Women in "Red Wind"

To read Red Wind: click here

In Red Wind the two female characters seem to have very limited roles and appear to be the only female characters in this story. For the most part, their roles seem to mostly be defined by their beauty, their relation to male characters, and their need for protection.

Mrs. Barsalay is a critical character in the story. Part of why this started is because of her false pearls, which were a symbol of her past relationship with the dead Mr. Phillips. They are stolen from her, and she intends to buy them back from Waldo which sets the entire chain of events in the story. While she does save Marlow's life there is also this sort of understanding that she is someone who needs protecting. When she is holding a gun to Marlow in his apartment, she does not take the safety off or stand a proper distance from him. It is discussed later in the story that it seemed she mostly meant this as a bluff, though there is a suggestion that she would not be able to properly defend herself and that as a woman must be protected. Much of her life with her current life with her husband is filled with lies about her necklace and the past relationship she had with her dead fiance. She also is running around secretly to try to get this object back without him knowing. It also reveals her as deceptive, despite also coming off as an innocent doe staring in the headlights. At the end of the tale when it is revealed that her necklace was never real, Marlow has another fake made to help cement the falsehood that her necklace was sold and replaced with a fake. In a way, this does save her from knowing that the symbol of her relationship was based on a lie, it also is protecting her from the truth and suggesting that she is too fragile to handle this truth. Perhaps this was just part of Marlow's character as he lies several times throughout his investigation, though he still told the hard truth to the male characters within the tale. There seems to be an understanding that she cannot handle the harsh world.

Miss Kolchenko, or the "White Russian," is a less important character in this tale. She is the mistress of Mr. Barsalay, and seems to have very little respect from him. Her appearance serves as a deception because she looks threatening when in actuality she is not. She is made to serve drinks to Mr. Basalay and Marlow in her scene. She is also completely ignored by Baraslay when she objects to him describing how she looks like a threat but is not. She may also serve as a comparison between Marlow and Barsalay as Marlow is much more respectful of Mrs. Baraslay than Mr. Barasalay is towards Kolchenko. She is also completely shooed away from the situation which could be a form of said protection but mostly seems to work in a way to keep her out of the understanding of what is going on. Of course, that may be a reflection that it is not believed that she could handle what is going on and must be kept away from scary situations in the same way a child is most often shuttled away from family drama and harsh realities.

While Mrs. Barsalay does save Marlow's life, women in this story are not shown in a particularly positive light. They are seen as deceptive, and too weak to look out for themselves. Though this seems to be true of much of the media from this period. This is a part of our cultural history of hip. Despite some of my qualms, it was still an entertaining read. A piece of media can still be entertaining as well as make us think about the depictions we commonly use for different groups of people in our culture.