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Outlaws and Outsiders in U.S Crime Fiction (Drive (Novel) by James Sallis,…

- - - - Driver agreed to help Standard because he saw it as a job. He didn't do it because he cared for Irina. Readers didn't even know how he felt about her.
        
        He didn't do it to protect Standard either. It was just a job.
        
        Standard didn't take the job because he was being forced. He purposely took the job offer.
        
        Irina and Standard are not together in the book. They are exes.
        
        IRINA DIES
        
        Driver goes after Nino because he wants to return the money. And he wants justice for being tricked. He doesn't go seeking revenge for justice.
        
        There is no race-car subplot.
        
        CONCLUSION:
        
        Called IRENA in movie.
- - - - After a job, Driver is betrayed and seeks revenge. This led me to believe he is an outlaw, as he is not really carrying out any justice for anybody but himself.
        
        "We're professionals. People make deals, they need to stick to them. That's the way it works, if it's going to work at all" (Sallis, 117)
  - - - In the film, after Driver is betrayed by Blanche and her team, Driver goes after Nino on a revenge quest. Since he is doing this for someone else (Irene), this classifies him as a bandit, and not an outlaw as we see in the novel. He's rebelling against an 'enemy force'.
        
        "When you get your money, his debt is paid. He's out for good. And you never go near his family again. You understand?" (Ryan Gosling, 0:51:10)
  - - - Driver is an interesting character, in the sense that even though he is the protagonist of the book, he has no name, we know very little about him, and he doesn't speak that much at all. We never know what he is thinking or why he does what he does. But all of these details help establish why Sallis chose to tell his story using a non-linear structure.
        
        The non-linear order limits the reader's emotions about Driver. Since nothing happens in chronological order, we don't have time to get attached to Driver. We don't have time to know what he is processing because he can say a line and we're already at the next chapter. So whenever he does something, we don't really know why and when he does something bad, we can't find justifications for why he did it, because any chance of justification is either skipped or glossed over, because of the narrative technique.
        
        When Irina (Irene in the movie) dies, her death is glossed over like everything else. We never get to know how he felt about her death of how it affected him. "Irina died just after four a.m" (Sallis, 112)
        
        All these add to Driver being an outsider in society. By distancing the reader from Driver, he becomes an extreme outsider.
    - - By the director choosing to tell the story in chronological order, we lose the essence of Driver's 'outside-ness'. Even though the Driver in the film is as quiet as the Driver in the novel, this movie Driver has MORE emotions than novel Driver.
        
        By giving Driver emotions, he becomes a bandit. As the movie develops his relationship with characters, we can see his motive to do what he does. He has reason. He has justification, whereas in the novel, we don't really know why he does what he does.
        
        Unlike the book where we 'don't go on a journey with Driver, in the film, readers are with Driver every step of the way. We get attached to him as he is not distanced from us. By being attached to Driver, he feels likable and we want him to do good.
    - - BONUS CONTENT: GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn
        
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        Gone Girl is another crime novel that has an interesting structure. The events are revealed in chronological order, but flashbacks are used throughout and they are crucial to the plot.
        
        Gone Girl begins with Nick going about his day on the day Amy went missing.
        
        After we find out Amy is missing, flashbacks are used to show Nick and Amy's marriage. From the days they were deeply in love until they day they fell out of love.
        
        A book's narrative structure all depends on what the book is trying to achieve. Drive begins right in the middle, it begins with the crime gone wrong and we trace our steps back, trying to find out how events led up to that opening. Gone Girl starts from the beginning of the story and we follow along, trying to find out what happens. If Gone Girl had started with Amy revealing what she had done, the whole plot would have fallen apart and it would have been a whole new story all together. This is the same with Drive, if it had not started with the Motel scene.
        
        Work Cited
        Sallis, James. Drive. No Exit Press, 2011. Print
        Flynn, Gillian. Gone Girl. Orion, 2012. Print
        Hobsbawm, E.J. "Introduction", Primitive Rebels: Studies in Archaic Forms of Social Movement in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Manchester University Press, 1971, pp.4
        
        It is then revealed that Amy is not missing. She ran away and staged the whole thing to frame Nick. We get more flashback techniques that show us how she planned everything.
- - - - Driver helps Standard because he wants to keep Irene and her son safe, since he cares very deeply for them.
        
        He also does it as a favor to Standard, as they became good friends.
        
        Standard comes back from prison, and vows to change his criminal habits but he owes people protection money, so he goes back into crime for one last heist, and Driver helps him.
        
        The job with Standard goes wrong and ends with Standard dead. Driver sets off to find out what went wrong and to seek justice for Standard because he feels bad about the situation Irene and Bennicio are in.
        
        IRENE DOES NOT DIE.
        
        CONCLUSION:
        
        Called IRINA in book.
        
        The first half of the movie, Driver and Irene are seen spending a lot of time together, this makes their relationship credible and further explain Driver's motives for doing what he does.