Rosales 1

Jamel Rosales

Professor Wilson

ENG 123

22 April, 2018

Secrets and the Unknown

Every mystery story comes with an epic secret awaiting to be uncovered. Detectives are

usually the protagonists in these mystery stories as they are the ones who are doing all of their

research enroute to uncover their sought after mystery, hence the term: Detective Mystery. These

types of stories revolve around one theme, secrets and the unknown. Secrets and mysteries go

hand-in-hand since they are synonyms of each other which make secrets and the unknown a

strong theme for the story “Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery” in David Mitchell’s novel

Cloud Atlas. It also helps having the word “mystery” in the title of the story as it “promises plots

with enigma” (Bean 92). With further research in what makes detective mystery tie in with the

theme of secrets and the unknown, I will be analyzing additional aspects of what makes detective

mysteries unique to other genres through other literary criticism works, novels, and even

hollywood films.

Without a secret or something that is unknown in this genre, there will be no mystery

which will cause a detective mystery to not have a meaningful plot. In Jennifer M. Bean’s

literary work “Early Mystery-Crime Films, Scientific Seriality, and the Imagination of Wonder”,

she explains what it takes for a mystery story to be successful, stating “the mystery—something

to be solved, that something which plays upon the natural curiosity of the human mind” (Bean

91) is the key for a story to fall into the mystery genre. Luisa Rey, the protagonist in “Half-Lives:

The First Luisa Rey Mystery”, is an aspiring journalist trying to follow the path of her world-
 Rosales 2

renowned journalist father, Lester Rey. In her hometown, there is an abundance of dark secrets to

be uncovered about many major companies, so Luisa looks deeper into Seaboard which leads her

into dangerous encounters. Many powerful people who are head of the big companies try to keep

their twisted plans and secrets safe no matter what they have to do to carry their motives out.

Seaboard hired an assassin, Bill Smoke, to take out anybody who put the companies secrets in

danger, ensuring that whatever they are doing does not get out to the public. In the beginning of

the story, Rufus Sixsmith contemplates his own death as he thinks, “a quiet accident is precisely

what Grimaldi, Napier and those sharp-suited hoodlums are praying for” (89). Sixsmith

understands that the high profile people have a bone to pick with him and it would be fortunate

to those “sharp-suited hoodlums” if he were dead. Sixsmith drags Luisa into the mess he is in

when he explains to her everything twisted about Seaboard. Luisa realizes that what the

companies show and promote to the public are never really what it seems after she is enlightened

by Sixsmith, later going on to publish the story at her work, Spyglass. Because of Luisa’s natural

curious mind as a reporter and her published work, this causes her to receive hostile attention

from twisted people in power, mainly Seaboard. Murder cover-ups and planned assassinations is

what is new in the life of Luisa Rey and she wants to get to the bottom of what is going on. The

mystery and thrill to uncover these secrets about these companies help give the story meaning

which makes it worth reading, and it also evokes an exciting feeling that keeps the audience

deeply engaged. This shows just how far companies in power are willing to go to keep their

secrets quiet and keep their company running, no matter what they have to do to obtain their

goal.

Throughout the story, David Mitchell uses a strong literary feature of using more than

one point of view. There are many conversations in this section that help unravel the plot
 Rosales 3

smoothly. What makes the feature of using more than one point of view so valuable in the

detective mystery genre is that it shows different sides to a story. When authors use more than

one point of view, it evokes dramatic irony, which is when the audience knows something that

the character or characters don’t know, causing secrets that are held between characters.

Dramatic irony surfaces because different sides to a story hold information that somebody else

does not know, which might be valuable to them. An example of this is when Joe Napier has a

flashback of when he witnessed Bill Smoke brutally murder a lady, and he realizes that he can

not let that happen to Luisa. Joe says to himself “I went out on a limb to get Luisa Rey wised

up…. I’m only one man. I’m not a platoon. All I want out of life is life. And a little fishing”

(Mitchell 413). At the time he was having that flashback, Joe knew that Bill Smoke was out to

kill Luisa, but Luisa did not know that she was being tracked by Smoke, which is why he had to

“get Luisa Rey wised up.” Another time where dramatic irony surfaces is when a mysterious

man calls Sixsmith and demands he leaves the country immediately because he is being tracked.

