62 pages • 2 hours read
The Maid
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Literary Devices
The Detective Genre
While the major theme of the story is Molly’s Coming of Age, the plot is a detective story, which follows certain conventions. The author signals that The Maid is intended to be read as a detective story by inserting frequent references to well-known examples of the genre such as Sherlock Holmes, the works of Agatha Christie, and the television series Colombo.
The first common convention of the detective genre is a detective with special knowledge or understanding. For example, Sherlock Holmes is so absorbed in his observations and deductions that he is almost unsuited to ordinary life. The same is true of Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple. They live alone, often requiring a “Watson”—a more ordinary person who translates the story for the reader.
Molly’s favorite detective is Colombo, who assumes an air of dishevelment and distraction that causes people to underestimate him. People often overlook or underestimate Molly as well. She seems to them to live in a world of her own in which a room can be returned to a state of perfection. Molly, the mild, unassuming person who seems a little out of step, turns out to be the one who understands the most.
When the detective is not a member of the police force, there will typically be a police representative who provides a contrast between the detective’s iconoclastic efforts and the traditional methods of the police. Often, the police detective will come to the wrong conclusion. Detective Stark appears to be a solid investigator, but she is too quick to suspect Molly simply because she stands out from the people around her; she believes the dishonest people who say Molly is a likely murderer because they confirm her sense that Molly is different. It turns out that the people the detective trusted are involved in the drug ring.
Following the conventions of the mystery genre, the reader expects Molly to be one of those amateur detectives who prove that her difference gives her unusual powers. The first intimation that this may not be the case comes when Mr. Snow remarks with annoyance on the amateur sleuths descending on the hotel. The implication is that amateur sleuths are a dime a dozen. When Rodney makes a similar remark, the reader is forced to wonder if the author is trying to communicate something about amateur detectives.
Molly already knows the identity of the murderer and has no intention of exposing the first Mrs. Black. The author drops another clue to this when Molly tells us that her favorite detective is Colombo. The Colombo television series was notable for the fact that the viewer always knew the identity of the murderer, and the tension of the story lay in watching Colombo close in on the killer in his mild-mannered and absent-minded way.
Gradually, the reader becomes the detective, and the question of who killed Mr. Black becomes “who did Molly see in the mirror?” Molly is the puzzle that must be solved to unravel the mystery. For example, Molly insists that Giselle is blameless, but as Detective Stark notes in Chapter 15, blameless may not mean innocent. To what lengths would Molly go to protect her friend?
At the end, when the reader learns that the first Mrs. Black was in the room behind Molly, they realize that Molly has dropped just enough information for the solution of the mystery to be cathartic. Molly comes fully into focus, and we see the degree of moral ambiguity of which she is capable.
Unreliable Narrator
Molly is an unreliable narrator. What she reports to the reader is colored by her perceptions—and misperceptions. The reader is often reading through what Molly says. For example, Molly interprets Rodney’s Rolex as a sign that Mr. Snow pays him well, whereas the reader recognizes that Rodney is thus probably involved in something illegal. Similarly, the white powder on the desk in Juan Manuel’s room is not powdered sugar—as Molly surmises—but cocaine.
Unreliable narrators are not uncommon in literature written from the first-person point of view. When the story is told by the protagonist herself, there’s always the possibility that she may be manipulating the reader, intentionally or not. The fact that the story is also told largely in the present tense means that when Molly is confused, there is no time for reflection in which she can sort out what happened. The reader is as unsure as she is.
If the story were told in the past tense, Molly would have had the advantage of hindsight enabling her to organize and correct her memories and perceptions and to convey them in an orderly way. Instead, her descriptions are as confusing for the reader as they are for Molly. In addition, because she progresses through the story in the present tense, she has no reason to explain to the reader what she is thinking. When Detective Stark asks her what she saw in the hotel room, Molly considers what she is and is not willing to say but doesn’t have any reason to explain what she is withholding or why.
Voice
Voice plays a large role in the tone of the story as well as in character development. Molly has a distinct way of using language. She speaks precisely and uses unusual word combinations, for example, “return your room to a state of perfection” (14). Her phrase suggests something almost mechanical—as human beings cannot produce perfection, and normally one would not expect it. On one hand, the strangeness of the phrasing emphasizes Molly’s separation from other people. On the other, the word “perfection” has positive connotations. It gives the sense that Molly finds meaning and satisfaction in her work. There is something benevolent about her desire to create perfect places for guests to reside
Other characters call attention to Molly’s use of language. Juan Manuel describes the way she talks as pretty, adding that more people should talk the way she does. To Giselle, Molly’s speech invokes Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady. When Eliza is first learning to speak like a lady, the result is awkwardly inauthentic.
There is a hint of the old-fashioned in Molly’s speech. Combined with the Art Deco style of the hotel, Molly’s voice creates a suggestion of the Roaring 20s. One almost feels transported in time, yet the old-fashioned atmosphere blends seamlessly with the use of cell phones and text messages.
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