Homicides as an Immoral Self-Proclamation in James M. Cain’s Crime Fiction

The purpose of this paper is to examine the motives and elements of homicides within a capitalist background in James M. Cain’s hardboiled crime fiction, The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity, while exploring their connection to existential issue, identity crisis, and modern melancholia. The reading observes capitalism as a fateful companion aligned with members of society, sharing in the sense of melancholic dreams and emotions within the experiences of passion and depression, rather than investigating or accusing its intrinsic problems. And it focuses on how the human instinct of not wanting to become normal and inferior to other presences is more bluntly spurred in the crisis of permeated identities. In the process, the complex interplay of personal issues within an individual’s private realm work to unfold violent and immoral actions of homicides in the name of safeguarding or asserting personal territories—immoral self-proclamation—amidst gender, class, and wealth conflict. Through Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity dealing with criminal behaviors, struggles, and deficiencies underlying certain patterns, this paper explores the complex human mind and the criminality of combative human history from psychological and philosophical perspectives. In this manner, the paper prioritizes the exploration of universality over conflict issue and suggests a different approach to consuming crime fiction in humanistic way.