Relationships...

American Crime Stories

Retold by John Escott

Registration Code: 813 A512c 2008 c.02

Relationships in this book are one of the most important elements, since a crime is always somehow related to a relationship, whether by love, money, jealousy or selfishness, etc.

The book has seven different stories, which aren’t related in anyway. So, since it’s kind of boring to analyze the seven of them, I’m going to show how I understood relationships in the most interesting tales.

(Death Wish) What can pass through a man’s head to make him want commit suicide? At the beginning it’s hard to say, my case, I’ve never felt that, which only makes me more curious about it. But reading the whole story, you can understand that he didn’t want to kill himself. Another man was taking his place to make everybody believe he wanted to and then murder him giving no clue. The reason… a woman of course. Most of the biggest tales in the world begin because of a loving issue. When Mr. Wright’s wife commited suicide he wasn’t the most affected one, but her lover. The relationship between these three characters was so complicated that, the husband killed her wife and made everyone believe it had been suicide. Can you see? A relation ship can be so complicated that not only can lead to death, but to lie, to pretend, to plan complicated stuff just to get revenge. Maybe it’s not always like this, but in this book most of the stories have this similar characteristic.

(The heroine) Lucille was a nice and beautiful twenty one years old girl. Her issue… The relationship with her mother. She was so traumatized with her mother’s death that she felt like wasn’t fitting anywhere, until she gets to work at the Christiansen’s house. The relationship she created with the kids of the house made her feel so comfortable, that made her thinking about staying there for a life time. The only problem was that she wasn’t normal at all, and the connection she started to feel with the house started to disturb her head. Always trying to impress the  householders, one day she reaches the extremes. She planned something to remain as the heroin, burn the house and herself rescue the kids in order to amaze the Christiansen and get their love and affection. A relation can be tender and loving, ‘till one of the parties starts to feel that it’s not enough. Hard to make a comparison with my own life, since the relation ships appearing in the book are kind of… sick.

(The Gutting of Couffignal) A detective is hired to watch the presents in a wedding ceremony at a really rich house located in a very particular island, kind of private, only for wealth people. Everything goes ok ‘till night comes and the disaster starts. The bank next to the house and the house it self are being robbed by really violent bandits. The issue here is that they didn’t have a detective in their plan, which made the whole thing even more complicated for them. The relation here is simple, the one between a man and his profession. He made to discover the entire problem here, who were the robbers and why. But at some point he has to protect his relationship, since some temptations like sex or money appear to silence him. Of course, when you have a strong relationship, it’s unbreakable. I strongly believe in this kind of relationships, because these ones can be applied to any other one. I’ll make my self clear. A person who’s really in love with her couple, style of life, job, etc., is the one who is going to live happy and secure, since there’s nothing more satisfactory than knowing that you are faithful to something you love.

Relationships are complex and weak. You never know when these ones are going to die or when your feelings about it aren’t going to be same. Protecting them is only up to ourselves, and even though sometimes it is complicated to decide whether they are good or bad to our lives, having one is most of the times the most rewarding thing ever.