Reflection #4

Man With a Hobby

by: Robert Bloch

1. The protagonist of this story is named Cleveland Torso Slayer.  His desires are to murder people and get away with doing so. Unfortunately, there aren't much characterisation, although this is clearly deliberate. By keeping both characters mysterious, the author allows them to keep their secrets to themselves. They could be as innocent as they appear, but there could also be much more to them than is revealed.

    2.  The antagonist in the story would be the police trying to catch Mr. Slayer. They have been   
          trying to catch Mr. Slayer for four years since his murdered 13 people so far. What Mr.Slayer
          has to contiue doing is keep killing people and getting away with it.

    3.  The theme of the story would be "don't judge a book by its cover," or "looks can be deceiving,"
         because at first glance, the drinker appears to be nothing more than a story-teller, one who likes
         to make himself seem more important than he is, especially after a drink or two. However, little
         hints are dropped throughout the story, which suggest he isn’t quite all he is supposed to be. One
         of the advantages of short stories is that, even if there is a rather obvious twist in the end, the
         reader doesn’t have time to see it coming. This is exactly what happens in Man With a Hobby. If
         it was novel-length, it probably would have been rather disappointing, but as it is, it provides a
         satisfying end to what initially seems to be a rather mundane story.

    4.  It isn’t easy to make a story out of two people sitting at a bar and drinking. There is very little
         action here and there isn’t even much in the way of detection. However, in many ways, this is
         the beauty of the piece. By keeping it simple, at least to start with, the story creeps up on the
         reader, which makes the ending stand out even more than it should. The language used is
         straightforward and to the point it is, after all, largely dialogue.  However, the time period in
         which the story is set isn’t obvious, which is an advantage because it doesn’t feel particularly
         dated. It has some qualities of hard-boiled crime fiction, such as that by Dashiell Hammett, but
         there isn’t the descriptive element or all the twists and turns that fans have come to associate
         with that particular style of writing. That is a positive thing, because it seems fresher and not
         just a direct copy of someone else’s technique.

    5.  The crisis action within the story is the police appears in the bar, asking after the drinker, who is
         apparently the Slayer himself. They followed him to the bar because of the bowling bag he was
         carrying, which was leaving a trail of blood in its wake. The narrator tells them which direction  
         the drinker went in and they follow him. The twist comes in when the police officers do catch
         the drinker, they realized that the Cleveland Torso Slayer was the dead man inside the bowling 
         bag and that the drinker had killed him in self defense.

    6.  Man With a Hobby isn’t an outstanding piece of work by any stretch of the imagination, but for
         a short story, it is certainly more than adequate. In just a few pages, Bloch provides the reader
         with a satisfying glimpse into the world of a serial killer and yet the ending does not finish things
         off so tidily that it will be instantly relegated to the back of the mind. Fans of crime fiction
         should definitely enjoy it, especially when looking for a gratifying read in a short time.