In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Allah (SWT) in the Qura’n asked us to keep “Selat Al Rahem” or good relation with our relatives. The prophet (PBUH) in a lot of his Ahadith showed us the importance of this religiously and worldly. Man has been created to be for the benefit of others, so what when it comes to parents, family members and relatives. There is no doubt that a society where all members try to maintain good relation and compassion is a strong society with stable coherent families from grandparents to their grandsons, all taking care of each other. It adds happiness and warmth to our lives.

What does Selat Al Rahem or Kinship mean?

Al Rahem is women’s uterus, and it was used by Allah (SWT) when talking about relatives to show how they are so close, sharing or coming from one uterus. Selat Al Rahem as a term means being good and maintain your relation with relatives from both sides your mother and your father. Be good with them in words and actions, including visiting them, asking about them every now and then, helping whoever need any kind of help, be with them in sad moments and good ones.

The importance of “Selat Al Rahem”:

It is part of our Faith: Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, “Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, should serve his guest generously; and whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, should unite the bond of kinship (i.e. keep good relation with his relatives); and whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, should talk what is good or keep quit “. (By Al-Bukhary) Those 3 things are enough to keep compassion and co-operation between people.

It is a reason for pond in our earnings and age; Anas b. Malik reported that Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) said: He who likes that his sustenance should be expanded and his age may be lengthened should join the tie of kinship.(By Al Bukhary)

It is a reason to enter Heaven: The first thing the prophet said in Al Madina was, “ you people spread peace, feed the needy, keep relation with relatives (join the tie of kinship), pray at night while others are sleeping, you will enter heaven safely.

Keeping good relation with your relatives or is not only with those who do tie their relations with you, the real “ Selat Rahem “ is keeping it with those how cuts it with you or did you wrong. For example if you visited those who already visited you or asked about you, this is doing the same as they did. It was narrated by Al Bukhary that the Prophet said, “Al-Wasil(the one who ties kinship) is not the one who recompenses the good done to him by his relatives, but Al-Wasil is the one who keeps good relations with those relatives who had severed the bond of kinship with him.”

What did Allah say about those who cut the relation, or do wrong to their family members or relatives ?

They are cursed; “Would you then, if you were given the authority, do mischief in the land, and sever your ties of kinship? Such are they whom Allâh has cursed, so that He has made them deaf and blinded their sight (Surat Muhammed – 22 &23)

He is unprincipled and looser; “Those who break Allâh’s Covenant after ratifying it, and sever what Allâh has ordered to be joined (as regards Allâh’s religion of Islâmic Monotheism, and to practise its legal laws on the earth and also as regards keeping good relations with kith and kin), and do mischief on earth, it is they who are the losers. (Surat Al Baqara 27)

His punishment is in life and hereafter; Abu Bakr (APWH) says that the prophet said no sin worth an early punishment in life along with what will be in the afterlife like prostitution and cutting the relation with relatives”.

Allah will sever them (cut HIS relation with them). ‘A’isha reported Allah’s Messenger (PBUH) as saying: The tie of kinship is suspended to the Throne and says: He who unites me Allah would unite him and he who severed me Allah would sever him. (By Muslem)
“Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, “Allah created the creations, and when He finished from His creations, Al-Rahm i.e., womb said, “(O Allah) at this place I seek refuge with You from all those who sever me (i.e. sever the ties of Kith and kin). Allah said, ‘Yes, won’t you be pleased that I will keep good relations with the one who will keep good relations with you, and I will sever the relation with the one who will sever the relations with you.’ It said, ‘Yes, O my Lord.’ Allah said, ‘Then that is for you. (By Al Bukhary)

A professor in Al Azhar says that on a bigger scale there is “selat rahem” or sort of it between the Muslims as a whole. A Muslim has rights on his Muslim brother.

Just a side not I wanted to add, as usual the west’s scientists try to teach their society ideas that are exactly like Allah commands to us. A single example is what James Bander the Social American Scientist said; “the man is like the atom, its value is shown with its interactions with others”.

Assalamo alaykom warahmatollahi wabarakatoh
Oh Allah please forgive me and my parents and all believers on the judgement day.
“Allahom Aghfer lee wa lewaledy we lelmo’meneen yawm yakoum alhesab”

You should take light clothes with you because the summer over there is very hot.

You shouldn’t give a chance to young people to talk to you because they are not polite and they want to distributed you because they know that you are foreign and don’t know anything about the country but of course there are some of them who think like that.

 You should not eat in the cheap restaurant because the food could be poison and dirty and the same thing with the water it is better if you buy a bottle of water from supermarket.

If you are traveling with your husband you can not kiss or hug him in front of people because it does not fit with our tradition.

You should take care when you walk in the streets because there are many bombs in the streets.

If any man invited you to a restaurant you can not pay anything for the food because he don’t let you to pay anything.

You have to know where is the Swedish Embassy in Iraq ,so you can go there in cases of emergency.

You must be able to taste all kinds of Arabic food that is home made because there are alot of them that are delicious.

You must know there is a high threat of American terrorist.

You should not come at a time because most people do not respect the time and I think that the time is more

important for us and only the old people who respect the time.

Most of people in Iraq don not follow the trafic rules so you must be very carefull when you cross the roads because it could be very dangerous for peoples live.

As a comment to you, you should visit the north part of iraq because there are a lots of beatiful places over there.

many tourists was there and commented that the north part of iraq is like Europe countries, where there are great weather, good people and great environment. Iraq is one of the most famous countries in the types of dates, I wish you could try all kinds of dates that are out there.

Another comment to you is that people over there don’t use to see women where her arms are shown or her legs so you should take care of what kind of clothes you will wear

Iraq have the two rivers which are called Tigris and Euphrates. In those you can you find a lot of fishes which dose no exist in other countries. The advantage in iraq is that there are always people near to the rivers who can help you on fishing.

The most important thing that you should remember is that you should say goodbye and hug all your family before you come back because you may never go back again of course you know why.

