able to produce the feeling and sensation which are not occupied in the casual detective stories. Noir thriller shows the intense involvement of the protagonist
— who is not necessarily a detective
—in decision making. Moreover, rather than leaning much on the detective’s procedures, it deeply explores the characters’ fear
and anxiety. It figures out how the people face their low and high points in live. It narrates how the people behave and how their habit may lead them into unluckier
fate.
2. Noir Thriller in American Literature
The most popular work which employs the characteristics of noir thriller based on American concept is James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice
1934. It is also the biggest influence of noir works to emerge. It shows the fragility of the characters’ feelings. Using the first person point of view, Frank
Chambers narrates how at first he does not intend to commit the murder, but he and Cora
—his friend’s wife—cannot resist from their desire to live together, so they need to get rid of Cora’s husband. Instead of achieving their intention, their
attempts to murder Cora’s husband has doomed themselves. Their very single decision brings them into worse and worse state. Cora ends up dead and
Chambers himself is jailed. Besides Cain’s ironic characters, the development of American noir thriller in
the first-three decades is collected in the Library of America in Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 1940s
and Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s
Davenport, 1999. Edward Anderson’s Thieves Like Us was praised for its excellent writing technique. The existentialist heroes were presented through a
group of gangsters set in the era of American Great Depression. The gangsters delivered a critical view about people’s misconception in perceiving ‘thieves’.
The other notable noir work is Horace McCoy’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
1935, telling about the flashback of a big dreamer, Robert Syverten. As he is not so rich to be a movie director, he participates in a dance marathon
contest with a young woman named Gloria to afford a big amount of money. Instead of winning and getting the money, he ends up killing Gloria. He
memorizes about the reason w hy the murder is committed. He grants Gloria’s
own wish. She wants to die as being tired of her pessimism upon living in Hollywood during the Great Depression era.
3. The Conventions of Noir Thriller