Sixsmith says “why should I believe-” (107). Sixsmith does not know why he is being tracked

and does not know if he should believe the mysterious man or not. The man knows something

that Sixsmith does not know which can fall under the category of a secret. Even though Sixsmith

does not believe the man, he takes precautions and tries to flee the country. Before Sixsmith

actually gets to board the plane to escape his potential danger, an assassin, Bill Smoke, murders

him in the airports bathroom.

David Mitchell also utilizes italics in his writing to signify the current characters

thoughts. Thoughts are something that only the person thinking them know in the moment, and

there are a lot of quiet thoughts throughout Luisa Rey’s story giving it that sneaky, secretive feel.

Later on in the novel, Joe Napier shows his good side by trying to protect Luisa from Bill
 Rosales 4

Smoke. Joe Napier says to himself “she can’t know about Margo Roker” (399). Margo Roker

was the person Joe witnessed brutally murdered by Bill Smoke, and he is trying to keep Margo’s

story away from Luisa to keep her safe because that could also happen to her if she “keeps on

looking for Rufus Sixsmith’s reports” (399).

In detective mysteries, setting is a major literary feature that plays into the theme of

secrets and the unknown. In the beginning of “Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery”

Sixsmith says to himself, “Buenas Yerbas isn’t Cambridge, anyway, you are hiding” (89). Yerba

Buena is an island in San Francisco, so David Mitchell is using San Francisco as the setting. This

is important because San Francisco is a big city with a lot of faces and stories; a city that never

stops moving. In a literary work by Harold Bershady titled “Detective Stories and City Life”, he

states:

“Detective stories take place mainly in two settings, constantly changing, many faceted

big cities filled with strangers, and stable, fairly homogeneous, innocent small towns

whose members know one another. The differences in each clarify the qualities of the

other. In solving the mystery of the small town, the detective provides moral instruction

and restores the town’s innocence. In solving the mystery in the big city the detective

reveals the city as part of the mystery and provides the reader with temporary orientation

to the city. Mysteries have grown with the growth of the cities and now appear in every

country of the world” (1).

San Francisco is a widely populated city where there is a new face to be seen every day. There

are a number of small communities where people know each other, but not everybody in town.

There are a couple million of different points of view in San Francisco and so many different

mysteries to be solved. In Luisa Rey’s story, she lives in a city with a lot of unrecognizable faces
 Rosales 5

and she only knows a small handful of people, which the article emphasizes as the main setting

of any mystery. Bershady also claims that “the big city detective, particularly the private eye, is,

in a great many cases, an isolate, unmarried or divorced, without deep connections to any

persons or community, but with many ‘contacts’ from whom he or she can get information” (71).

Luisa Rey wasn’t married, she lived by herself and did not have any strong connections to

anybody besides Javier who lived next door, and they were not even that close. Although, Luisa

did come in contact with a lot of people who knew secrets around the city and big companies.

Due to the living situations that Luisa was in, it benefited her in the long run because there were

not as many secrets that could be kept from her because she did not really keep that many people

around in the first place. She also had the trust of Rufus Sixsmith, who had all the information

and he seemed to be pretty important to all the antagonists in the story.

