own subordinate masculinity tend to be despised and marginalized. In the inner gender relations of patriarchal world, gay people are in the subordinate position while straight people are in the dominant position. But for some men, they lack the so-called masculine characteristics and are subjected to their wives unconditionally. It is worth mentioning that this kind of heterosexual men are subordinate to women not only in marriage life but also in work. And this is the conspicuous difference between the subordinate men and the complicit men.

Chapter Three Complicit Masculinity

Only a few men can achieve hegemonic masculinity successfully, for men can hardly practice hegemony all the time in all aspects; therefore, most men own the other kinds of masculinity and get benefits from the hegemonic pattern of male in hierarchic society. Men who own complicit masculinity is those who “realize the patriarchal dividend, without the tensions or risks of being the front-line troops of patriarchy”(Connell 79). Men that fall into this category do not receive the same benefits and privileges as those who are seen as purely hegemonic. In other words, complicit masculinity is the categorization of men who connect with hegemony but do not completely represent hegemonic masculinity.

3.1 The Parasitical Husband: Terry Lennox

As described above, Chandler himself is the archetype of two characters in The Long Goodbye. One is Roger Wade, the frustrated writer. The other is Terry Lennox. Lennox is also an alcoholic just like Chandler and they both have the war experience. Yet unlike Chandler who went through the First World War, Lennox is in the Second World War. At the beginning, Lennox’s English gentleman manner attracts Marlowe and Sylvia, reminding readers of Chandler’s education experience in England.

Terry Lennox is the thread of this novel. Without a job and without prospects, Lennox can still wander into Las Vegas’s cultivated society, because of his wife’s money and his father-in-law’s reputation. It is easily judged that Lennnox marries Sylvia for her money, and he admits that. But this marriage business comes with its cost. On the surface, he lives a comfortable life and associates with famous people, but on the inside, he feels that his pride as man has been seriously hurt.

Terry desires to establish a harmonious relationship with a beloved wife, yet it is hard to achieve. As Sylvia’s sister once says “he had a rich wife who gave him all the luxuries. All she asked in return was to be let alone” (Chandler 162). Sylvia is not a perfect wife, all she wants is an open relationship. Therefore, Lennox’s desire cannot be achieved. And his love for Sylvia is true, otherwise he won’t marry Sylvia. Sylvia loves to have fun, loves to keep affairs with different guys. Lennox chooses to forgive Sylvia, which is the compromise men sometimes have to make in marriage life, “rather than naked domination or an uncontested display of authority” (Connell 79).In Lennox’s eyes, his wife is “such an absolute bitch”, but he is “fond of her too in a remote sort of way” (Chandler 24). Though his wife cheats on him, he won’t leave her, because he believes that “some day she'll need me and I'll be the only guy around not holding a chisel” (Chandler 24).

Lennox is characteristic of complicit masculinity, and his character is, to some extent, weak, gentle and mild instead of tough and dominant:

I'm a weak character, without guts or ambition. I caught the brass ring and it shocked me to find out it wasn't gold. A guy like me has one big moment in his life, one perfect swing on the high trapeze. Then he spends the rest of his time trying not to fall off the sidewalk into the gutter(24).

When Lennox is suspected of killing his wife, he seeks help for Marlowe and his comrades Randy Starr and Mendy Menendez, who are all hegemonic people with toughness and decisiveness. He knows he cannot solve this on his own and then he turns to hegemonic men for help, which can show his craving for the power of hegemony. He tries to pursue for hegemonic masculinity but he fails with frustration.

Besides Terry Lennox, there are other male characters in the story who can also be included in the complicit type. This includes Terry’s brother-in-law Edward Loring, an always-tired and frustrated doctor. Linda Loring is a polite and well-educated rich young woman. Living with her hunsband Edward Loring, she becomes a different person: “There was an edge to her voice and a sneer in her expression.(Chandler 172)”, proving that in the Loring family, his wife leads the dominant role and he is subordinate. Terry Lennox and Edward Loring share many similarities in family life, for they admire love and stability of domestic life. Besides, their efforts in the pursuit of hegemonic masculinity are in vain and both of them need to make a compromise with their wives.

3.2 The Incompetent Policemen

Not all of male characters in law enforcement are hegemonic, some of them take for granted the patriarchal dividend. In the novel, there are some incompetent policemen, who are representative of the complicit kind.

Sergeant Green and Sheriff Peterson are complicit type in law enforcement. Unlike his superiors and colleagues, Green is more inclined to be mild, gentle and calm. Bearing the features of complicit masculinity, he lacks toughness and ferocity as well as outstanding ability, just following orders, enjoying the advantages and benefits hegemony brings peacefully and stably.

Sheriff Peterson is an incompetent officer, but he has “a collection of testimonials from a grateful public to his twenty years of faithful public service”(Chandler 268). He would like to show himself in every photo, but most of the time he is riding a horse and all he cares about is to have good pictures taken. If people want to ask him for help, they would not find him, for he is always absent. “He was in his middle fifties and his father had left him a lot of money”(268) and he has no competence and cleverness but can easily sustain his position in the police department:

There had been crooks in his department and they had fooled him as well as they had fooled the public, but none of the crookedness rubbed off on Sheriff Petersen. He just went right on getting elected without even trying, riding white horses at the head of parades, and questioning suspects in front of cameras. That's what the captions said. As a matter of fact he never questioned anybody. He wouldn't have known how. He just sat at his desk looking sternly at the suspect, showing his profile to the camera (Chandler 268).

Peterson has no working ability or qualifications, but he can get rewarded by possessing others’ merits and achievements. He enjoys the privileges of men, or in other words, the privileges of superiors endowed by the principle of hierarchy.

Ironically, Sheriff Petersen sustain his position in police station for decades successfully, because the whole society tacitly approves of complicit masculinity. At that time, there is inner gender hierarchy of the male world, in which hegemony leads the dominant role. The patriarchal society still ensures the privileges of almost every man with a certain kind of masculinities.

Sheriff Petersen just went right on getting re-elected, a living testimonial to the fact that you can hold an important public office forever in our country with no qualifications for it but a clean nose, a photogenic face, and a close mouth. If on top of that you look good on a horse, you are unbeatable(268).

The ironic situation shows the complicit men can gain a lot without risking any challenge and danger. Those men who own complicit masculinity are different from hegemonic men and pursue for hegemony. Men like Terry Lennox and Edward Loring are the typical figures of complicit masculinity who would like to compromise with wives in domestic life. Just like Sheriff Petersen, they all benefit from patriarchal society, but none of them stand in the front troops of practicing hegemony.

Chapter Four Marginalized Masculinity

In Connell’s opinion, marginalization refers to the relations between the masculinities in dominant and subordinated classes or ethic groups. Marginalization is always relative to the authorization of the hegemonic masculinity of the dominant group(80-81). In this novel, the most conspicuously marginalized masculinity can be found in the black men and men from minority groups. Because of their race and low social status, these people easily fall into this category.

4.1 The Belligerent Houseboy: Candy

According to Connell, “hegemony, subordination and complicity, as just defined, are relations internal to the gender order. The interplay of gender with other structures such as class and race creates further relationships between masculinities”(80). Therefore, some men can be classified into the category of marginalized masculinity who hardly enjoy the privileges hegemonic men have in the patriarchal society. Candy, the houseboy of the Wade family, is the typical figure with marginalized masculinity.

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