With my best regards

Noor A.Mohammad

Praise be to Allaah.Firstly:

Our Lord has forbidden eating pork in definitive terms. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

“Say (O Muhammad): I find not in that which has been revealed to me anything forbidden to be eaten by one who wishes to eat it, unless it be Maytah (a dead animal) or blood poured forth (by slaughtering or the like), or the flesh of swine (pork); for that surely, is impure or impious (unlawful) meat (of an animal) which is slaughtered as a sacrifice for others than Allaah (or has been slaughtered for idols, or on which Allaah’s Name has not been mentioned while slaughtering)”

[al-An’aam 6:145]

By the mercy of Allaah and His kindness towards us, Allaah has permitted us to eat all good things, and He has not forbidden anything but those that are impure. Allaah says (interpretation of the meaning):

They are saying "By the name of allah" before start eating Halal food

“…he allows them as lawful At‑Tayyibaat (i.e. all good and lawful as regards things, deeds, beliefs, persons and foods), and prohibits them as unlawful Al‑Khabaa’ith (i.e. all evil and unlawful as regards things, deeds, beliefs, persons and foods)”

[al-A’raaf 7:157]

We do not doubt for an instant that the pig is a dirty and filthy animal, and that eating it is harmful to man. Moreover it lives on dirt and filth, and it is something that is off-putting to those of a sound nature who refuse to touch it, because eating it is either a cause or a sign of a person’s oddness.

Secondly:

With regard to the physical harm caused by eating pork, modern science has proved a number of things, such as the following:

‎ Pork is regarded as one of the kinds of meat that contain the most cholesterol, an increase of which in the bloodstream leads to an increased likelihood of blocked arteries. The fatty acids in pork are also of an unusual formation, when compared with the fatty acids in other types of food, which makes them more easily absorbed by the body, thus increasing cholesterol levels.

‎ Pork meat and pork fat contribute to the spread of cancers of the colon, rectum, prostate and blood.

‎ Pork meat and pork fat contribute to obesity and related diseases that are difficult to treat.

‎ Eating pork leads to scabies, allergies and stomach ulcers.

‎ Eating pork causes lung infections which result from tapeworms, lungworms and microbial infections of the lungs.

The most serious danger of eating pork is that pork contains tapeworms which may grow to a length of 2-3 meters. The growth of the eggs of these worms in the human body may lead to insanity and hysteria if they grow in the area of the brain. If they grow in the region of the heart that may lead to high blood pressure and heart attacks. Another kind of worm that is to be found in pork is the trichinosis worm that cannot be killed by cooking, the growth of which in the body may lead to paralysis and skin rashes.

The doctors have confirmed that tapeworm disease is regarded as one of the serious diseases that may result from eating pork. It may develop in the small intestine and after several months may grow into a large worm whose body is composed of a thousand segments, with a length of 4-10 meters, which lives alone in the intestine of the infected person and part of it may appear when he defecates. When the pig swallows and ingests its eggs, they enter the tissues and muscles in the form of larvae sacs containing fluid and the head of the tapeworm. When a person eats infected pork, the larva turns into a complete worm in the intestine. These worms cause weakness and vitamin B12 deficiency, which leads to a specific type of anaemia, which may in turn cause nervous problems. In some cases the larvae may reach the brain, causing convulsions, increased pressure within the brain, epilepsy and even paralysis.

Photographs of a man in his 70s who was suffering from an unusual form of cancer which had eaten away at the upper portion of his skull and scalp but who had not sought any medical treatment because the condition was not causing him pain. Maggots can infest the human brain, and so can certain types of Pork tapeworm larvae. Stanford University Hospital - San Mateo County

Eating pork that is not thoroughly cooked may also lead to trichinosis (infestation with a hairlike nematode worm). When these parasites reach the small intestine, three to five days later many larvae appear which enter the intestine and reach the blood, from which they reach most of the tissues of the body. The larvae move to the muscles and form cysts there, and the patient suffers intense muscle pains. The disease may develop into infection of the cerebral membrane and brain, and infections of the heart muscle, lungs, kidneys and nerves. It may be a fatal disease in rare cases.

Trichinosis, also called Trichinellosis

It is well known that there are some diseases that are unique to humans and are nor shared with any other animals except pigs, such as rheumatism and joint pain. Allaah indeed spoke the truth when He said (interpretation of the meaning):

“He has forbidden you only the Maytah (dead animals), and blood, and the flesh of swine, and that which is slaughtered as a sacrifice for others than Allaah (or has been slaughtered for idols, on which Allaah’s Name has not been mentioned while slaughtering). But if one is forced by necessity without willful disobedience nor transgressing due limits, then there is no sin on him. Truly, Allaah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful”

[al-Baqarah 2:173]

These are some of the harmful effects of eating pork. Perhaps after studying them you will not have any doubts that it is forbidden. We hope that this will be the first step in your being guided towards the true religion. So stop, research, look and think, objectively and fairly, seeking only to find out the truth and follow it. I ask Allaah to guide you to that which is best for you in this world and in the Hereafter.

But even if we did not know about the harmful effects of eating pork, this would not change our belief that it is haraam in the slightest, or weaken our resolve to abstain from it. You know that when Adam (peace be upon him) was expelled from the Garden, it was because he ate from the tree from which Allaah forbade him to eat. We do not know anything about that tree, and Adam did not need to enquire into the reason why it was forbidden to eat from it. Rather it was sufficient for him, as it is sufficient for us and for every believer, to know that Allaah has forbidden it.

the sacred teachings of both Judaism and Islam emphasize respect for the land and living things

But we ask you once again: Isn’t pork forbidden in the Old Testament which forms part of your Holy Book?

“Do not eat any detestable thing. These are the animals you may eat… The pig is also unclean; although it has a split hoof, it does not chew the cud, you are not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses.”

(Deuteronomy 14:3-8)

See also Leviticus 11-1-8.

We do not need to quote evidence that pork is forbidden for the Jews. If you have any doubt then ask people and they will tell you. But what we think we need to draw you attention to is some other things that are also mentioned in your Holy Book, this time in the New Testament which tells you that the rulings of the Torah still apply to you and cannot be changed. Does’t it say in the Bible that the Messiah said:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”

Matthew 5:17-18?