As secrets and mysteries go hand-in-hand, we see them throughout Cloud Atlas, not just

in Luisa Rey’s story. A very important literary feature that David Mitchell uses are symbols and

little details throughout sections of his book that connect all of the stories one way or another

through a number of decades, and they seem odd or mysterious. Although we know that the

stories take place decades after each other, there are many small details that leave the audience

thinking of ways that the stories connect, such as the birthmark that is in the shape of a comet

that Luisa Rey and Robert Frobisher share. It is mysterious that these two people share the same

exact birthmark, in fact it is close to impossible. Luisa and Frobisher are not even related and

Luisa’s story takes place decades after Frobisher’s; how does this birthmark connect them? This

leaves the audience pondering on the possibilities of this happening and leaves an illusion of the

stories being connected. We also see Robert Frobisher popping up in Luisa Rey’s story as his

music called “Cloud Atlas Sextet” plays for Luisa to hear. “Cloud Atlas Sextet . . . Robert
 Rosales 6

Frobisher . . . As a matter of fact I have heard of it, though I’ve never laid my sticky paws on an

actual pressing” (119). Obviously Frobisher plays a big part in Luisa’s story than expected, but

how? And why? Also worth mentioning that Frobisher’s music was called “Cloud Atlas Sextet”

which is what the novel is titled. This makes me wonder if Frobisher plays a bigger role in the

entire novel rather than just in his and Luisa’s story, but it remains a mystery and a secret for

only David Mitchell to know.

Detective mystery is such an interesting and popular genre that it has been taken to

Hollywood where they’ve made detective mystery inspired films. A film worth noting is “Shutter

Island” directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio. In this film, DiCaprio plays

a U.S. Marshall named Edward Daniels, accompanied by his partner Chuck Aule, who travel to a

secluded hospital on Shutter Island in Boston to investigate the disappearance of a patient named

Rachel Solando who was taken in for drowning her 3 kids. Daniels and Aule find the staff

suspicious when the lead psychiatrist Dr. John Cawley does not allow them to see records of the

patient. This shows that Dr. Cawley is hiding something and keeping secrets from the detectives,

obviously something important. Daniels and Aule also find out that Rachel Solando’s doctor

Lester Sheehan fled the island instantly after Rachel went missing. Lester Sheehan can be a

prime suspect in the disappearance of Rachel because it is suspicious Lester left after Rachel

went missing; it remains a mystery. Dr. Cawley allows Daniels and Aule access to the whole

hospital to investigate but they are told to not go to Ward C. This prompts the question, is Dr.

Cawley hiding evidence in Ward C? They don’t know but they respect his instructions and stay

away.

Daniels begins to have headaches and bad dreams about his wife Dolores Chanal who

was murdered by a man named Andrew Laeddis. In one of Daniel’s dreams, Dolores tells him
 Rosales 7

that Solando, the woman who drowned her 3 kids, and Laeddis are still on the island somewhere,

but everyone on the island says that there was never anyone there with that name. Another

mystery surfaces; who is Solando and Laeddis? Daniels soon goes mad and breaks in to

restricted Ward C where he meets a man named George Noyce who claims that everyone on the

island is in on a scheme against Daniels including his partner Aule. What is the Island hiding

from Daniels? Aule’s body goes missing and Daniels believes it is at a nearby lighthouse, so he

goes there to investigate. When he arrives, he runs into Dr. Cawley where he explains to Daniels

that he is the real Andrew Laeddis. Dr. Cawley says that Laeddis is their most dangerous patient

who is incarcerated in Ward C for murdering his wife Dolores Chanal because she drowned their

3 children. Dr. Cawley further explains that the names Edward Daniels and Rachel Solando were

anagrams for their real names. Mystery solved.

This film displays detective mystery and the theme of secrets and the unknown perfectly

through a number of different literary features such as setting, plot and numerous points of view.

The different points of view create dramatic irony as it plays a key role in this film because

Daniels is unaware of who he really is and the scheme that the hospital has set up against him.

The plot of the story is very valuable because it is created as a mystery film that always keeps the

audience speculating and asking questions. Setting is an important literary feature as well as it

helps with the solution of the mystery because Daniels doesn’t have a deep connections with

anyone and he has people, even imaginary people, to give him information. These literary

features are key in any Detective mystery story just like David Mitchell’s “Half-Lives: The First

Luisa Rey Mystery” utilize.

