Ending

I have finished reading Agatha Christie's novel, Murder on the Orient Express, and I did not expect that ending at all. It ended with Mr. Poirot, the detective, stating two possible scenarios. One of those was the proposal that someone else had entered the train through the door that was left open, but no one really agreed with that and I didn't either. I was convinced it was somebody already on the train. His second answer, which blew my mind, came along by Mr. Poirot thinking that America was the only other place people of all ethnicities could come together. He then began to guess that everyone on that train was connected to the Armstrong family. ALL of them had stabbed Ratchett. This completely blew my mind.

As for symbols and themes in the novel, there were definitely a few. A theme is Justice by Jury. Colonel Arbuthnot was a strong believer in the jury system, and this explains how they killed him. There were 12 attackers, 12 stab wounds, and there are 12 people on a jury. Technically, they all gave him his "justice" by sentencing him to death. 
A symbol is Samuel E. Ratchett. He represents pure evil in the book, since he killed little Daisy Armstrong, who is the symbol of good and innocence.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I would definitely recommend it to anyone searching for a puzzling and gripping novel that keeps them on the end of their seat.

Part 2

I have just completed reading Part 2 of the novel, Murder on the Orient Express, written by Agatha Christie. I believe that the murderer is Dr. Constantine. My reasoning is because of many things. First, the deceased told Mr. Hardman that his attacker might be a small, dark, man with a womanish voice. Dr. Constantine is a greek doctor who is described on page 43 as "the little dark man..." which leads me to believe he is the suspect that Mr. Poirot has been looking for. Also, Hildegarde Schmidt said on page 159, "These are all tall, big men. The one I saw was small and dark."

I have decided that a number of the passengers are innocent. Mrs. Hubbard, for one, is most definitely innocent. She found the bloody knife in her sponge bag, since it was hanging on the handle of the door when the man came into her room. The attacker took advantage of the bag and slipped his knife in there as her eyes were closed. This makes her innocent since they also found keys in the Wagon Lit uniform, which explains how he got into the room in the first place. Another person that is innocent is the attendant, Pierre Michel. He said he was sitting in his little seat the whole time, besides answering some bells, and Mr. Hardman agrees to that because he saw him sitting there. I know some people are innocent but I still am not 100% sure of who actually killed Ratchett. It could have been anyone...

Part 1

As of now I have absolutely no idea who the murderer is. I enjoyed Part 1, even though it is a little bit difficult to follow at the beginning, since I had no idea who anyone was and what was going on. However, by the time Mr. Poirot boarded the Orient Express, I had some knowledge of who everybody was. When I first read the title, I thought to myself, "Oh, it's just a murder. Someone must get shot or something." I did not expect the murderer to have stabbed Mr. Ratchett twelve or fourteen times! One of the most interesting passages I have read so far was when Mr. Poirot and the doctor, Dr. Constantine, were examining the evidence. They made a lot of interesting points, such as there being two people that attempted to murder Mr. Ratchett. Since it was dark the other might not have seen that he was already dead. Another thing they said was that it was staged to look like someone ran out the window. One technique that interested me was how he figured out what the scrap of paper said. It seemed very weird to me that the words were able to read on top of the fire. I really liked the investigation of the body in Part 1, and I am excited to read on and see what everyone else has to say about the murder.

Mr. Poirot conducted one of his interviews in a dining car like this one. However, he still has many more to go.