With this text, we do not need to look for another ruling on pork in the New Testament, but we will add here another quotation which shows definitively that pork is impure:

“A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus: ‘Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.’ He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs.”

Mark 5:11-13

Perhaps you will say that this is abrogated, and that Peter said such and such and Paul said such and such…?

This is changing the words of Allaah and abrogating the Torah and the words of the Messiah who confirmed to you that it would abide as long as heaven and earth remain. Can this be abrogated by the words of Paul or Peter?

Let us assume that this is true and that the prohibition was indeed abrogated, but why are you criticizing this prohibition in Islam when it was prohibited for you at first?

Did jesus eat pork

Jesus, as a Jew, most certainly did NOT eat pork. It clearly states in Leviticus the laws of kosher.

Leviticus 11

Thirdly:

With regard to your saying that if eating it is forbidden, then why did Allaah create pigs? We do not think that you are serious, otherwise we would ask you: why did Allaah create such and such of other things that are harmful or repulsive? Rather we would ask you: why did Allaah create the Shaytaan?

Is it not the prerogative of the Creator to command His slaves as He will, and to rule them as He will. No one can overturn His ruling or change His words.

Is it not the duty of the created being, the slave, to say to his Lord, whenever He commands him to do something: “We hear and we obey”?

You may enjoy its taste and want to eat it, and those around you may enjoy it, but doesn’t Paradise deserve some sacrifice on your part of that which your heart desires?.

Ten little Indian boys went out to dine

One choked his little self and then there were nine

Nine little Indian boys sat up very late

One overslept himself and then there were eight

Eight little Indian boys traveling in Devon

One said he’d stay there and then there were seven

Seven little Indian boys chopping up sticks

One chopped himself in halves and then there were six

Six little Indian boys playing with a hive

A bumblebee stung one and then there were five

Five little Indian boys going in for law

One got in Chancery and then there were four

Four little Indian boys going out to sea

A red herring swallowed one and then there were three

Three little Indian boys walking in the zoo

A big bear hugged one and then there were two

Two Little Indian boys sitting in the sun

One got frizzled up and then there was one

One little Indian boy left all alone

He went out and hanged himself and then there were none

And Then There Were None

1. What is genre fiction? How does it differ from other types of fiction?

   Genre fiction is any novel or story that uses fantastical characters and stories, or suspenseful and exciting plots to entertain readers. Crime, detective, superhero, horror, science fiction, and romance novels are all examples of genre fiction. Literary fiction, according to some critics, often elevates style, character development, and intellectual ideas over suspenseful plots or entertainment value. Christie’s genre novels often bridge the gap between literary fiction and genre fiction by using serious literary themes and ingeniously creative plots and characters.

2. Discuss Mr. Justice Wargrave’s representation and his symbolism in the novel.

   Mr. Justice Wargrave represents the supremacy of logical order and reason. While several of the characters, including Miss Brent and Vera Claythorne, propose supernatural answers to the mystery of the Indian Island murders, Mr. Justice Wargrave always insists that no one be proved guilty or innocent without sufficient and undeniable proof. The fact that Wargrave is the murderer does not undermine this symbolic logical order. As Wargrave insists, his acts of murder on the Island are not committed out of a desire for chaos but, instead, out of a desire to restore justice to the world.

3. Who is the novel’s protagonist?

   And Then There Were None differs from other novels in the detective genre because it does not provide a clear protagonist. Each of the characters is a murderer responsible for an act of evil and therefore deserving in some way of murder. In this way, the reader has no character to root for but, instead, is caught up in the drama of how justice will be handed out and who is ultimately responsible for the deliverance of this justice.

4. How do the murders on Indian Island play with ideas of class consciousness?

   The murderer, Wargrave, insists in the closing chapter that the murders were committed when opportunity presented itself. However, for example, the first two murders also reflect a major theme of the novel: the leveling of class distinctions. The first two murdered victims are studies in opposites: Marston is a rich, carefree playboy while Mrs. Rogers is a domestic servant. Their murders represent the indiscriminate way in which the killer approaches the task of handing out justice.

5. Do you believe that the novel offers catharsis for the reader? Explain.

   And Then There Were None offers a partial catharsis for readers, though it is not complete. By revealing the identity of the killer in the final chapter, Christie allows the reader to discover who carried out the murders, how they were committed, and the motivations behind each one. The killer admits that the murders were motivated by an unexplainable compulsion to kill, but that they were planned and carried out methodically with the ultimate goal being justice. Psychologically, the reader is left feeling as though a certain sense of order has been restored to the world. However, a sense of unease must remain since the final act of justice is not one carried out by society but by the killer’s own hand. The reader is reminded that the reality of evil still exists in the world, often beyond the reach of institutional justice.

6. Discuss the use of violence in the novel.

   Christie’s novels have been called “Murders of Manners” for the benign ways in which her victims often come to their end. This is true of And Then There Were None in several respects. Several of the novel’s victims are killed with poison, a method of death that is portrayed as quick and relatively painless. The other deaths are all portrayed as quick endings; the victim does not suspect that they are being attacked and are dead before they realize what is happening. Though Christie does make use of violence, she does not depict torture, gore, or suffering. Her depictions of violence shock but do not offend.

7. Discuss the symbolism of weather in And Then There Were None.

   Christie uses the weather to symbolize the disorder of Indian Island and the depravity of human nature. The beginning chapters depict a hot and humid summer day. It causes a physical discomfort that is already felt internally by each of the novel’s characters. As the murders begin, the weather gradually worsens until a tumultuous storm breaks out as General Macarthur’s body is found. This breaking of the storm symbolizes the chaos into which the Island’s visitors have also descended.

8. Why do you believe Christie’s novels have been so popular, selling more copies of any book except the Bible?

   Christie’s novels are popular not just because they are masterfully plotted and suspenseful, but also because they are prime examples of the psychology of the murder mystery genre. Christie’s novels explore the common themes of imposed morality and of the undercurrents of human behavior. These novels, therefore, connect with readers at the base level of human emotion and behavior. The reader also knows that, in the end, everything will be explained and the upturned order of the fictional world will be restored, which becomes catharsis through reading.

