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The Five Orange Pips
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Sherlock Holmes: The Five Orange Pips
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The Five Orange Pips (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)
Discussion Questions
1) What papers do you think The Colonel destroys after receiving his letter?
2) Relative to his uncle and father, why did it take so long for John Openshaw to receive his letter?
3) Is Watson’s unfamiliarity with the K.K.K. realistic?
4) Are there are any plot holes as a result of the abrupt conclusion?
5) What did you think about the death of John Openshaw? Did that turn of events surprise you? Did it cause you to view Holmes differently verses other stories?
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As for KKK, I think the average Briton of those times would have no idea what it stood for, or any non-North American, for that matter.
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I think you're right, it was a secret society initially but when it became public their horrific actions were aimed at the black folks. I don't see many newspapers, of the time, concerned with that.
I think not knowing the KKK is realistic, but it does somewhat undermine the story for the modern reader, as it's so intensely recognizable to us (and not just for persecuting former members!)This story is a frustrating one. Why did the grandfather burn the papers, thus condemning all his family members to be murdered, instead of just returning them? What were the KKK members doing in India? And why oh why, asked child-me back in the day, would Holmes send poor Openshaw back out into the night where he was obviously likely to be murdered, rather than having him stop the night at Baker St and go back the next day with Holmes and Watson as escorts? Maddening.
Mod
Sherlock is lacking in empathy and common sense at times. But why didn't Watson say something?
They were in India as part of a ship’s company. If keeping out of US jurisdiction was a goal, the British Empire provided plenty of ports to travel between. So why it was heading to the US at the end, without the papers secured, is a question left hanging.Burning the documents seemed to me to be a matter of destroying evidence which could have been used against himself. Why the grandfather kept them at all is another question left to the whole problem of the operations of a secret society.
Mod
Interesting that CD included references to the U.S. Civil War and the KKK, but the story wasn’t very well plotted, as noted by the comments by my fellow readers.
I thought that young Openshaws’ death and the drownings of the KKK members were both weak points of the story.Holmes' plotting of the ship movements was the main deductive element of this tale, but, I agree with Frances, this story could have been expanded into something more substantial.
The KKK members never appeared in person and the way they caused the ‘accidental’ deaths of the victims was never explained. For example, it seemed very weak that it was accepted that young Openshaw would walk off a river dock at night when he was actually catching a train. No doubt he was thrown in, but unless he had been drugged, there was still a possibility he could swim to safety.
Even though the foundering of a ship was not uncommon at that time, it seemed a lazy way to get rid of the perpetrators of the evil crimes and also probably preserved their real identities.
Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a lot of supernatural stories as well as the more well-known exploits of Holmes & Watson. I see a touch of the supernatural in the murderers dying mysteriously after they received the orange pips. Doyle definitely used sensational elements to keep his readers engaged. So far, we’ve had Mysterious Mormons, the KKK, treasure from India, poisoned darts from Africa, a royal love affair, and lots of disguises.
Emily wrote: "I think not knowing the KKK is realistic, but it does somewhat undermine the story for the modern reader, as it's so intensely recognizable to us (and not just for persecuting former members!)That was exactly my feeling as well. When I found out what KKK implied, it spoiled it for me.
I didn't get why the Oppenshaws were murdered. Because of uncle's misdemeanor back then? The uncle seemed to be very racist. Why would the KKK want to murder him? He was not too racist or was he too racist for them? We have to consider also that the KKK hates everything not w.a.s.p, so Catholics were their targets, Irish people too. But I am quite sure that the uncle was neither of these.
The idea is that the Klan is a secret society that does not tolerate informers: think of the Mafia. Or for a political context, the 1935 Oscar-Winner in several categories, “The Informer,” set in Ireland in 1922.
The Five Orange Pips (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)
Availability - The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1661
Background Information
"The Five Orange Pips", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the fifth of the twelve stories in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
The story was first published in The Strand Magazine in November 1891. Conan Doyle later ranked the story seventh in a list of his twelve favorite Sherlock Holmes stories. This is also one of only two Sherlock Holmes short stories where Holmes' client dies after seeking his help; the other being "The Adventure of the Dancing Men".
Publication History
"The Five Orange Pips" was first published in the UK in The Strand Magazine in November 1891, and in the United States in the US edition of the Strand in December 1891. The story was published with six illustrations by Sidney Paget in The Strand Magazine. It was included in the short story collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which was published in October 1892.
A Short Review
A chilling Sherlock Holmes tale where a man seeks Holmes' help after his family members mysteriously die following the receipt of a letter containing only five orange pips, hinting at a sinister connection to the Ku Klux Klan; while the story is intriguing, its unique feature is the lack of a definitive resolution, leaving the reader with a sense of unease and showcasing a more human, fallible side of Holmes as he struggles to fully solve the case.
Note
At the time of writing, the actual Ku Klux Klan was indeed broken and effectively defunct, and it would be decades before its 20th century revival. Conan Doyle's taking it up in this story was in line with his recurrent theme of wild and violent Americans and other foreigners exporting their power struggles to Victorian Britain – which already formed the basis to A Study in Scarlet, the very first Holmes mystery.