CAE SET TEXT 2009 THE PELICAN BRIEF

CAE, THE PELICAN BRIEF

One woman against the world, by Daniel Brint

You might be asked to talk about a character whose actions you admire, or what makes the story effective. You might be asked to explain an aspect of the story that would appeal to readers. An obvious focus for a question of this sort is the central character, Darby and the way she tries to get to the bottom of what is going on. Shortly after her boyfriend has been killed and when she realizes the danger she’s in Darby considers her situation. She chooses to fight (see pp.156/7.)

Darby is one woman against the world. She refuses to be a victim, to give up – she is going to fight back. She takes on the powerful forces that can easily destroy her – politically corrupt politicians, hired killers, the power of big business and law. This character is very common in stories – and particularly popular in American writing; the small person, seemingly powerless who, against the odds, is able to defeat their enemies. It’s David and goliath, it’s Bilbo Baggins, Frodo and the Lord of the Rings. Obviously, we want to think that individuals make a difference, and the Pelican Brief is a very optimistic book in this sense – Darby is a decent, good person and thanks to her intelligence is the equal for those who wish to destroy her as they have destroyed lives and anything that gets in their way. How Darby does this is a mixture of bravery, good planning and – that essential ingredient, a little luck. But there is no doubting her determination and it is this that ultimately wins the day. It might be wishful thinking, but the book suggests that we are not entirely at the mercy of big business and big government.



Below is a summary/discussion of The Pelican Brief taken from this site:
http://www.mimersbrunn.se/The_Pelican_Brief_by_John_Grisham_the_complete_review_3663.htm



Darby Shaw is a bright legal student who lives a happy life in the French quarters of New Orleans. She’s having a wonderful love affair with her con law teacher, Thomas Callahan. She’s beautiful and ambitious and life just seems great for her. Then two Supreme Court justices are killed and she takes a few days off to write a brief about the matter. Eventually she finds her work to be a waste of time and she discards it. Angry over the time she has wasted she continues her studies, but Callahan, whom she barely spoke to during the time she wrote the brief, finds her speculative ideas very interesting. During a dinner he mentions the brief to one of his friends, a man named Veerhek and he pursues him to read the brief. Veerhek is a lawyer for the FBI, who’s for the time being works like crazy to find the assassin of the two Supreme justices. He thinks that the brief might be helpful for the investigation and that it might lead to other suspects, or to one positive suspect, since they have absolutely none. Therefore he takes the brief to the leader of the investigation who decides to put a team of agents on the case. Ultimately the existence of the brief comes to the knowledge of the White House. Shaw’s brief contains a lot controversial ideas and fierce accusations involving the president and a lot of very rich and powerful men. After some time it is widely spread within the upper layer of the FBI, CIA and the White House and soon the shockwaves of it comes. Shaw little realises the affects of her brief. She could never imagine that it would be the cause for Thomas being blow into a million pieces by a car bomb (which actually was meant for her) nor that she would have to flee for her life as paid killers are following hard on her heels. There is one man who knows about the brief and that is determined to reveal the truth and that is investigative reporter Gray Grantham with the Washington Post. In the beginning we get to follow their separate lives but they are eventually drawn together by the brief and they embark on a journey fraught with danger to reveal the truth behind the assassinations. There are some characters in this novel that are particularly interesting. Among them are of course the two main characters Darby Shaw and Gray Grantham. They are each other’s opposites, in this novel that is. I believe that at least Darby would be quite different if put in another situation.Darby is a methodical person who analyses things a lot and she reconsiders every move she makes. This is something that becomes obvious when she’s being hunted down and knows about it. This is also crucial for her survival as her only salvation is to stay undetected. She carries out this task with great perfection; I mean that she moves around a lot, she never sleeps in the same place twice, she changes her hair colour three times a week and she never pays in cash. She’s thus using almost none of the things that the hunters are using to track her down. The FBI is also looking for her, as she is the key to their whole investigation. But her moving around makes it hard for them as well to catch her. When reading about the things she does you are really surprised because what she does is too advanced for a civilian. This was something that the FBI and her hunters didn’t count on and it is also what keeps her alive. As the story comes along you can sense that she is becoming more and more tired of running and hiding which is, of course, understandable. This is where the differences appear between her and Grantham. I sort of pictured him as Richard Geer in “Runaway Bride”. He is a very eager reporter who is always at work. That might explain why he’s still single. As their investigation grows more and more complicated involving more and more important persons, Gray gets even more anxious to prove Darby’s theory. If her ideas prove to be true and he succeeds in publishing an article about it, then it could earn him a Pulitzer and he’s very aware of it. Darby is only helping him because she wants to help his career there is nothing in it for her. She is not doing it because she cares whether the truth is revealed or not. She could take a plan to the Caribbean and live there for the rest of her life. The money is not an issue as she inherited a large amount from a deceased relative, so she could take it all and live a quiet and happy life on some tropical island. But she doesn’t. The differences spoken of before are to me obvious in the following quotation. They are here investigating a tip that Gray received from a insider of whom they believe to be a lawyer at one of the big firms that are connected to their case. They are trying to find out which firm he is working for and if that information could lead to a motive why the Supreme Court justices were killed.(Gray) “…you think that Mattice (one of the powerful men involved in the plot) figured out this by himself?” (Darby) “No, of course not, some wicked legal mind presented him with two names. He has a thousand lawyers.”“And none of them are in D.C.?”“I didn’t say that.”“I thought you said the law firms were primarily from New Orleans and Houston and other cities. You never mentioned D.C.”“You’re assuming to much”There are of course other personalities in this book as it is a rather complicated story with different groups of people, all fighting for their on benefit. For example, the president makes some statements after the assassinations on advice from his closest colleague, Fletcher Coal. They are made with the only intention of gathering more votes as there is a re-election coming up in a year. As a matter of fact he really hates those two who were killed. As the brief could seriously damage the president Coal insists that the head of the FBI, a man named Voyels, doesn’t investigate that lead. Coal is the one who is really making the decisions, not the president. He is just a puppet in the hands of Coal. Coal is also a real workaholic. He sleeps about three hours a night and works a hundred and thirty hours a week. It is not just that but he expects everyone else to work at least eighty hours. He makes, due to his attitude, a lot of enemies. One of them is Voyels whom I picture as a cranky old man who literally hates Coal, which shows on various occasions in the book. His only joy in the investigation is to try to bring down Coal. And Thomas, whom we lost in the beginning of the story, had some time to “make a life of his own”. He is a con (constitutional) law teacher who could be mistaken for a student the way he thinks. He drinks a lot and he is almost drunk every night. So, to sum up, there are a lot of different stories or plots going on in this novel, but the main one is of course the one about Gray and Darby. If you’ve read it I think you would agree to that it is a little bit predictable. I mean, by the time you’ve reached the middle of the book both Darby and Gray have made such an impression that everything points to that it’ll all work out. Which it does of course. Gray succeeds in publishing the article and he earns a Pulitzer. Darby moves to a tropical island. Gray, who had a crush on her, finally finds her and he’s warmly welcomed and, of course, they live happily ever after. A typical American way of ending a book – the bad guys get it and the lovers live happily ever after.

Film Review of The Pelican Brief
http://tech.mit.edu/V113/N64/pelican.64a.html


You can find a useful description, summary and analysis of The Pelican Brief here

http://www.bookrags.com/essay-2005/2/28/11519/9909