9. Discuss the symbolism of food in the novel.

   Each character arrives at the Island expecting a certain level of comfort and service. At the beginning, the characters are treated to fine food, drink, and service by the Rogers. However, as the murders begin, the characters become afraid to eat and drink because of the possibility of poisoning and because they lack the ability to care for themselves or for one another. This use of food and civility symbolizes the spiraling depravity of each character. By the end of the novel, each character recognizes that they have become animalistic in their desires to survive. They survive only on the bare essentials and eventually turn on each other and themselves in completion of the final acts of violence.

10. What is the meaning of suicide in the novel?

    Christie purposefully uses suicide as the last two killings of the Indian Island murder spree. For Christie, suicide was the ultimate act of murder, since it shows that a person has become depraved enough to take their own life. While murder is an extraordinary crime, suicide is worse because it precludes resolution through justice. It is an act of complete insanity. Vera Claythorne’s murder, thus, is the culmination of the insanity of Indian Island. Wargrave’s own suicide is verification that he was a truly depraved and insane mind.

And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None Movie Trailer – A trailer for the 1945 film adaptation of the novel.

Agatha Christie Homepage – Webpage for Agatha Christie with information about the author, her writing, and her legacy.

Agatha Christie – IMBD Page – A listing of all the films and television series featuring Christie’s novels or stories.

And Then There Were None Video Game – A video game based on Christie’s famous novel.

Monty Python Take On Agatha Christie – This is a classic sketch from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, satirizing the detective fiction that Christie made famous.

And Then There Were None

Agatha Christie wrote the majority of her best-known works in the first half and middle of the twentieth century. Today, she is one of the bestselling authors of all time, and her books are considered the pinnacle of the mystery genre. Christie, however, had not always been as well received by the critics of higher literature. While she is a best seller, a master of plot and deception, and an amazingly entertaining writer above all, she has never been included in the canon of great twentieth-century fiction in the eyes of those that create the literary canons. Her own exclusion from this elite literary class tells us much about the trajectory of fiction in the twentieth century and about the ways that fiction is changing in the twenty-first.

The differences between “genre” and “literary” fiction should be noted first. Genre is a broad literary term that means that certain types of literature can be grouped together or identified based on similar characteristics. So, for instance, Homer’s Iliad and Milton’s Paradise Lost are both considered to be a part of the epic genre, even though they were written centuries apart, because they share similar thematic elements. Since the nineteenth century, the divisions between genres have often become sharper. “Genre” has become a more narrow term. The idea of a divide between “genre” fiction and “literary” fiction is a more recent development in the world of literature. The idea is that particular audiences prefer, and therefore purchase, novels or stories with particular elements or themes. These audiences are often developed out of the work of one or two authors that create a genre. H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, for instance, are credited with the creation of the science fiction genre, which has spawned many novels that use similar themes and narrative techniques. Jane Austen is often credited with the creation of the modern romance genre, and Edgar Allen Poe with the creation of the horror genre. These narrow categories define an audience as much as a type of fiction.

That genre fiction came to have a bad name, and be distinguished from literary fiction, is due more to the fact that there was a great deal of bad genre fiction published in the early twentieth century than to any inherent literary flaw in the idea of genre. The rise of inexpensive mass published materials in the late nineteenth century meant that a glut of genre writing flooded the literary market. The magazines and books that published this material were given the name “pulp fiction” because they were often printed on the cheapest and flimsiest types of paper available. Entire magazines and books were devoted to the genres of romance, crime, mystery, horror, science fiction, erotica, and detective fiction. Often, literary quality was sacrificed in order to bring more material to the market at a faster pace with higher profit.

The other factor in the divide between literary fiction and genre occurred because of the trajectory of literary fiction in the twentieth century. The twentieth century saw the rise of Modernism in fiction. Writers such as William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Virginia Wolff, and others exemplified this new mode of literature through densely written portraits of life in the twentieth century. Realism was a defining characteristic of Modernism. Modernists rejected chronology and causality. The neatly organized domestic dramas of the Victorian Era were replaced with chaotic narratives of inner turmoil and deeply flawed, often morally stunted protagonists. Modernist novels replaced the mystery and danger of pulp fiction with the tedious chaos of the everyday. The image of reality became more important than entertaining the reader.

It is perhaps unlucky for Agatha Christie that she just happened to have done the majority of her great writing at the same time that Modernist fiction became the de facto literary taste of the era. Her novels, in fact, do share similar themes with some great works of literary fiction. Her novels are tightly written. They often jump from inner dialogue to narrative action, forcing the reader to work at understanding the perspective of a particular scene. Her characters are always deeply flawed individuals with a deep distrust of the modern world and an ever-present sense of foreboding and death. It could be argued that Christie’s fiction is an achievement in existentialism. However, Christie was never taken seriously by critics of her day. Edmund Wilson, the famous literary critic, once proclaimed that detective stories such as Christie’s were “simply a kind of vice that, for silliness and minor harmfulness, ranks somewhere between smoking and crossword puzzles.”

Christie’s novels are primarily vehicles of entertainment. The author realized this fact early and never forgot it throughout her career. She noted that she often resisted the temptation to kill off her most famous detective character, Hercule Poirot, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had done to his famous detective Sherlock Holmes, because she knew that her reading public would be furious at such a move. Christie always kept her reading public in mind. Her novels were never written with the intent to define an era, even if they persisted in capturing the particular psychological eccentricities of a post World War age. The murders in her novels were never carried out for the purpose of nihilism. They were always an affirmation that life should be lived and that murder should be punished.

The fact that Christie’s body of work sold better than any other in history except for the Bible, however, does say something about the public’s literary hunger. While the Modernists sought to confuse, confound, and to make the reader work to draw meaning from the text, genre writers have always understood that there can be just as much meaning in the art of entertainment. Amidst declining book sales and publishing woes in the industry in general, genre writing has seen the most growth in the early decade of the twenty-first century. Even contemporary stalwarts of the Modernist mode of literature such as Cormac McCarthy and Thomas Pynchon have turned to genres such as science fiction and detective mystery in recent years. Juvenile fiction in horror and fantasy has sold millions of copies. In 2001, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction went to a novel about comic books.

