8/25/2013

   Earlier today, I decided to clean out my bookshelf.  I spent the morning going through piles upon piles of books laying around my bookshelf.  I decided to put all of the books by the same author in separate piles.  I was looking through my Agatha Christie pile when I found a book that I had read at the beginning of the summer, Murder on the Orient Express.  For those who have not read it, I highly recommend it.  Those who enjoy mysteries will find it to be an interesting story, and for those who enjoy plot twists and surprises will enjoy it even more.  Stumbling upon this book made me think of all of the characters and the unexpected twists and turns that occurred in the book.  While I was thinking about the plot, a thought occurred to me.  The victim vs victimizer theme present in Frankenstein is also present in Murder on the Orient Express.
   In Frankenstein, the roles of victim and victimizer switch throughout the book.  I realized that the roles of victim and victimizer also switch throughout the Murder on the Orient Express.  The story is centered around detective Hercule Poroit.  He is traveling on a train full with people from different social classes and different parts of the world.  On the second night, Mr. Ratchett is murdered in his compartment.  Ratchett was stabbed twelve times.  Poroit takes charge of the investigation, and begins searching the train and interviewing the passengers.  The reader follows Poroit's journey which includes finding clues, discovering alibis, interviewing suspects, and keeping an eye for the murderer.
   At the beginning of the novel, Mr. Ratchett is presented as the victim.  Even thought the reader does not particularly like Mr. Ratchett's character the reader feels bad for Mr. Ratchett because the poor man was murdered in his sleep.  However, it is discovered later in the novel that Mr. Ratchett is actually a man named Cassetti.  Cassetti kidnapped and murdered a little girl named Daisy Armstrong many years ago.  At this point in the novel, the reader no longer feels that Mr. Ratchett is the victim.  The reader feels that Mr. Ratchett got what he deserved for killing an innocent child.  WARNING: SPOILER ALERT.  If you actually want to read this book, do not read any further!  Once Mr. Ratchett is identified as Cassetti, Poroit begins to discover that the passengers on the train are connected to the Armstrong family.  One by one, the reader begins to see the passengers as the victims.  These poor people knew the innocent little girl who was murdered, and they all adored her.  At the end of the novel Poroit comes to the conclusion that everyone on the train plotted to kill Mr. Ratchett together which is why he had twelve different stab wounds.  By the end of the novel, the reader does not feel bad for the victim, the person murdered, he or she feels bad for the victimizers, the murderers.  However, the victim/victimizer role could be different depending on the reader's point of view.  The reader can look at Mr. Ratchett or Cassetti as the victimizer.  He murdered an innocent child and got what he deserved.  The reader can look at the twelve murderers on the train as the victims.  These twelve people were connected to this poor child and suffered for many years. After making the connection from the Murder on the Orient Express to Frankenstein, I believe that the victim vs victimizer theme is a theme present in multiple novels, and can be interpreted in many different ways.