Graham Greene`s Brighton Rock is a religious story which begins as a battle between good Ida Arnold and evil Pinkie. This battle takes place in a resort area south of London called Brighton. Brighton contains all kinds of restaurants, amusements, slums, and higher class areas. One example of these slums is Nelson Place; where Pinkie and his later on to be wife Rose are from. Nelson Place in my opinion is what influences Pinkie to become a man of evil through his tragic youth.
Where Pinkie grows up under the influence of two horrible parents, a poverty-stricken neighborhood, and as a kid who is willing to do anything for a better life. Another horrible influence on Pinkie is Mr. Colleoni; a man with a business empire, control of his own powerful mob as well as the police and other governmental authorities, and shops in Brighton. This man has all that Pinkie wants, and this brings Pinkie to a life of crime and constant mortal sin. Pinkie has in my opinion been misguided by Mr. Colleoni”s empire, and that is why he is just an evil boy who thinks that having a lifestyle like Mr. Colleoni will bring him happiness.
Pinkie is also blind to the happiness that the descent people like Rose and Ida have because of his misguided life. Pinkie”s evil desire is what causes him to do whatever it takes to get this life style. As shown by his uncontrolled killing of people such as Hale, and Spicer. Ida Arnold, a person who thinks of herself as an avenger as well as a rescuer for the people affected by Pinkie”s evil now comes in to the story. Although Ida does not have complete faith in God; she has a good heart.
This is why she feels the need to declare her semi-covert battle against Pinkie not only to avenge Hales” murder, but to rescue all the people who have not yet been affected like Hale, and Spicer from Pinkie”s desire. I also feel that Ida must have had a better life as a youth in comparison to Pinkie and that is why there appears to be no sympathy from Ida towards Pinkie. Ida also seems to suffer from a kind of irony though; because when she might have unknowingly been able to save Hales life by not leaving him she went to “wash up and fix her face.
When she came back though he was gone and she never saw him again until the funeral. Later in the story this irony represents itself agin when she was about to find out critical information from Cubitt involving Hales murder, yet she again went to “wash up and fix her face,” and when she came back from the bathroom in the Cosmopolitan Cubitt was gone. During this battle between Ida and Pinkie Good and Evil Rose a person who appears to be a lonely, innocent, person of faith is used as a shield by Pinkie. Rose is such a lonely
