🔍BRIGHTON ROCK- PINKIE Flashcards
Pinkie’s Trauma 🚧🤘
Seeing his parents have sex made him EMOTIONALLY OUT OF TOUCH, Pinkie can’t express emotions in a HEALTHY WAY.
-His past is a BARRIER preventing him from experiencing GENUINE human connection🚧
-He is influenced by his environment, he is desensitized from violence due to GANG CULTURE 🤘and ‘role models’ like Colleoni.
Pinkie’s Nihilism 🩸👑
-His trauma can be seen as creating his NIHILISTIC view of the world, it stripped away any sense of HOPE for him and made him adopt a bleak outlook on the world.
-He thus believes in the meaninglessness of existence.
-There is a CYCLE OF VIOLENCE🩸 rooted in his traumatic past, which fuels his need for CONTROL + POWER👑 to cope with his inner turmoil.
-He lost his INNOCENCE, and this was almost replaced by BRUTALITY.
Pinkie’s Religion 😈👩👧👦🌀☠
-Thinks life is meaningless, is almost OBSESSED with the idea of hell and damnation. 😈
-Fueled by his CHILDHOOD👩👧👦 as he was so traumatized that he naturally gravitates towards brutality and punishment.
-Pinkie TWISTS🌀 the traditional Catholic views in order to FIT with his own IMMORAL actions, absolving himself from guilt.
-There is a sense of impending doom ☠
-Readers will be disturbed by his twisted views of Christianity, viewing him as INTIMIDATING, UNPREDICTABLE and a VILLAIN 😲
Pinkie’s Violence (1) 👑🥇
-Pinkie uses violence to assert DOMINANCE and CONTROL over others, links to how he felt vulnerable as a child. 👑
-Pinkie is obsessed with violence as his whole goal is to establish himself as a FORMIDABLE FORCE to be reckoned with. 🥇
Pinkie’s Violence (2) 🎭🪨📏
-Violent tendencies= MASK🎭 to hide his true inner feelings, wants to appear adult so he conceals any fears or insecurities.
-HARDENED EXTERIOR that conceals his INNER TURMOIL. 🪨
-Violence= to DISTANCE 📏himself from people so that issue of not knowing how to express love is diminished.
Pinkie’s Morality as Focaliser 💭🌫️
-Readers are exposed to his unthinking nature as he acts impulsively and is obsessed with violence. 💭
-The reader’s OWN sense of morality and judgement of his actions become BLURRED as Pinkie somehow rationalizes his immorality.🌫️
Pinkie’s Morality in Character Journey 🥀🧪🔮
-Pinkie= decends into darkness, slowly edging away at his moral views highlights Pinkie’s MORAL DECAY. 🥀Pinkie becomes increasingly consumed, showing the CORROSIVE EFFECT 🧪OF CRIMINALITY ON THE HUMAN PSYCHE.🔮
-Greene explores HUMAN AMBIGIOUTY, delving into ideas of individuals exhibiting BOTH virtuous and evil tendencies.
Pinkie Child Quote
“The Boy”
-Pinkie = depicted as a child surrounded by a world of adults.
-The sentiment of “Boy” to belittle him + show his innocence/ naivety towards the life of crime, no matter how much he wishes to be a part of it.
Pinkie’s Exposure to Crime Quote
“The imagination hadn’t awoken. That was his strength”
-Due to Pinkie’s early exposure to crime and poverty, he did not have the luxury to have an imagination and have hopes and dreams
-He recognised the cycle he was trapped in and made it his strength.
Pinkie’s Rejection to Enjoyment Quote
“the violins wailed in his guts.”
-Pinkie actively rejects any enjoyment or pleasure in his life, so much so that it gives him a visceral reaction.
Pinkie’s Dual Life Quote
'’one hand caressed the vitriol bottle in his pocket, the other touched Rose’s wrist.”
-Juxtaposes the normality of life with Rose a+ the danger of life with vitriol: Pinkie= toying between them both.
-Pinkie holding Rose’s wrist = shows how he keeps everyone in his life at arms length, they do not see the vulnerability within him.
Pinkie’s Biblical Quote
“Credo in unum Satanum”
- Shows his understanding of Catholicism and how he follows the faith, but recognises his sins are too deep for him to go heaven.
Pinkie’s Sadistic Nature x2
“He began to pull off the legs and wings one by one”
-Pinkie =sadistic, he picks on the vulnerable and dissects them until they are at his submission.
-He views suffering to be cured by more suffering, which is why he hurts Rose both psychologically and physically.
Pinkie’s Emotions
“Tenderness came up to the very window and looked in”
Pinkie’s emotions= coming to the surface and causing him confusion. “Window” = motif throughout the novel, symbolic of how Pinkie is always on the fringes of society, crime and his emotions - he is blocked by something continually.
Rose’s power over Pinkie
“She was his like a table or a chair, but a table owned you, too - by your finger prints”
-Pinkie confessing that Rose has some power or control over him, because he has to marry her to conceal his crime.
