Originating in the 1920’s, the American hard-boiled detective story, or the mystery novel, has been revered by numerous enthusiasts of popular fiction. The detective story “begins with the introduction of the detective, then sets him into action in pursuit of a mystery which turns into a crime, trails him through a convoluted investigation, and concludes with the solution of the crime” (). The detective has to experience the corrupt underworld within an urban society. It is his mission to somehow mend the system of justice that is damaged, but not beyond repair. Marilyn Wesley reveals how, “Walter Mosley’s adaptation of the hard-boiled genre in Devil in a Blue Dress stages an examination of the new possibilities for black empowerment in the aftermath of the Second World War” (1). Walter Mosley utilizes his detective story to challenge racial stereotypes and…show more content… Specifically, Young argues that “Mosley situates his protagonist squarely within traditional Black culture by using aspects of the oral tradition and the slave narrative” (2). Mosley describes 1940’s and 1950’s Los Angeles as a colossal, transformed plantation. The factory system that the protagonist, Easy Rawlins, works in is even likened to the plantation system. For instance, Mosley writes, “A job in a factory is an awful lot like working on a plantation in the South. The bosses see all the workers like they’re children, and everyone knows how lazy children are” (Mosley 108). Similarly, “He [Benny] needed all his children to kneel down and let him be the boss. He wasn’t a businessman, he was a