Agatha Christie was a writer of mystery novels. Throughout her lifetime, Agatha wrote eighty-six books (Christie, 1944). Agatha Christie had many influences in her life that led to her writing her novels as well as making a significant contribution to literature. These influences also made her books beloved by generations. Agatha Christie made her own contribution to literature by adding into her writing her religious beliefs, basing characters off people she knew, and using her own personal experiences as inspiration.
Agatha Christie’s religious beliefs were shown throughout her murder mystery novels. Agatha Christie was a Christian and therefore expressed Christian views. Her early life reflected Christ through her actions. Early in her …show more content…
Agatha often had characters inspired by her imaginary friends (Berlin, 2015). Since Agatha did not go to school, she made up friends to keep her company and used ideas from them to make up her characters (Berlin, 2015). Through this, Agatha gained an amazing imagination. Similarly, Agatha based Miss Marple off of her step-grandmother named Margaret West Miller (Berlin, 2015). Agatha said her grandmother and Miss Marple “always expected the worst of anyone and anything” (Adams, 2008, para. 7). Additionally, Agatha later met Belgian refugees who inspired the creation of Hercule Poirot (Flood, 2014). After debating on who her new detective character would be, Agatha eventually chose to base the character on a Belgium refugee and it is believed Hercule Poirot was inspired and based specifically on a Belgian police officer named Jacques Hornais (Flood, 2014). People that Agatha knew greatly inspired her writing and their influence was greatly shown through the characters they …show more content…
Agatha’s train travels and world events would go on to inspire her to write Murder on the Orient Express. Agatha went on a train that was stopped because of heavy rain and then got the idea for Murder on the Orient Express (Berlin, 2015). Equally important, the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's child was the basis for the kidnapping Agatha wrote about in Murder on the Orient Express (Berlin, 2015). Agatha’s time spent with chemicals during World War Two also greatly inspired her to use chemicals as a way of murder. During WWI, Agatha worked with the Red Cross as well as worked with drugs (Berlin, 2015). Agatha’s idea for poison as a death is reflected in this quote: “Since I was surrounded by poisons, perhaps it was natural that death by poisoning should be the method I selected” (Berlin, 2015, para. 8). Later, she used the things she learned in this experience and used poisons in her book called The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side (Escobar, 2017). Agatha’s travels also inspired her writing, especially France. She visited France for awhile and learned to fluently speak French and the experience helped make Hercule Poirot (Luzmore, 2011). The experience also helped her write Murder on the Links (Luzmore, 2011). Agatha’s travels also greatly inspired her writings as places as well as influence the making of her