Marlowe And Sam Spade Analysis

This mystery follows the escapades of Sam Spade as he hunts for the missing Maltese Falcon, and the killer of his partner. Spade is described as a “Blond Satan” (1). This is not a rather flattering way of describing your protagonist, and Hammett knew this. He knew that when solving crimes, one must place himself into the mind of the criminals to truly understand their reasoning. To do this for a living will take its toll, as Hammett knows all too well from his life as a private detective in L.A. His private eye is gruff, cynical, and drinks far too much alcohol. Spade is known for being far too honest at times saying, “people lose teeth talking like that” (94) when trying to gain information. These are the coping mechanisms that Hammett gives Spade to show his readers the human aspects of him. Spade might not be the most enjoyable company but if you give him a case to solve he will give his all to solving it. This sounds like another brilliant detective from the past. Sir Doyle would understand why Sam Spade is an effective detective just by looking at his habits. Sherlock Holmes and Sam Spade are akin to one another in the fact that they are both fallible humans with a knack for solving mysteries. Hammett is brilliant in the way he uses the influence of perhaps the first hardboiled detective to add a human side to the private eye. This type of writing is far above the caliber expected of a pulp fiction author, and to this day literary scholars site “The Maltese Falcon was vastly ahead of any other work in its weight class.” (Smith, 178) Dashiell Hammett proved the worth of an entire subgenre, and helped the hardboiled detective become a part of American literature. To this day, when people think of the private eye they jump straight to the cliché of a tough man of few words drinking bourbon and hunting down the bad guys in a dark city street. This is

Women have different personalities and motivations, and they form relationships with men for many different reasons. Some of these reasons include love, money, and even lust and manipulation. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett is a novel about Sam Spade, who is a huge figure of the hard-boiled detective genre. Sam Spade goes on a quest to find a valuable falcon, solve murders and jump over the obstacle that surround him on a daily basis. The novel is also about the three women who surround Spade during his quest. The names of these women are Iva Archer, Effie Perine, and Brigid O’Shaughnessy, and they all have different roles in Sam Spade’s life. In The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, Brigid O’Shaughnessy plays the role of femme fatale, Iva Archer plays the role of Spade’s unfortunate future, and Effie Perine plays the role of Spade’s right-hand woman.

2002 - Morally ambiguous characters -- characters whose behavior discourages readers from identifying them as purely evil or purely good -- are at the heart of many works of literature. Choose a novel or play in which a morally ambiguous character plays a pivotal role. Then write an essay in which you explain how the character can be viewed as morally ambiguous and why his or her moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

Marlowe's fear of the women lies in the fact that they have control of the situation. For the majority of the novel, the women manipulate his actions. Chandler not only thinks that women are bad, he thinks that they should be feared because they are very good at manipulating situations. Carmen manipulated him by acting like

Detective fiction at its finest is displayed through the famous novel by Raymond Chandler called, Farewell My Lovely. Chandler published this novel in 1940 with every intention of giving his readers something dark and mysterious to dive into. Throughout the novel, the kind of protagonist that we naturally expect to encounter, is much more the opposite. The unconventional hero in this case would be the suggested “protagonist” names Philip Marlowe. He plays a cynical man who appears to not need any additional company but his own when solving the crimes committed around town. That is one of the most appealing features that caught my attention about Marlowe. He entertains the reader with his bravery and ambiguous heroism throughout the corrupt streets of L.A. Corruption, murder and this complicated character guiding us through the thick of these cases are the three key aspects that make Chandler’s novels so appealing.

In Hammett’s story “The Maltese Falcon”, the main character, Sam Spade is a person who values a lot his reputation. He would do anything to avoid hurting in any way his reputation. In this story, the woman he loves killed his partner because of her plan of getting rid of Thursby. Sam said to Brigid, “When a man’s partner’s is killed he’s supposed to do something about it.” (Hammett 213). This quote explains that Sam expects a man to do something for their partner if their partner gets killed no matter who is the murderer. Sam says, “All we’ve got is the fact that maybe you love me and maybe I love you.” (Hammett 214). Spade would go as far as betraying the woman he loves to prison in order to preserve his reputation. As a detective, Spade do not want to let a criminal get away since that would harm his reputation as well. Sam said to Brigid, “I’m a detective and expecting me to run criminals down and then let them go free is like asking a dog to catch a rabbit and let it go.” (Hammett 214). This shows exactly that Sam refuses to let a criminal get away once he captures one no matter who it

In The Big Sleep, Marlowe, a white man, shows his personality as he describes the stained-glass panel that shows a “knight in dark armor rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree” and the knight was not really trying to rescue the lady. Marlowe is a knight in his society and as any good knight, he is very chivalrous not like the dark knight (other ethnicities) on the panel. He says that he needs to “climb up there and help” the knight to rescue the lady, showing how chivalrous he really is and how others need the help of a white man. In Murder Is My Business, Marino is a lesbian detective with a damsel in distress syndrome. However, she is cautious and smart enough to know that Mrs. Hunnicut’s story “smelled as rotten as a bonito left out in the sun,” but her attraction to Mrs. Hunnicut and her syndrome to help everyone drives her to help Mrs. Hunnicut anyway. In this story the typical white detective is changed, giving a woman the main role and thus the white people’s power. In Devil in a Blue Dress, the detective, Rawlins, is an African American who is fully aware of the racial discrimination that exists towards African Americans. He is captivated or even being manipulated by Daphne, a white girl. Changing the detectives’ ethnicity reveals the position that their ethnicity represents on