With this in mind, modern audiences should perhaps reevaluate Agatha Christie’s fiction. With the revival of genre fiction as a serious kind of literature, it would be worth remembering the generations of genre writers who were, fairly or not, compared to their virtuosic Modernist contemporaries and found wanting. While some, surely, were less than great writers, Christie’s own genius seems to deserve a place in the twentieth-century canon. In psychology, disguise, and complexity, Christie set a standard for genre fiction writers and a basis on which to build a more complex and rich literary experience. While literary critics of the twentieth century might not have cared who committed Christie’s most famous murders, millions upon millions of mystery fans did care a great deal. In this case, popularity should not automatically disqualify a piece of writing from the canon of great literature.

And Then There Were None

Epilogue

Sir Thomas Legge and Inspector Maine sit in their office in Scotland Yard and discuss this strange case: ten people on an island, dead. They have found nothing helpful in the doctor’s report. Wargrave and Lombard died from gunshot wounds. Miss Brent and Anthony Marston both died from cyanide poisoning. Mrs. Rogers died from an overdose of chloral, a sleeping medication. Rogers, Blore, and Macarthur were all killed by blows to the head. Armstrong died of drowning. Vera Claythorne was hanged.

Legge asks the Inspector who provisioned the island, and Maine tells him about Isaac Morris, an unsavory man implicated in numerous crimes. Morris had brokered the real estate deal for the island and had made all the arrangements. Morris doctored all the paperwork, however, so there is no way to tell who actually bought the island. The police had found Morris dead, overdosed on sleeping medication. It is an “opportune” death, according to Legge.

They discuss how Narracott, the ferry captain, discovered the bodies after hearing reports of an S.O.S. signal. Narracott had been sure that no one would have been able to leave the island since it is over a mile to the shore. The record they found on the gramophone had been recorded for a Mr. U.N. Owen by a theatrical group, who thought it a recording for a performance. Maine tells Legge that he has investigated all of the accusations on the record as closely as possible and explains how each of these people had been involved in a death in some way or another, though none of it seemed criminal. The point of this affair, Legge thinks, is that “U.N. Owen dealt with cases that the law couldn’t touch.”

Legge bangs his fist on the table and declares that the whole thing seems impossible. Maine says that they are on the trail of some “fanatic with a bee in his bonnet about justice.” Legge stirs, he feels as though he has some kind of clue about the whole affair, but then cannot quite grasp it. Maine determines that if U.N. Owen had not been able to get off the island, then Owen must have been one of the ten dead. Maine tells Legge that several diaries had been found, those kept by Miss Brent and Claythorne, as well as some notes made by Wargrave. The police, then, know the order of the first deaths to have been Marston, Mrs. Rogers, Macarthur, Rogers, Miss Brent, and Wargrave.

Maine speculates that Armstrong had gone mad and then thrown himself off the cliff. He knows, however, that Armstrong’s body had been laid out on the beach after the high water mark of the storm, meaning that someone must have drug him out of the water. Since Lombard had been shot on the beach, and Vera Claythorne’s fingerprints were on the revolver, while Blore’s body had been found under Vera’s window, Maine thinks that it must have been Claythorne that murdered everyone. However, he says, there had been a chair in Vera’s room with her footprints, showing it to be the chair she used to hang herself. The chair had been neatly put back up against the wall, something she could not have done. The only possible explanation could be Blore, but it seems unfeasible that he would jump out a window and pull some block of marble onto his head at the same time. Since the people in the village are positive that no one could have left the island, the police can do nothing but sit there and wonder who killed all of these people.

A Manuscript Document Sent to Scotland Yard By the Master of the Emma Jane, Fishing Trawler

The narrator begins his letter by explaining that, since his earliest youth, “I realized that my nature was a mass of contradictions.” This is the reason, he explains, that he has written this confession to the murders on Indian Island, and then placed the letter in a bottle and tossed it out to sea. He promises now to explain the murders.

He says that crime and punishment has always interested him. He has enjoyed watching others squirm in discomfort or pain, to see “a wretched criminal squirming in the dock, suffering the tortures of the damned, as his doom came slowly and slowly nearer.” He explains that this was the case with Edward Seton. He knew that Seton was guilty of murder. Though the jury in that case was persuaded by an emotional counsel, the killer explains that he had simply laid out the facts for them.

He explains that he has felt a change within him. “I have wanted…to commit a murder myself. I recognized this as the desire of the artist to express himself!” He wanted to commit the murders in a dramatic way, “something stupendous – out of the common!” He hears from a doctor friend of a recent patient, an elderly lady, who he is sure died after an important drug was withheld from her by her caretakers. The doctor is sure it was murder, though there is no way to prove it. This was “the beginning of the whole thing.” The killer plans to commit murder on not just one person “but murder on a grand scale.” He remembers a childish rhyme from his childhood, the rhyme of the Ten Little Indian Boys, and decides that this will be the basis for his work.

He begins to collect victims over time, listening to the stories that others tell him about strange incidences of violence or murder that went without justice. This is how he decides whom to invite to Indian Island. He particularly remembers of how he learned of Vera Claythorne. He had been drinking with a man named Hugo Hamilton who, after much alcohol, told him, “Murder isn’t what most people think—giving some one a dollop of arsenic—pushing them over a cliff—that sort of stuff.” He tells her that he knew Vera had murdered that child as soon as he saw her. During the time that he is planning for the murders, the killer learns that he has an inoperable illness that will cause him to die slowly and painfully. This, he decides, will not happen. He decides that he will “live before I die.”

He then goes into the mechanics of the murders. After using Morris to make the arrangements for Indian Island, he gave him a poison disguised as an antacid. He plans carefully for the order of death on the Island. He decides that there are varying degrees of guilt on the Island. “Those whose guilt was the lightest should, I decided, pass out first, and not suffer the prolonged mental strain and fear that the more cold-blooded offenders were to suffer.” Marston and Mrs. Rogers go first. Mrs. Rogers goes because she had been only an unwitting accomplice, Marston because he has no sense of moral responsibility. The killer slips potassium cyanide, easily obtained, into Marston’s drink after the gramophone recital. He then uses chloral hydrate, a sleeping medication, to kill Mrs. Rogers. He slips it into her brandy after Mr. Rogers put the glass down caring for his wife.

