The Enigma Essay Research Paper

The Enigma Essay, Research Paper “THE ENIGMA” “The Enigma” involves all of the elements of a good mystery. It involves a search for a man who just disappeared one day out of the blue with no trace as to what could have happened. This essay will establish the important points of the story such as the sergeant’s role in the case, his similarities to the main character as well as his relationship with the son of the main character’s girlfriend, and what is ultimately uncovered in the end. “When John Marcus Fielding disappeared, he therefore contravened all social and statistical probability. Fifty-seven years old, rich, happily married with a son and two daughters; on the board of several City companies…but the most profoundly anomalous aspect of his case was

that he was also a Conservative Member of Parliament,” (Fowles 191-192). Since he was such a prominent figure, his disappearance came as a shock to everyone that he knew. His wife frantically tried to trace her husbands steps by calling all of the places that he could possibly have been at, but nobody saw him. It was like he had just disappeared into space…he was gone. Mrs. Fielding took the disappearance to the next level and called in a personal detective. She went through everything with the detective and “a few minutes later the hunt was at last placed in professional hands,” (Fowles 198). Mrs. Fielding’s philosophy could be summed up best in this manner with respect to a professional search; “I have done all that I have could to find him, it is your turn.” Word

spread that Fielding was missing and it became the big headline in the news. All sorts of stories were fabricated, including that he was trying to escape his life and that he possibly had an accomplice carry out and assist him with the disappearing act. That is where Michael Jennings came into the picture. He came up with his own ideas with respect to the disappearance. “He spent the day following the secret decision in going through the now bulky file on Fielding, and at the end of it he drew up for himself a kind of informal summary that he called State of Play. It listed the possibilities and their counter-arguments…The sergeant then wrote a second heading Wild Ones,” (Fowles 203-204). Jennings listed everything from murder to suicide, from abduction to paranoia. There

were no leads into any of the sergeant’s possibilities so he began to question people in order to make for a better understanding of what could have possibly happened. His job was to hunt people down, question them until he was blue in the face and solve the mystery. This was a difficult job, as was the job that Fielding possessed as a Conservative Member of Parliament. Both Jennings and Fielding had jobs that not too many people had the desire to possess because of their essence of complexity. Fielding was also similar to Jennings with respect to the love that they both had towards Mrs. Fielding. Mr. Fielding loved her because they were married and they had reason to love. Jennings had love for her because of the fact that they were able to share things with each other in a

special secretive way. Jennings and grew more attached to the family because of the fact that they spent so much time together trying to figure out what had happened to Mr. Fielding. He learned all about the family and about the people that the Fielding’s knew from questioning and just spending time with Mrs. Fielding. It was not only Mrs. Fielding that made Jennings want to become more familiar with the family, but it Ws also the son Peter. “Look. All right. Maybe you don’t know the kind of world I was brought up in. But its leading principle is never, never, never show what you really feel. I think my mother and father were happy together. But I don’t really know….” (Fowles 215). By Peter providing Jennings with that insight, it led him to become closer to Mrs.