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Copywork
About This Passage
Marjorie Weinman Sharmat opens the book with a perfect imitation of the hard-boiled detective voice — Hammett, Chandler, the films noirs of the 1940s — performed by a small child. The pleasure of the book is the gap between the voice and the speaker.
My name is Nate the Great. I am a detective. I work alone. Let me tell you about my last case.
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize the chapter and explain what makes Nate's voice work.
Discussion Questions
- Nate borrows the voice of a hard-boiled detective — Hammett's Sam Spade, Chandler's Marlowe — and applies it to a small child looking for a lost painting. What is the rhetorical effect of voice/situation mismatch?
- The lost painting turns out to be hidden behind a new painting. Why does the author choose a clue that is in plain sight but covered? What does this teach the reader about the structure of mysteries?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
the tough, terse style of mid-century American detective fiction
Item 2
a literary work that imitates another style as a kind of tribute
Item 3
in literature, the distinctive style and personality of the narrator
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Critical Thinking
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