Constant Gardener Written by John

¶ … Constant Gardener written by John Le Carre is the story of Tessa Quayle and her husband, Justin Quayle. Tessa is the wife of Justin Quayle who works for the British High Commission stationed in Nairobi, Kenya. The novel begins with a Tessa Quayle's death. She was found dead together with the driver near the shores of Lake Turkana. John Le Carre wrote the Constant Gardener in such a way that little pieces of information are revealed one at a time.

The opening chapters centers on the mystery of Tessa Quayle's death. The revelation of how Tessa was found dead, how she was murdered, was slow in progression. It starts with a mere statement that she has been found dead. It was later revealed that her throat has been slashed. And it was further revealed that she was found naked and was brutally raped by several men. This demonstrates the way the truth is deliberately covered up by people in power. Subtle information is given in place of the truth. The subtle information given to people is tamed in such a way that the grim and ugly facts are concealed and not revealed. Violence and cruelty were also themes of the book. One way in which violence and cruelty were communicated in the book was through the manner of death of Tessa and the driver, Noah.

Searching for clues as to what led to and who were responsible for Tessa Quayle's death are central to the story. Several institutions carry on an investigation of Tessa's death. The British High Commission in Nairobi, the Nairobi police which was described as corrupt and ineffective, and the Scotland Yard embarked on an investigation of Tessa's death. Tessa Quayle has been known to have been traveling with a handsome African doctor, Arnold Bluhm on the day she was murdered. While Tessa and the driver were both found dead, Arnold Bluhm was missing. The immediate suspect was Bluhm. The story also illustrates prejudice in the sense that, without a being fair, Arnold Bluhm was believed to be the murderer because he was black and was known as a womanizer. This also illustrates injustice. People are convicted even before they were put to trial to prove their innocence. The authorities are looking for Doctor Bluhm not because they wanted to know whether he has survived the ambush. Instead, the authorities were looking for him because he was the suspected murderer.

The story progresses to reveal the potential illicit affair between Tessa Quayle and the African doctor, Arnold Bluhm. People believe what they believe and can be very judgmental, John Le Carre portrayed this very clearly in the Constant Gardener. Just because Tessa and Arnold work very closely together and were often seen other, people came to the conclusion that Tessa is a promiscuous woman who have no moral fiber, carrying on a love affair with an African doctor. When this piece of information was revealed, Justin, Tessa's husband, was thought to be tolerant of his wife's whims.

Justin Quayle was stoic as he grieved the death of his wife. People described him to be composed while grieving for his wife's death, a reaction to grief that many of the characters in the book did not expect, something that is very reflective of how people have expectations of socially accepted behavior. However stoically Justin Quayle may appear to be grieving, he was struggling to come to terms with the death of his wife and the whole mystery that surrounds it. This eventually pushes him to take on an investigation of his own.

Le Carre illustrated Justin Quayle's challenges as he took on his investigations. Though Justin Quayle told the investigators that he believes his wife's innocence and faithfulness and doesn't believe that there was an affair between Tessa and Arnold, he had his doubts and he experienced jealousy. The challenges Justin confronts in the story were not only emotional challenges but physical and intellectual as well. He was grieving emotionally for the loss of his spouse. To make matters more complicated, on top of grieving for the loss of his wife, he was curious as to the mystery behind his wife's gruesome death. His grief was mixed with the determination to know who were behind the violent murder and what the motive behind it was. Justin's investigation was in pursuit of the truth behind his wife's death, a truth that is closely guarded by the people in power, people who control the situation.

Justin's started the investigation under a guise while he traveled to different countries to uncover the mystery. His investigation led him to both surprising and startling discoveries. Though he was Tessa's husband, he detached himself from her causes. Though Tessa was born rich and beautiful, which makes the reader fall in love with her easily just like the other characters did, she had a strong conscience and was genuinely passionate about helping Africa and its people. Justin's investigation led him to discover things about Tessa that surprised him. It was an opportunity for him to understand her passions and her causes. He also found out startling things about what Tessa and Bluhm were working on and what they had discovered. Justin found out that his wife and Bluhm discovered that a huge pharmaceutical company is manufacturing a drug for tuberculosis which is being tested among Africans. The startling part doesn't stop there; the drug is killing the Africans who were being treated as laboratory rats by the huge pharmaceutical company. This scandal is also central to the story and demonstrates how huge companies can act greedily just because of profit. This is also an issue that illustrates the violation of human rights. Adding more drama and thickening the plot, readers find out that the pharmaceutical company manufacturing the tuberculosis drug has connections with the British High Commission and the British government. This reveals the grim reality of corruption in the government and the corrupt and illegal deals between huge companies and the government. This also illustrates how loud money talks, how greedy and corrupt people are that they can bend the rules and ignore grave injustices for the sake of money. Entwined with these themes are the abuse of power and the use of power to manipulate the minds of the public in order to mask the corruption and injustices going on. This is more powerfully illustrated through the death of Tessa Quayle and Arnorld Bluhm as it was learned that Tessa sent a compilation of findings pertaining to this discovery to who she thought were the proper authorities in London. In order to stop Tessa and Arnold from revealing their startling discovery, power was abused to commit a violent crime and truths were twisted to cover up the crime.