How Human Flaws Hinder Murder Investigations in Murder on the Orient Ex

Agatha Christie once said, â€Å"Crime is terribly revealing. Try and vary your methods as you will, your tastes, your habits, your attitude of mind, and your soul is revealed by your actions† (Christie). The reader may believe this quote goes with her book, Murder on the Orient Express very well and some may believe she used this quote as a thesis for the book. The idea of crime being revealing and the fact that crime is revealed through the actions that are taken suggests that murder is never really anonymous, no matter how hard the murderer tries to cover their tracks. In Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie shows how human flaws hinder murder investigations through making incorrect assumptions, holding onto the past, and cultural stereotyping. First, Poirot, the lead investigator, shows that anyone could have committed the murder because of incorrect assumptions that are made about the passengers. The first assumption that is made is the person that kills Ratchett is a female. His first argument is the way the person stabs makes them a female. As stated in the novel, â€Å"’It is a woman.’ Said the Chef de Train, speaking for the first time. ‘Depend upon it, it was a woman. Only a woman would stab like that’ â€Å" (Christie 52). The second argument made toward gender is the force used makes the murderer a woman. In the novel, Poirot states, â€Å"’She must have been a very strong woman,’ he said. ‘It is not my desire to speak technically—that is only confusing; but I can assure you that one or two of the blows were delivered with such force as to drive them through hard belts of bone and muscle’ â€Å" (Christie 52). Poirot later assumes some of t he blows Ratchett faced are done back-handed, as well as left-handed. He uses... ... where to start, to not knowing whether to side with moral or legal justice. Incorrect assumptions, such as looking at the way a person is stabbed and the force used with the blow can lead investigators in the wrong direction. Another human flaw that hinders murder investigations is holding on to the past. Poirot was disliked by some people on the train because of mistakes that he made in the past, and eventually, his past caught up to him, as he was aboard the Orient Express. Lastly, the cultural stereotyping that took place on the Orient Express proved to be wrong for finding out who committed a murder. Murder on the Orient Express is a novel that shows that anyone can be guilty of committing a crime when you look at the incorrect assumptions, the past and who all it effects and the cultural stereotyping that takes place between certain people.