Murder on the Orient Express
Agatha Christie
300/347
The novel takes place on the Orient Express, a luxurious international train heading to London from Istanbul, Turkey. The trip takes place in winter, 1934. The entire story takes place in different cabins of one coach. It is winter, we can see the snow covered countryside of the former Yugoslavia (Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia). The train gets stuck when an avalanche of snow covers the tracks. However, the action that takes place on the coach is a stark contrast to the nature outside, where the time seems to have stopped.
Hercule Poirot, a famous Belgian detective, is travelling on the train, as the guest of the company operating the train. As it is off-tourist season, he expects the train will not be too busy. To his surprise the first class coach is full and he ends up sharing a cabin with the secretary of the wealthy American business man, Mr. Ratchett, who later gets killed. He meets an array of different passengers with different backgrounds and cultures, all in one coach.
The main conflict in "Murder on the Orient Express" is the murder of Mr. Ratchett, a rich american businessman. Mr. Ratchett turns out to be Cassetti, a criminal who was involved in the kidnapping and murder of a young girl, which destroyed her entire family. As a result of the corruption of the judge, he was acquitted and escaped the justice. On the train he is killed by being stabbed with a dagger, twelve times.
The conflict man vs man exists on several levels, the murderers vs Cassetti and the murderers vs Poirot. We do not know Ratchett's true identity when he is killed. He appears to be innocent, and a victim of an unknown person. It turns out that he is Cassetti, who killed one girl and caused the death of an entire family. Poirot looks for the murderers, hoping to bring them to justice. Poirot faces obstacles by Ratchett's killers, They manage to mislead Poirot by placing various clues. As he suspected there are 12 individuals directly involved in the murder of Ratchett.
Man vs society. The society proved to be inefficient in Cassetti's case. In spite of all of the evidence against Cassetti, he got acquitted. The corrupt judge was behind the acquittal. The judge acted against the interest of the society. This conflict exists on several levels, the judge (man) betrayed the society, and the society (judge) betrayed the man (victim and victim's family).
I predict that a distant member of the dead girl's family killed Mr. Ratchett to revenge her and her family. Since the murder took place in an enclosed space where movements and action were restricted, I think that the killer must have had accomplices to carry out the murder.
Agatha Christie
300/347
The novel takes place on the Orient Express, a luxurious international train heading to London from Istanbul, Turkey. The trip takes place in winter, 1934. The entire story takes place in different cabins of one coach. It is winter, we can see the snow covered countryside of the former Yugoslavia (Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia). The train gets stuck when an avalanche of snow covers the tracks. However, the action that takes place on the coach is a stark contrast to the nature outside, where the time seems to have stopped.
The main conflict in "Murder on the Orient Express" is the murder of Mr. Ratchett, a rich american businessman. Mr. Ratchett turns out to be Cassetti, a criminal who was involved in the kidnapping and murder of a young girl, which destroyed her entire family. As a result of the corruption of the judge, he was acquitted and escaped the justice. On the train he is killed by being stabbed with a dagger, twelve times.
The conflict man vs man exists on several levels, the murderers vs Cassetti and the murderers vs Poirot. We do not know Ratchett's true identity when he is killed. He appears to be innocent, and a victim of an unknown person. It turns out that he is Cassetti, who killed one girl and caused the death of an entire family. Poirot looks for the murderers, hoping to bring them to justice. Poirot faces obstacles by Ratchett's killers, They manage to mislead Poirot by placing various clues. As he suspected there are 12 individuals directly involved in the murder of Ratchett.
Man vs society. The society proved to be inefficient in Cassetti's case. In spite of all of the evidence against Cassetti, he got acquitted. The corrupt judge was behind the acquittal. The judge acted against the interest of the society. This conflict exists on several levels, the judge (man) betrayed the society, and the society (judge) betrayed the man (victim and victim's family).
I predict that a distant member of the dead girl's family killed Mr. Ratchett to revenge her and her family. Since the murder took place in an enclosed space where movements and action were restricted, I think that the killer must have had accomplices to carry out the murder.
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