I. Write out from the book words and word-combinations characterising the main personages of the novel[1]:

1. he has the brains, the ambitions, the good looks;

he is married;

2. he is in demand;

3. he is eager to work;

4. he is a very decent young man, also very ambitious;

1. he seems to be driven and he won’t quit until he is at the top.

2. he is ready to take some chances, bent some rules if necessary.

3. he is broke and wants the money;

4. he is skilful, determined and resourceful

5. he has remarkable stamina and sense of humour

1. She is a teacher

2. She is a pretty young girl;

3. She is independent

1. She has intuition

2. She is very careful in talking

1. He is about forty, with a short military haircut on the sides and a wisp of gray hair handing almost to his eyebrows. The suit is a three-piece, navy in colour, made of at least ninety percent polyester. The tie is cheap imitation silk. He isn’t much of a dresser, but there is a certain neatness about him.

he is the Special Agent of FBI

2. he is competent

3. he is unscrupulous in his business dealing

1. He is stocky with a slight belly, thick shoulders and chest and a huge, perfectly round head that smiled with great reluctance

1. He is the Head of security

2. He has been married three times

3. he delves into every detail of his “clients” life.

The main personage of the novel is Mitchell McDeere. He is a poor kid whose only assets are a first-class mind, a Harvard law degree, and a beautiful, loving wife. He's young. He's bright. He's ambitious. Mitchell McDeere, raised in a coal-mining region of rural Kentucky, has worked hard to get where he is: third in his class at Harvard Law. He could have the pick of the big firms in New York and Chicago, but he's chosen the Memphis tax firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke because he is broke and wants the money, and that firm pays outrageous salaries. But that firm involves him into an exclusive circle of almost insoluble problems. Mitch makes an explosive discovery: the firm is owned and operated by the most powerful organized crime family in Chicago. Even as Mitch discovers the truth, he finds himself caught between the FBI, who wants an informant inside the firm, and the firm itself, which will make him a very rich man—or a very dead one. And Mitch ought to save his own and his wife’s life, he ought to use all his resourses and stamina to solve these problems. The author gives him enough spirit to make choice between the FBI and the Mafia (a very elegant choice) and to profit by that situation. I suppose that only thanks to the fact that Mitch was a determined and resourceful person, he could rescue his family and survive under these aggravating circumstances.

Tom Cruise created a very believable character of Mitch on the screen; I suppose that Cruise’s interpretation is more bright and vivid than Grisham’s Mitch.

“The Firm” by Grisham is an absorbing and polysemantic book, it touches upon many types of conflicts and human relationships. Naturally, it is very difficult to separate different conflicts in the book, as well as in real life – they are connected to each other. I believe that the most interesting conflict is the inner conflict of the hero developing during the plot.

The hero of this novel is Mitchell McDeere, a young brilliant lawyer, who is straight out of college, who hasn’t any bank account and who lives in a small and cheap flat with his wife. The Memphis law firm makes him a wonderful offer. They're selective. They pay outrageous salaries. They have a turnover rate of zero. When a Memphis law firm makes him that offer he really can't refuse, he trades his old Nissan for a new BMW, his cramped apartment for a house in the best part of town, and puts in long hours finding tax shelters for Texans who'd rather pay a lawyer than the IRS. And here the conflict begins.

As he started working, everything was fine and dandy. But as he went on, he started to realize that his employers were rather nosey. Then he found out about former employees who were "accidentally" killed. As time went on, he realized that his law firm was corrupt. To make it worse, the FBI, who had the firm under surveillance, was trying to force Mitch get them evidence so they could indict this company. It was rather hard for Mitch since he was caught in a blackmail that his employers held behind him.

On the one hand, the FBI presses on Mitch, forcing him to break a law, his own word, and the code of honour of the lawyer - even were guided by high concerns of crime prevention. On the other hand, the law firm controlled by the Mafia controls his life and can make him a very rich man or kill him and his family. Mitch finds himself caught between the FBI and the firm. Really, there is only one problem – the choice problem. And this problem arises for Mitch very keenly. He has a very difficult choice – the choice between the lawyer’s honour, the enormous risk for life and the law.

2. If Tarrance wanted Mitch to copy his client’s files, he would have to realise Mitch’s brother Roy.

3. Mitch’s car was wired, but he acted as if he didn’t know about bugs because of his safety.

4. Mitch'd be set for life in this firm, if only associates at the firm didn't have a funny habit of dying, and the FBI wasn't trying to get Mitch to turn his colleagues in.

6. If the Memphis tax firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke hadn’t paid outrageous salaries, Mitch wouldn’t have accepted that offer.

[1] The author drew the characters of the novel avoiding the usage of straight descriptions. We learn about the personages’ character-sketches from their behaviour, their feelings, their actions and reactions to the circumstances. There are no straight and full descriptions in the novel’s text; we can see not many of the character-sketches of the personages.

the Firm