The killer kills General Macarthur “quite painlessly.” The General does not hear the killer coming. The killer then drafts Dr. Armstrong as an ally as suspicion on the island heightens. Rogers is killed as he chops wood, with a simple blow to the head. The killer takes the key to the dining room from him, which is how the ceramic Indians are broken even though the door is locked. During the confusion of Rogers’ murder, he slips into Lombard’s room and takes the revolver. The last dose of chloral goes into Miss Brent’s coffee. When she is asleep at the table, he comes in and injects the cyanide into her, also leaving a small bee in the room. It is a “childish gesture,” but the killer likes to adhere “as closely as possible to my nursery rhyme.”

The killer tells Armstrong that it must appear that the killer is then the next victim. This, he tells Armstrong, will help them trap the real killer since he could then spy on the real killer. That evening, it was carried out: “A little plaster of red mud on the forehead—the red curtain and the wool and the stage was set.” Armstrong is the only one that examines him closely. All the others believe he is dead. The killer and Armstrong then meet up that night. Armstrong should have known that he was in danger if he had only remembered the rhyme: “A red herring swallowed one.” Armstrong takes the red herring and is pushed over the cliff into the sea.

The killer returns to the house, making just enough noise to wake the others so that they will search the house. He pretends again to be a corpse and they do not notice anything amiss. The revolver is returned to Lombard’s room. The killer had hidden it in a can of tongue buried under untouched foodstuffs. Then comes the moment that he was waiting for: “ three people who were so frightened of each other that anything might happen—and one of them had a revolver.” After Blore comes in the house, he is killed with the marble clock. From his window, he sees Vera Claythorne shoot Lombard. The killer than sets the stage in the bedroom and, just as he suspected, the guilt-wracked woman comes in and commits suicide.

The killer admits that he is writing all of this because he does not want to share in his work of art alone. He is certain that no one will solve this mystery, although he reveals three clues: the first is that the police will know that Edward Seton was an actual murderer. Therefore, they will know that one person on the island was not guilty of an accidental murder. Paradoxically, this means that person is the actual murderer. The second clue is that there was only one person on the island who could have persuaded Armstrong to be tricked into his death—a professional person of his own stature. The third clue is symbolic; the red mark on his forehead, the “brand of Cain.”

The killer then says that he will go into his room and rig a mechanism that will allow him to commit suicide by being shot through the forehead in the same way that the accounts of the murders say happened. When the sea calms and the police arrive, “they will find ten dead bodies and an unsolved problem on Indian Island.” The letter is signed, Lawrence Wargrave.

Analysis

The Epilogue and the closing letter chapter serve as an overview of the previous sixteen chapters, to sum up the facts and clues of the murders on Indian Island, and to offer solutions to the mystery. While the previous chapters of the novel sought to disguise the essential facts of the case and to disrupt any meaningful interpretation of the story, these chapters seek to clarify through a restatement of the facts as seen through the eyes of the Scotland Yard detectives, and then through a reevaluation of the facts through the eyes of the killer. We see in these two evaluations where the detectives, and the reader, have gone astray in their assumptions regarding the murder.

It is important to note the change in voice in the final chapter. While the first seventeen chapters of the novel are written in the third person, the final chapter is written in the first person, from the point of view of the killer, Mr. Justice Wargrave. This change in perspective is necessary because it highlights an essential element of the detective novel: the narrator is always unreliable. In this case, the narrator had limited omniscience. The reader could observe characters and even hear their conscious thoughts, but the narrator was never able to relate facts outside of the limited purview of the murdered guests. Thus, the narrator was not able to know that Wargrave faked his own death or that Armstrong was unwittingly complicit in helping the murders take place.

The final chapter is the novel’s denouement, the final untying of the novel’s complication. In detective fiction, this final act of confession or unveiling serves several purposes. The first is to verify in the reader’s mind that anyone and everyone might be a killer. The guessing is part of the fun in the Detective genre; this guessing is not meant to stop with the novel’s final pages. One reason that the genre, and Christie’s books in particular, has so many fans is that no matter how unrealistic, the mysteries always seem plausible.

The tension between reason and the supernatural in the novel is played out in the final chapters as Vera wanders into her bedroom. She feels the spirit of her former love, Hugo, urging her to take her own life. Earlier in the novel, Vera had commented on the fact that the whole episode seemed dreamlike, as if some supernatural force were guiding the horror. Mr. Justice Wargrave plays the part of logical reasoning. In the end, the reader sees that logical reasoning has won. In this way, detective fiction can be thought of as a genre of its historical era, a period when the polite Victorian world of the nineteenth century was replaced by the reality of war and the messiness of life. Reason and science became the dominant influence of culture over religion and superstition. While detective fiction is not strictly Realist, it is nevertheless a genre of reason.

This reliance on reason over superstition is the reason that Wargrave relies on Vera Claythorne to finish his work of art and of murder by committing suicide. Throughout Christie’s body of work, murder is anathema to the value of life, but suicide is the ultimate act of insanity. It is not simply the taking of another life but an extinguishing of the most precious thing any person has. This proves that Wargrave’s experiment in murder is as much an experiment in the limits of human sanity. He has attempted, and succeeded, in producing a grand metaphor of humans as wild animals. His belief in logical reasoning leads him to believe that the guilt of Vera’s crime will lead her into her own act of justice. That Wargrave seeks to use these murders as an unsolvable puzzle only cements his own logical insanity in the minds of readers.

The final chapter of any Detective novel provides a measure of catharsis for the reader. The previous chapter, by highlighting the important clues and facts of the case, only heightened the sense in the reader’s mind that the world is somehow out of balance. Evil has had its reign on Indian Island, and the prevailing thought is that if evil can persist in this work of fiction, then it must be able to persist in the real world. The final chapter of explanation provides the reader with the knowledge that the world has been set right. The murderer must always be brought to justice, even if that justice is the act of suicide by the killer. By leaving a note that is then turned into Scotland Yard by a ship captain (the title of the chapter tells us this fact), the killer has, in fact, not gotten away with the crime. Even if institutional justice is not able to punish the killer, the reader knows that a kind of cosmic justice has been administered. Wargrave sought to create confusion, disguise, and mystery. His confession, in fact, does the opposite. It creates order and structure to what seems mysterious.

