Murder on the Orient Express Foreignness and 'the Other' Quotes
How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
At the table opposite them were three men. They were, he guessed, single travelers graded and placed there by the unerring judgment of the restaurant attendants. A big, swarthy Italian was picking his teeth with gusto. Opposite him a spare, neat English-man had the expressionless disapproving face of the well-trained servant. Next to the Englishman was a big American in a loud suit – possibly a commercial traveler. (1.3.14)
The description of the three men plays on stereotypes about each nation.
Quote #2
Poirot, by now, knew all about Mrs. Hubbard's daughter. Everyone on the train who could understand English did! How she and her husband were on the staff of a big American college in Smyrna and how this was Mrs. Hubbard's first journey to the East, and what she thought of the Turks and their slipshod ways and the condition of their roads. (1.4.24)
Mrs. Hubbard personifies the loud, obnoxious American traveler. We were a little offended until we found out (many chapters later) that this is just an act.
Quote #3
"There isn't anybody knows a thing on this train. And nobody's trying to do anything. Just a pack of useless foreigners. Why, if this were at home, there'd be someone at least trying to do something." (1.5.42)
Mrs. Hubbard suggests that people are most loyal to their own countries and countrymen. Since they're all in a foreign land, she thinks they feel no responsibility to help solve the murder. Do you think that's a fair statement, even though "Mrs. Hubbard" is just Linda Arden putting on a show?
Quote #4
"No," said Mr. Bouc thoughtfully. "This is the act of a man driven almost crazy with a frenzied hate – it suggests more that Latin temperament. Or else it suggests, as our friend the chef de train insisted, a woman." (1.6.128)
Mr. Bouc suggests that only someone of the "Latin temperament" could have committed the crime – or a woman. What is the significance of this connection?
Quote #5
"I thought there were no detectives on the train when it passed through Yugo-Slavia – not until one got to Italy."
"I am not a Yugo-Slavian detective, Madame. I am an international detective."
"You belong to the League of Nations?"
"I belong to the world, Madame," said Poirot dramatically. (2.7.78-81)
Poirot sees himself as belonging not to one nation, but to all nations. That makes him the perfect detective for the crime. Still, does he hold some prejudices against people from certain countries?
Quote #6
Poirot leaned forward. He became persuasive and a little more foreign than he need have been.
"Monsieur, I am about to appeal to you. You and Miss Debenham are the only two English people on the train. It is necessary that I should ask you each your opinion of each other." (2.8.28-29)
How does Poirot use his difference to play into the psychology of Colonel Arbuthnot and other passengers? Why does be become "a little more foreign" in this scene?
Quote #7
"I don't as a rule like Americans – haven't any use for 'em-"
Poiriot smiled, remembering MacQueen's strictures on "Britishers." (2.8.38-39)
Colonel Arbuthnot and MacQueen express prejudices about people from each other's home countries.
Quote #8
"Then I go back to my compartment. The miserable John Bull who shares it with me is away attending to his master. At last he comes back – very long face as usual. He will not talk – say yes and no. A miserable race, the English – not sympathetic." (2.10.33)
A "John Bull" is an English popular culture figure, kind of like Uncle Sam.
Quote #9
"He has been a long time in America," said M. Bouc, "and he is an Italian, and Italians use the knife! And they are great liars! I do not like Italians." (2.10.51)
M. Bouc's prejudiced opinion of Italians provides a bit of comic relief in the novel. We know that he's being absolutely ridiculous.
Quote #10
"I have the little idea, my friend, that this is a crime very carefully planned and staged. It is a far-sighted, long-headed crime. It is not – how shall I express it? – a Latin crime. It is a crime that shows traces of a cool, resourceful, deliberate brain – I think an Anglo-Saxon brain." (2.10.54)
Poirot's notion that only an Anglo-Saxon brain is cool and resourceful is dated and backwards. Why is his assumption a problem?
Quote #11
"I like to see an angry Englishman," said Poirot. "They are very amusing. The more emotional they feel the less command they have of language." (3.7.50)
Poirot uses stereotypes about the English to work up Colonel Arbuthnot and Mary Debenham. Why is this a good angle for getting information out of the Colonel?
Quote #12
"So, you see, sir, he couldn't have done it. Tonio may be a foreigner, sir, but he's a very gentle creature – not like those nasty murdering Italians one reads about." (3.8.53)
Masterman rushes to Antonio's defense once he realizes that the stereotype of the bloodthirsty Italian may cast suspicion upon the man.