Brighton Rock

After Pinkie Brown murders a man, in retribution for the killing of his friend, he must cover his trail so that he is not caught. He has all points covered except for two. One of them is a woman by the name of Ida Arnold, a woman intent on proving Pinkie’s guilt. The other, a girl called Rose, witnessed something she was not supposed to. Rose shares Pinkie’s view of Catholicism, salvation, and damnation. Ida Arnold does not. She believes in right and wrong and justice. She believes that what Pinkie did was wrong and that he should be brought to justice. Gary Greene's Brighton Rock revolves around the opposition between the concepts of spirituality and mortality. It does so by continually mentioning how certain characters views an act, the main character's expected judgment, and his changing moral values.

Pinkie, or the Boy, as he is referred to for the majority of the novel, murders a man by the name of Franks Hale, a reporter, in revenge for the murder of his friend, one known as Kite. Hale’s job with the newspaper was to place cards in certain locations and provide a prize to anyone who found the winning card. Though Hale was not the one to murder Kite, he was an informer for the rival gang, Colleoni, which was responsible for the murder. After killing Hale, Pinkie has one of his gang members take the cards that Hale was responsible for placing and put them where he would have been, in a restaurant, had he been living. Rose worked as a waitress at that certain restaurant and was the one to witness the member of Pinkie’s gang putting the card there. In order to keep Rose from talking Pinkie begins courting Rose. When he feels he has no other option “Pinkie marries her in a civil ceremony that both know to be an offense against the Holy Ghost”(Greene, viii). Although both know this to be wrong and damning for the both of them, they go through with it anyways. He does it because he is certain that he can either convince her or force to keep quiet. She does it because she loves him and was willing to have herself and her future children damned just to be with him.

The woman Ida Arnold is also frequently trying to persuade Rose to leave Pinkie and that life behind. She feels that it is her duty to save Rose. Rose however thinks that Pinkie loves her and would do nothing to hurt her. She also would not leave Pinkie because she loves him. Ida tries to convince Rose of what’s right and wrong, but the words have no effect because “…their taste was extinguished by stronger foods- Good and Evil. She knew…that Pinkie was evil…”(Greene, 217)

Ida Arnold was with Frank Hale the day he was murdered. Although because of how he acted the day he was going to die, for he knew “that they meant to murder him” (Greene, 3), she came to the conclusion that it was not a death of natural causes as the papers had said. She thought she knew it was Pinkie and was just trying to find a way to get evidence and prove him guilty. While she is looking for evidence, she gets a friend of hers, Phil Corkery, to assist her. After a while, and working hard to find evidence, they one day find themselves in hotel after a hard days work. That night they sleep together, even thought they’re not married. Ida does not feel that this is wrong because “it’s only fun…fun to be human”(Greene, 158). This also shows how she views religion because to some, sex before marriage is considered a sin.

As a result of his lifestyle and the acts he has committed Pinkie believes he is damned even though he is only seventeen. One of the factors is that he married Rose when she was sixteen, and that they didn’t get married in a church. Another thing that causes this belief within his marriage is the fact that he killed two men. One of them being Hale and the other being a member of his own gang who he thought knew too much, and who he thought was “sour and milky”(Greene, 58). First he tried to have the man, Spicer, murdered by some men from another gang but they turn on him and attack him as well. As he was running away, Pinkie began to think briefly of his salvation. He thought of repenting but couldn’t bring himself to “repent for something that made him safe”(Greene, 116). Pinkie does care about his salvation, however it does seem that he’s more concerned about his mortal safety than he is about his eternal salvation. He wanted to make a “confession, when he was safe, to wipe out everything”(Greene, 117). One of the things that somewhat drives Pinkie away from the thought of salvation is, after he has consummated his marriage with Rose, he wakes up and goes for a walk to get some air, and as he is walking he saw
“an old woman…the rotting and discoloured face…like the sight of damnation. Then he heard the whisper, ‘blessed art thou among women,’ saw the grey fingers fumbling as the beads. This was not one of the damned: he watched with horrified fascination: this was one of the saved.” (Greene, 204)

It begins with Pinkie, though he’s a hardened, resolute mob leader, who doesn’t drink, and is horrified of sex, which he refers to as “the game”. He stands by his values until one night, he and his gang members are going out to a bar. There they meet the late Spicer’s now ex-girlfriend. She is overcome with grief and commands Pinkie to have a drink. He does so and then begins dancing with her. It is after that, that he almost breaks his other moral value of staying away from “the game.” He goes with the woman into the parking lot to find a car. Before the act can be completed, or even started for that matter, Pinkie flees, the thought of sex being too much for him to bear. He later breaks that rule when he sleeps with Rose after their marriage. One of the things that does not change within Pinkie is his determination to become safe from the law in his mortality. He is always willing to do whatever it takes, kill whomever he needs to, (“…have I got to have a massacre?” (Greene, 264)) in order to not get caught.

Through these things we see that the opposition between spirituality and mortality is what the novel revolves around. Pinkie and Rose represent the spiritual angle of the novel, with their fear of damnation and salvation. Ida Arnold represents the mortal/physical side with her desire for what she considers right giving no thought to whether she offends God or not in the process. Their views, Pinkie’s expected judgment and his moral values are where the contrast is exemplified the most.




Bibliography
Greene, Gary. Brighton Rock. Vintage. Great Britain: Vintage, 2004