And Then There Were None

Chapter 13

All sit in the drawing room. They “looked less like human beings. They were reverted to more bestial types.” Wargrave is “a wary old tortoise.” Blore is “a slow padding animal…a beast at bay ready to charge its pursuers.” Lombard is a “lithe and graceful” animal with “lips curling back from his long white teeth.” Vera Claythorne is a small, terrified animal, afraid to move. Armstrong cries out that they should not just sit there but that they should try to do something like light a bonfire to call for rescue. Blore reminds him of the weather. They all agree that only one of them should leave the room at a time. At the midday meal, they open another can of tongue and then “herd” together to the drawing room to sit and watch each other. Each has “feverish” and paranoid thoughts about who the murderer must be.

At five, Vera jumps up and declares that she wants a cup of tea. She offers to make it, but Wargrave suggests that they all go to make sure nothing goes afoul. When Wargrave turns the light switch, nothing comes on because Rogers is not there to turn the generator each morning. Lombard gets candles and places them about the room. After tea, Vera decides she cannot stay in the room any longer. She does to her room to take a bath. When she enters, she is overwhelmed by the smell of the sea. She remembers the same smell from the day when Cyril drowned. She again has a flashback to that day and begins to believe that Hugo must be waiting for her. Her candle goes out from a draft and, suddenly, in the dark she feels a “cold, clammy hand” touching her throat.

She screams over and over again. The men in the drawing room rush upstairs. Vera collapses and the men try to revive her. When she comes to, she looks up and sees that there is seaweed hanging from the ceiling, which had been the “hand” that had grabbed her throat. Lombard tries to give her a drink, but she refuses it. Blore insists that the brandy is fine and they open a brand new bottle, just to assure her there is no poison. Lombard laughs that finally a murder did not go according to plan. They look around and suddenly realize that the judge is missing. They rush downstairs and find Wargrave sitting in his chair in the drawing room. He is wrapped in the scarlet bath curtain as if in a judge’s robe and Miss Brent’s piece of gray wool is pulled over his head like a mock judge’s wig. Armstrong pulls the wig off his head to find that he has been shot. Lombard remembers the rhyme: “’Five little Indian boys going in for law; one got in Chancery and then there were four.”

Chapter 14

They carry Wargrave’s body upstairs. Lombard suggests that they all eat, so they open another can of cold tongue. Lombard curses the fact that the killer had deceived them by placing the seaweed in Vera Claythorne’s room just to distract them. They each tell each other that they have no doubt in their minds about the identity of the killer, but they do not say a name. Vera retires to her bedroom to sleep, and they all follow, barricading themselves into their rooms. When in his room, Lombard draws a breath of relief and goes over to his bedside table to undress. He opens the door and finds the revolver inside.

Lying in bed, Vera tries to reassure herself that everything will work out. She begins to remember Cyril, begging to swim out to the rock that day. She tells Cyril that she has a plan; she will talk to his mother and distract her while he goes swimming. Before she even realizes he has gone, Cyril will be on the rock waving to her. If things do not go well, Vera thinks to herself, she will just deny that she ever gave him permission to go out there in the first place. She wonders if Hugo had ever known the truth about her, and she wonders why she had suddenly felt that Hugo was in the room with her when she discovered the seaweed. She opens her eyes in the bedroom and sees a big black hook hanging from the ceiling, something she had not seen before.

Blore sits on his bed and remembers that “self-righteous smug old hypocrite” Wargrave and thinks that they must all be careful now. The candle on his bedside table burns down and he starts to see faces in the dark – the face of Mrs. Rogers and Anthony Marston. He sees a face that he cannot quite recognize until suddenly he knows it is Landor, who he had helped falsely imprison. All of a sudden, Blore hears movement outside of his door. He goes to the door and listens, and he is sure he hears someone creeping down the hall. Blore acts quickly. He takes matches for light and a lamp as a weapon, and he goes out in the hall, but he finds no one. He realizes that if someone left the house, one of the rooms must be empty. He goes to Armstrong’s room and knocks, but no one answers. He then goes to Lombard’s room, and he answers. He goes to Vera’s room, and she answers as well. Lombard tells her to stay in her room and that they are going to hunt for Armstrong. He tells her not to open her door unless both he and Blore are there together. Lombard shows Blore the revolver he had found in his drawer, and Blore hesitates. He quells his fear and goes with Lombard, thinking that he “was not afraid of danger in the open, only of danger undefined and tinged with the supernatural.”

A few minutes go by, and Vera amuses herself by trying to imagine how Armstrong might burst his way in through her door. She hears the breaking of glass downstairs, and then Blore knocks on her door. She opens it to find both men. They tell her that Armstrong has disappeared. They think that he has vanished off the island, like some “conjuring trick.” Lombard adds that a windowpane is busted downstairs and that another of the Little Indian Boys has been smashed.

Chapter 15

The sun shines outside. The storm has passed. The three remaining guests eat breakfast outside feeling like “people just awakening from a nightmare.” They begin to think of ways to try to get off the island. They all think it odd that another of the Indian Boy statues should be broken even though they have not found Armstrong’s body. Blore notes that Lombard is once again in possession of the revolver. Lombard declares that he simply found it in his drawer. Blore suggests they lock the revolver up the same way they did the medicines, but Lombard declines. Vera tells them that she thinks they are both idiots and reminds them of the rhyme: “Four little Indian boys going out to sea; / A red herring swallowed one and then there / were three.” She tells them that the “red herring” is the clue. Armstrong’s disappearance is just something to distract them. Thinking of the next verse in the rhyme, Blore tells her that since there is no zoo on the island, the killer will have difficulty pulling off the next killing. “’Don’t you see?’” Vera says. “’We’re the Zoo…Last night, we were hardly human any more.”

