Brighton Rock Essay, Research Paper
Brighton Rock – Graham Greene
Brighton Rock is a religious story which begins as a battle between good (Ida
Arnold) and evil (Pinkie). This battle takes place in a resort area south of London
called Brighton. Brighton contains all kinds of restaurants, amusements, slums, and
higher class areas. One example of these slums is Nelson Place; where Pinkie and
his later on to be wife Rose are from. Nelson Place in my opinion is what influences
Pinkie to become a man of evil through his tragic youth. Where Pinkie grows up
under the influence of two horrible parents, a poverty-stricken neighborhood, and as
a kid who is willing to do anything for a better life. Another horrible influence on
Pinkie is Mr. Colleoni; a man with a business empire, control of his own powerful
mob as well as the police and other governmental authorities, and shops in Brighton.
This man has all that Pinkie wants, and this brings Pinkie to a life of crime and
constant mortal sin. Pinkie has in my opinion been misguided by Mr. Colleoni’s
empire, and that is why he is just an evil boy who thinks that having a lifestyle like
Mr. Colleoni will bring him happiness. Pinkie is also blind to the happiness that the
descent people like Rose and Ida have
because of his misguided life. Pinkie’s evil desire is what causes him to do whatever
it takes to get this life style. As shown by his uncontrolled killing of people such as
Hale, and Spicer.
Ida Arnold, a person who thinks of herself as an avenger as well as a rescuer for
the people affected by Pinkie’s evil now comes in to the story. Although Ida does
not have complete faith in God; she has a good heart. This is why she feels the need
to declare her semi-covert battle against Pinkie not only to avenge Hales’ murder,
but to rescue all the people who have not yet been affected like Hale, and Spicer
from Pinkie’s desire. I also feel that Ida must have had a better life as a youth in
comparison to Pinkie and that is why there appears to be no sympathy from Ida
towards Pinkie.
Ida also seems to suffer from a kind of irony though; because when she might
have unknowingly been able to save Hales life by not leaving him she went to “wash
up and fix her face.” When she came back though he was gone and she never saw
him again until the funeral. Later in the story this irony represents itself agin when she
was about to find out critical informat
again went to “wash up and fix her face,” and when she came back from the
bathroom in the Cosmopolitan Cubitt was gone.
During this battle between Ida and Pinkie (Good and Evil) Rose a person who
appears to be a lonely, innocent, person of faith is used as a shield by Pinkie. Rose
is such a lonely person that she only appears to be deceived by Pinkie when he gets
her to marry him so she can’t be used as a witness against him in court. Yet later on
we find out that she wasn’t that innocent when she reveals to Pinkie in their
apartment that she new of his horrible acts, but married anyway because she was so
lonely, and only wanted to be loved (since she too came from a broken home like
Pinkie).
Rose wants to be loved and have some type of companion so badly that she
momentarily turns her back to her faith in God. Now she repeatedly tells Pinkie that
he has acquired her faith when she discusses “being damned together.” Rose seems
to believe in her faith to Pinkie now, just as he also seems to when he repeats
constantly after meeting her that “Rose completes me.” However Roses’ faith is
tested over and over by Ida who continuously antagonizes Rose about her evil
husband. Roses’ faith to her husband Pinkie is regularly tested by none other than
her own husband when he shows that he doesn’t even feel love for by avoiding
physical contact (such as kissing her) for as long as he can. Even the third person
narrator reveals to the reader at times that Pinkie does not love Rose by revealing his
inner thoughts when he is near her.
By the end of the story we can see that Roses’ faith in Pinkie is finally broken
when he goes to far and asks her to commit suicide. Rose a kind hearted woman
who may have been able to ignore, or forgive the abuse she had received from
Pinkie, but this time he went to far. What he asked her to do was absolutely
inexcusable, and proved to her as well as the reader that he didn’t love her, and had
only been using her all this time. Therefore it really wasn’t good that won over evil,
but faith that won over betrayal. I say this because it wasn’t Ida who saved Rose
from Pinkie; but Ida saved herself from Pinkie when she threw the gun away.
Now Rose has also turned around her once damned life by finally going to
confession in an attempt to not only reconcile with God about her mistake but also
with her own conscience.