Flavia de Luce and Sherlock Holmes are almost identical in comparison, with brilliance and intuitiveness that is immediately apparent when the characters are first introduced. They both are single-handed investigators, but Holmes has Dr. John Watson to accompany him on investigations. Although, Sherlock still is the one who puts together clues, with his own intuitiveness, and comes to conclusions. In The Red-Headed League it discusses, “... his brilliant reasoning power would rise to the level of intuition…”

Tom pursues Myrtle Wilson, a poor woman living in the industrialized ‘Valley of Ashes’ with her struggling mechanic husband. Myrtle, dissatisfied with her position in society, gladly spends Tom’s money and follows him wherever he goes. Following an attempt by Myrtle to rebel by saying Daisy’s name, Tom punches her in the face to prove that he has control. Myrtle is resigned to accept this abuse in order to get what she wants out of the relationship because she knows that anyone could easily take her place. In addition, Daisy begins seeing her former flame Jay Gatsby once she rediscovers his existence in West Egg. Gatsby, absolutely enamored with Daisy, claims to have earned all of his money and risen to the top just for her. Despite Daisy’s renewed interest in Gatsby, she dislikes his extravagant parties and West Egg, disgusted by ‘the too obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along a short cut from nothing to nothing’ (114). Daisy’s distaste for the ‘new money’ crowd sends Gatsby into a panic, and he immediately attempts to rectify his ‘mistake’ by eliminating the parties entirely, proving that Daisy is able to control him by her pretentious whims

come out as the victim the one who needs help when he doesn't and the

However, on the very next page of the novel, our view of Marlowe is undermined. As the

Readers who have never picked up on the Dashiell Hammett detective novel The Maltese Falcon 1930 or seen the classic 1941 film adaptation, which follows the novel almost verbatim, can feel a strong sense of familiarity, faced for the first time in history. In this book, Hammett invented the hard-boiled private eye genre, introducing many of the elements that readers have come to expect from detective stories: mysterious, attractive woman whose love can be a trap , search for exotic icon that people are willing to kill the detective, who plays both sides of the law, to find the truth , but it is ultimately driven by a strong moral code , and shootings and beatings enough for readers to share the feeling of danger Detective . For decades , countless writers have copied the themes and motifs Hammett may rarely come anywhere near him almost perfect blend of cynicism and excitement.

As Myrtle’s relationship with George Wilson deteriorates and she is disenchanted with his limited lifestyle, she desires more and thus when she meets Tom he offers her this. In some distorted way, Myrtle thinks that Tom will leave his beautiful wife Daisy and marry her, Tom doesn’t truly see the relationship between Myrtle and himself being a true relationship, he just believes she is someone he can call upon unannounced and use her for a sexual relationship. But Myrtle has other plans for the two of them. This is made clear when he breaks Myrtle’s nose we she mentioned his wife’s name: “‘Daisy! Daisy! Daisy!’ shouted Mrs. Wilson. ‘I’ll say it whenever I want to! Daisy Dai-‘Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand” (Fitzgerald, 1926)This harsh action implied by Tom, really puts Mrs. Wilson in her place, making her come to her sense of what she can and cannot say. This reaction from Tom signifies that it is not a pure love existing between them. Further, Myrtle’s desire for the material goods Tom can provide shapes her conception of their alleged love, which is evidently greatly distorted as shown through Tom’s treatment of her.

Particularly, her Asian blouse at the Geiger murder scene, while exotic and perhaps formerly attractive, fails to get Marlowe’s attention. This corresponds to the political climate of the time, as the war in the Pacific led to a drastically anti-Asian movement. Carmen breaks the law for the wrong reasons, as evidenced by the murder of Shawn Regan, is

Detectives in the majority novels show no emotion and often have a sarcastic attitude. They often live alone and only depend on themselves to survive. Detective Marlowe is not married by does recognizes women and their troubles that he believes follows them. Detective Marlowe was hired to find and search for who stole the sexual nude pictures of Carmen and was holding them as black man. Women in detective films are viewed as being uneasy and weak individuals. If they are not viewed as uneasy and weak they are viewed as scandalous. Women are constantly fit and sculpted to fit the role of a woman who serves only to a man and his needs and wants. Carmen was portrayed as a persuasive woman found naked passed out with a dead man at her feet. In a way also vulnerable and searching for a protector to save her from the person that is blackmailing her. She is also a persuasive woman who convinced everyone surrounding her that she was the victim. She uses her sexuality in a way of getting what she wants. A woman who bats her eyes at men and has a flirtatious body