“Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean”

The expression “Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean” links Raymond Chandler’s image of moral purpose amid urban hardship to the dog Marlowe’s name. In the novel, the quotation is offered as the reason for that name, with a comic twist: the dog is said to adore a mean street, and its unruly behavior brings the phrase’s streetwise allusion into the Bloodhounds’ everyday life.

Source and Meaning

Rupert invokes the line as a quotation from Chandler, whose private eye is also the source of the dog’s name, Marlowe. The saying distinguishes the harshness of the streets from the character of the person who travels them: a man may move through a mean world without becoming mean himself. Rupert’s explanation turns that ethical image into an affectionate naming joke, saying that the dog adores a mean street.

The Quotation in Conversation

The line enters the conversation as an explanation, not as an abstract literary discussion. After hearing that Marlowe is an amusing name for a dog, the group is told why Rupert chose it; Peter Diamond then asks what the dog did to be considered obnoxious. The exchange shifts from Chandler’s private-eye world to a specific incident involving the dog and Miss Chilmark.

Comic Contrast and Incident

The phrase’s moral seriousness sits beside the dog’s comic, literal fondness for streets. Marlowe jumps up beside Miss Chilmark and throws her into a panic. She suffers an attack of breathlessness, brought under control through Jessica Shaw’s swift action. The story does not equate the dog’s behavior with Chandler’s idea of human moral character; instead, the gap between the elevated literary allusion and the disruptive pet supplies the joke, while the incident gives that joke a real consequence for Miss Chilmark.