Theme

Author's Note: I wrote most of this on a pretty stressful day, and I tried to get into the "writing mode" as much as I could. Enjoy! -Evan Hoffins

If you've read the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, you probably know that Sherlock is a detective that can solve even the most queer of cases, and that he always finds small little clues to help himself do so, but have you ever taken the time to consider the overall themes to the stories? Probably not, so just sit back, and read.

One main theme in the book is justice. No matter how silly the case, no matter how awkward the evidence, Sherlock Holmes is always ready to fight for justice, and always takes his work seriously, he doesn't like to goof around. In "The Five Orange Pips", one of Sherlock's clients is asking he for help because he received five seeds in the mail and is afraid that he will be killed. Any normal person would laugh at this case, and think of it as silly, but Holmes takes to it like any other case of his. Unfortunately, his client gets pushed off of a bridge right before Sherlock could solve the problem, but as revenge, he finds and "takes care of" the killer. This is just one of the many examples of how Sherlock Holmes is always ready to fight for justice, no matter how awkward the problem.

Another reoccurring theme in the book, dare I say it, Is drugs. Sherlock is constantly smoking his pipe, or dealing with drugs. I can give him some grief because of the time period, but it makes me wonder what the author is like. You can usually tell a lot about an author by the way they write, and if Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is always writing about drugs, I wonder if he was a "druggie" himself. I find it even more curious, considering  that he was a doctor. He has lots of drug or tobacco references in his stories, and there are many examples of it. One example is how the book starts. It's not a very appealing introduction, in the first few pages, it says that Sherlock was on cocaine. If Doyle really needs to include that right off the bat, it makes you wonder what the book has in store.  Is it appropriate? Is this really what I want to read? If you're a teacher looking for a good class-read, you would probably not choose this book based on the first few pages.  You'd have to read past the drug references, and sample some of the better story content. Aside from the introduction, there are many other references to tobacco or drugs, that could be a bad influence to readers. "The Man With the Twisted Lip" is based off of a man on a drug called opium, and could pose a bad message to a younger person that doesn't know the consequences of tobacco, drugs, or alcohol. These are just some references that the author makes to drugs and tobacco, but I can assure you that there are many more.

If you have read, or are planning on reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, I hope that you will take some of the many reoccurring themes into account. I have mentioned a few here, but there are many more, and if you can identify them, they will definitely help you to further understand and comprehend the book.