Edgar Allan Poe, an American writer who is widely considered as the inventor of

detective fiction and famous for his intense short stories, wrote “The Murders in the Rue
 Rosales 8

Morgue.” This story takes place on Rue Morgue which is a fictional street name in Paris. Here, a

man named C. Auguste Dupin investigates a brutal double murder of a mother and a daughter; an

intense plot that will keep a reader engaged. According to the newspaper, the mother was found

in the backyard with broken bones and her throat cut and the daughter was found strangled to

death and stuffed into a chimney. Who was capable of doing such an act? A mystery is now in

motion. The detective found it odd that the crime happened on the fourth floor, but all of the

doors were locked from the inside. How did the murderer get inside to commit the crime and

how did this person get out and manage to lock the door from the outside? This is where setting

has a big part to do in this mystery. Also, Dupin and his partner who is unnamed, live secluded to

everyone else and they don’t allow visitors. Going back to Harold Bershady’s literary work, he

claims “the big city detective, particularly the private eye, is, in a great many cases, an isolate,

unmarried or divorced, without deep connections to any persons or community, but with many

‘contacts’ from whom he or she can get information” (71). This describes their living situation

perfectly, they live in a heavily populated city of Paris where they live secluded to everyone else.

Dupin and his partner don’t talk to anybody but each other and they have many sources

of information. There were also witnesses who reported hearing two voices at the time of the

murder but the speech was unclear and they couldn’t determine the language spoken. There has

now been more points of view added to the story, inevitably adding more unknown information:

secrets. Since nobody knew what language people were hearing from the murder, Dupin

concluded that it wasn’t a human voice. Dupin and his partner inspect the the house deeper and

his partner suggests that the murderer must have had superpower strength to shove a body up a

chimney. This strengthens Dupin’s original conclusion of the suspect not being human. But what

animal is capable of the knowledge to hide bodies after a murder? Mysterious. Dupin concludes
 Rosales 9

that the only animal capable of a murder like this with some intelligence similar to humans is an

orangutan, so he advertises in the local newspaper a lost orangutan and of course a man comes

asking for it. The man explains that he bought the orangutan and he had trouble keeping it under

control. This explains how the suspect reached the fourth floor without using a door and

escaping, as well as the non-human voice. Mystery solved.

The genre of Detective Mystery contains many different literary features that make it

unique such as plot, point of view, setting and symbolism. Each of these features can strongly

promote the theme of secrets and the unknown if used correctly, like David Mitchell uses in his

story “Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery” and Martin Scorsese in his movie “Shutter

Island” as well as Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Each of

these stories use original plots to create a meaningful story, and different points of view to create

the illusion of dramatic irony. Additionally, their use of setting helps with their conclusion to

their mysteries.

Word Count: 2960

 Rosales 10

Work Cited

Jacob, Leah, MA. "Mystery Fiction." Salem Press Encyclopedia of Literature, 2016.

EBSCOhost, 0-

search.ebscohost.com.library.4cd.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=89144571&s

ite=eds-live.

Bean, Jennifer M. "Early Mystery-Crime Films, Scientific Seriality, and the Imagination of

Wonder." Velvet Light Trap: A Critical Journal of Film & Television, no. 79,

Spring2017, pp. 90-96. EBSCOhost, 0-

search.ebscohost.com.library.4cd.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=121757284

&site=eds-live.

Bershady, Harold. "Detectives Stories and City Life." Society, vol. 44, no. 5, July 2007, p. 70.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s12115-007-9015-y.
 Rosales 11

Douglas R. McManis, author. "Places for Mysteries." Geographical Review, no. 3, 1978, p. 319.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.2307/215050.

“Shutter Island (Film).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Apr. 2018,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shutter_Island_(film).

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Apr. 2018,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Murders_in_the_Rue_Morgue.