They stand on the cliff, flashing S.O.S. signals to the mainland with a mirror. Vera tells them that she feels safer out in the open, and when Blore suggests that they go in to eat, she declines. Lombard offers to stay with her, but he refuses to give his revolver to Blore. When he leaves, Lombard suggests that Blore is the killer since his story last night doesn’t clear him from being the murderer. Lombard assures her that he will not let Blore get them.

Vera asks him if he thinks someone is watching them on this island. She tells him of a story she once read about two American Supreme Court justices that went to a small town to administer “Absolute Justice…because they didn’t come from this world at all.” Lombard tells her that all of this murder is “human enough” and that the supernatural is all in her mind. Suddenly, they hear a crash in the distance. Lombard takes off to see what it is, and Vera goes with him. They find Blore on the house’s stone terrace. His head was crushed by a great block of white marble, which is a bear-shaped clock from Vera’s mantle.

Lombard exclaims that now they know Armstrong is hiding in the house. Lombard wants to look for him, but Vera reminds him that if he did not find him last night, he will not find him now. Lombard reminds her that he has the revolver, but Vera tells him, “Armstrong is mad! And a madman has all the advantages on his side.” They sit on the cliffs and worry about what they will do when night comes. Vera wishes they could bathe and, suddenly, Lombard looks down towards the sea and sees someone’s clothes. As they walk down towards it, they realize it is not clothes, but the body of a man. The man had drowned and his face is discolored, but they know it is Armstrong.

Chapter 16

Time seems to stand motionless and Vera and Lombard look down on Armstrong’s dead body. Finally, Vera whispers, “There’s no one on the island – no one at all – except us two.” She suddenly knows that in Lombard she is looking into the face of a wolf. He tells her that they have come to the end. The words in her mind bring rebellion, and she pities Dr. Armstrong. This angers Lombard, and he tells her he has no pity for her or anyone.

Vera tells him that they must move Armstrong’s body, but Lombard refuses. She begins to tug at it herself to get it out of the sea. Lombard helps, but it is not an easy job. When the body is moved, he asks Vera if she is satisfied, and she says, “Quite.” As he turns around, he clasps his pocket and realizes the revolver is gone. Vera has it and points it at him. He demands that she give him the revolver, but she refuses. He decides to take the risky way, and he leaps “quick as a panther” towards her. Vera pulls the trigger, and Lombard’s body crashes to the ground. He is dead, shot through the heart.

Vera sits, relieved that she is alone. As the sun sets, she moves towards the house realizing she is hungry and tired. She is very sleepy and wants “to throw herself on her bed and sleep and sleep and sleep.” She thinks that this whole thing might just be a dream because everything now seems so peaceful. She goes into the house and stops at the dining room. There are still three Indian Boy china figures left. She picks up two of them and throws them out the window, hearing them crash. She picks up the third and takes it with her.

She goes upstairs and begins to get the strange feeling that Hugo is with her. She accidentally drops the Indian figure but does not notice. As she enters her room in a trance like state, she gasps when she sees a noose hanging from the hook in the ceiling. This, she thinks, is what Hugo wants. She remembers the last line of the rhyme: “He went and hanged himself and then there were none.” She remembers Cyril and knows that murder was easy. She climbs up on the chair, puts the noose around her neck, and kicks away the chair.

Analysis

In chapter thirteen, the characters of the novel begin to seem less than human to each other. Each seems to take on the characteristics of an animal: Wargrave is a tortoise, Vera is a terrified animal, Lombard is like a terrifying tiger. These descriptions are metaphors that help us to understand more about each character, as well as examples of zoomorphism, or the attribution of animal like qualities to human beings.

The novel’s depiction of food is symbolic. The reader can chart the decline of the characters condition by the food they choose to eat during their time there. When the guests first arrive, they are greeted by Mrs. Rogers’s excellent cooking and a feast of many different foods. As the novel progresses, the characters begin to rely on meager sustenance, eating canned tongue for most of their meals. By the time that only three guests remain, Vera Claythorne has paradoxically decided that the best chance of survival is to deprive herself of nourishment so that she will not have to go into the house. This relationship of the characters to food is symbolic of the zoomorphic traits that each character goes through as they become less and less human.

Justice Wargrave’s apparent murder is an example of the concept in detective fiction of distraction. Distraction goes hand in hand with disguise, as one thing appears to be something that it is not. In this case, the reader will discover that Wargrave is in fact the island’s killer. They are distracted from this fact, however, by the apparent murder of one of the possible suspects. Clues, however, are present that would help the reader and the characters still on the island suspect that things are not right with this murder. It is not until one knows who the murderer is, however, that these clues become apparent.

The red mark on Wargrave’s forehead is an allusion to the story of Cain and Abel in the Book of Genesis from the Hebrew Bible. In this story, Cain kills his brother Abel. It is creation’s first murder, and God marks Cain. Though the Biblical story does not specify what the mark actually is, legend has it that it was a mark of blood upon his head. Wargrave is thus giving his victims and the reader a clue as to his true nature; he is the murderer who has marked himself with blood.

The varying clues throughout the novel, from Wargrave’s red mark to Lombard’s Red Herring, display the difficulty of the act of selection and comprehension. In the first, the reader is forced to attempt to select what clues or signs the murderer has left behind. Through the art of disguise and distraction, this becomes an impossible task. Without knowing the identity of the killer, the reader has no real way of understanding which signs and clues are relevant. Instead, the reader has the illusion of knowledge. A re-reading shows the reader the clues that should have seemed obvious from the novel’s beginning but which, inherently, are not apparent upon a first reading.

This plays into the difficulty of comprehension. The deception by the killer produces numerous false leads – the disappearance of Armstrong’s needle or Lombard’s revolver, for instance. These false leads make the process of comprehension of the clues an impossible task as well. The false leads increase the multiple readings of the text. For example, early in the novel Lombard and Blore notice that Rogers is able to move very quickly and very quietly through the house. This raises suspicions in the readers mind as to whether there are secret tunnels in the house, or perhaps that Rogers has a twin helping him commit the murders. This false lead leads the reader into the confusion of reading. Psychologists have argued that this inability of the reader to organize events and clues produces an affinity for the detective genre in the same way that people will spend large amounts of time trying to defeat difficult games and puzzles.