" (Greene, 7) The introduction is fitting and indicates to the reader that Pinkie is not simply a man not to be trusted but that, indeed even beyond that, he is a creature to be feared. This is only further reinforced in the tense first meeting between Hale and Pinkie, neither of them a man of the greatest particular integrity. Hale insists that the boy have a drink with him, and upon his acceptance of the invitation, Pinkie is described as having "watched Hale all the time closely and with wonder: you might expect a hunter searching through the jungle for some half-fabulous beast to look like that -- at the spotted lion or the pygmy elephant -- before the kill." (Greene, 7)

Quite to this point, we may say that it was probable Hale knew what was coming to him almost from the moment he laid eyes on Pinkie. But it would be inappropriate to call so explicit a description as foreshadowing. Instead, it speaks to the noir literary tendency toward the obviation of violence...

No doubt a product of an era marked on one side by the Great Depression and on the other by World War II, Greene's work channeled fully this idea that the tension was not built on the uncertainty of death but in coming to know the motives of the soon departed.
In Ida, who maintains herself as others fall by the wayside to mortality or moral trespass -- even with Hale who finds his betrayal come back to roost in Pinkie's vengeance -- there is a motive of sheer vitality. During a telling walk through the fair with Hail, Greene uses her to paint on thick metaphors about her worldview, particularly in one passage where she observes, "a mug's game. You never know whether you'll be up or down. I like it." (Greene, 31)

A theme of marked importance in much of Greene's work, it here serves as a positive center-point in an otherwise dark universe.

Works Cited:

Greene, G. (1991). Brighton Rock. Penguin Classics.