Al Assignment.docx

CHANDANA S ANAND (17/97) TANYA L WARJRI AMERICAN LITERATURE September 7, 2018 Q: Do you agree with Dupin’s observation that an investigator should rely on intuition and imagination as much as on logic and sights? The answer will be describing how important is logical and imaginative notion for an investigator, how normal police easily give up on such cases, the idea of ratiocination in the story, how Dupin’s approach to the cases vary from the existing trend contradicting the statements of prefect. In this story, the French police launch a series of investigations which are scientific though often unwise and the quest proceeds by means of logical methods those solely rely upon past experiences and conventional systems of thought. Their investigative methods were the reflection of different types of rational thought ubiquitous in that period .The police force puts a full stop by giving up the quest for the letter because the thief concealed it in the most unexpected set, just a hand away. Later Dupin figure out this and recovers the letter. The story is a transition from action to intellectual analysis. The character Chevalier Auguste Dupin was created before the word “detective” existed. So Dupin even made a lasting impression on Sherlock Holmes as well as in many other fictional detectives as well. The Prefect succeeded in briefing the path selected by him along with his crew to reclaim the letter without the Minister’s knowledge. Both political motives and financial motive drew them to the task of finding the letter. The Prefect and his squad washed-out every night for three whole months ransacking the Minister’s apartment, but could not procure the letter. The Prefect says that the Minister, being a poet, is a fool, because the Minister assumes that the police will be able to sort out the hidden letter. The Prefect was veiled under policemen act like thugs and ambushed

the Minister twice assuming that he might be having it, but the Minister wasn’t found carrying the letter at any point in the whole of story. Then it is from Dupin’s explanation how he found the letter, his keen observation which boosts guessing skills extraordinarily is apparent. He notes that the police’s methods were carried out perfectly, but the only thing was it is inappropriate to use in such a case. During the explanation of his meaning, he shares a fable about a schoolboy who was very good at guessing games because the boy was a sharp observer of his opponents’ behavior and could figure out how the opponent will think. Dupin point out the Prefect’s mistake was his belief about how he would hide a letter, and concluding that everyone would think follows the same fashion. Dupin realizes that the Minister is both a poet and a mathematician, and it’ll be a game with a combination of creativity and reason which made the Minister to stash the letter. In this case, ratiocination does not act in accordance with with the universal rules of logic but with those analogous to the perpetrator’s way of view. He also explains that the letter has to be somewhere nears the Minister, since he needs to be able to use it at a moment’s notice. Moreover, Dupin also notes that the Minister, being a shrewd political opponent, knew about the plundering, and even encouraged them. He was sure that police would be puzzled where to look for the letter, and probably give up their searches. Dupin describes the concept of hiding something in plain sight by making it extremely obvious, so that no one would ever think to look in that spot. The Prefect’s first visit with Dupin to minister’s place, deduced that the letter must, really, be hidden in plain sight. Along with this idea, Dupin made a random visit to the Minister’s home one morning under the simulation of a social visit. Dupin wore dark eyeglasses faking about his weak sight so that he could survey the whole home without the Minister’s knowledge. Dupin noticed a seemingly unimportant letter kept in plain view, stuffed in a letter rack. The letter resembled to the purloined letter a little bit, because it had been ripped and had a new seal on it. However, he was sure that this was the letter in question, especially when he found it showed signs of having been rotated inside out. Dupin’s methods of solving the crime by means of deductive interpretation or ratiocination, and, by extension. Unlike normal police force a detective have to be in genuine think out of box, which is quite clear for everyone. The traits of being an analytical genius with an eccentric and a

isolated nature who stands outside of the middle-of-the-road in society, has poor look upon the social norms. Unlike the police, his method of ratiocination stares at the big picture, packs it with all the clues and signs, irrespective how insignificant or extraordinary they seem to be. It commence with a close examination of the zone, which his helper feels atypical. Dupin says they opened every package and parcel including close examination of volumes of books with needles. From these instances his observation, thinking mode, practical efficiency and accurate steps are to be praised. Logic and sights along with intuition and imagination is effectively carried out by the detective born through Edgar Allan Poe.