Theme Of Greed In The Maltese Falcon

Humans are drawn to acts of a primal nature. Raw, passionate, and vastly entertaining; primal instincts have always been at the root of human behavior. Archeologists say that the first humans were found with spearheads embedded in their ribcage. Mankind’s curiosity will always be sparked by the thought of bloodshed. Just look at the entertainment we as a species hold most dear; violent action films, movies about war, videogames based solely on the concept of killing the opponent, the list in never-ending. The fascination around violent acts is understandable. Since the invention of society, the act of killing another human has been frowned upon by the rest of society. The contrast of the acts of violence to the norms of everyday life are hard

Some people may say that human nature is to be greedy, whereas others say greed is developed over time. Whichever way it is, needless to say both Mrs. Loisel and General Zaroff, in The Necklace and Most Dangerous Game, natures were to be greedy. Bored of simple things Mrs. Loisel longed for a life of a queen. One day she got to live out her dream, she got a fancy dress, but it didn’t end there, she wanted more, she wanted jewels, which she then lost. Bored of normal hunting General Zaroff invented his own version of hunting where he hunted humans, which led to his battle of life or death with Rainsford. Even though in both the Most Dangerous Game and The Necklace, the antagonists, Mrs. Loisel and General Zaroff, experienced greed, and boredom of their lives, and neither got away with their actions, paying for their greed in the end, the two antagonists differed in their conflicts.

Greed is a sin of excess that every single human being has at least a little bit of. When someone has the opportunity to get as much of something as they possibly can, they will go to great lengths to get everything out of it. In the story “The Monkey’s Paw,” by W. W. Jacobs, the White family experiences a big test of greed, and they even tamper with their fate to get it. Before the Whites even knew about the paw, they were living a normal, but decent, lifestyle that got them by day-to-day without any troubles. Once they received this one idol in their life that could grant any three wishes that they could possibly think of, their mind set was altered and their greediness to change their fate kicked into play. Jacobs uses themes of

Firstly, Macbeth and Mae both display that their ambition leads to their downfall due to the greed that took over their character and motivated them to continue. In Macbeth, Macbeth is thinking of killing Duncan but is still unsure about the whole idea. He says, " I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself / And falls on th' other." (Shakespeare 1.7.25-28). Macbeth has just explained that there is no real justification for the crime because Duncan is his relative, a good king, and, furthermore, a guest at his castle. This quote here is describing how Macbeth realizes that he is being overly greedy and that if you are too greedy, there is a very high chance that you'll end up in a very bad situation.

Wealth has often consumed the lives people in the past, corrupting them and causing people to make bad decisions due to this greed. Wealth and greed will continue to take over others’ lives for as long as the human race still exists. The desire for wealth and greed as shown in the The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald by some characters’ intense obsession with money, lavish lifestyles, and their sense of entitlement, ultimately putting other characters in harm’s way.

Oftentimes, to further their lifestyles, people hide behind a fictitious version of themselves. Eventually, one finds their mind twisting and turning, detracted and dismembered, unable to bear the gravity and distress of their conflicting personas. Take, for example, the character Macbeth in the play Macbeth, who to remand power reveals his true unstable persona while continuing to maintain a virtuous one to the public which results in a tyrannical dominance of his instability. Because of Macbeth’s actions, Scotland is thrown into chaos when his unstable personality completely dominates him and leads to his demise at the hands of rebels affected by his greedy and indecent actions. In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare uses light and darkness imagery to convey how Macbeth’s ambition and greed led to corruption, signifying the negative societal effects tyrants have because of their greed and ambition.

Greed is undeniably a characteristic of being human. Even two hundred thousand years ago, when the first examples of modern humans were in a competition for food and survival, they naturally had to be greedy in order to survive and contribute to the gene pool in order for further generations to evolve and adapt. Darwin proved this with his theory of evolution stating that the species that are better adapted to the environment would be able to spend less time looking for food and more time mating (contributing to the gene pool), while the species who are not as well adapted would die off. The play “Macbeth” and the motion picture based on the book “A Simple Plan” display these themes of greed profusely as the main characters from each are affected by the same characteristic that had previously allowed for human survival. Macbeth in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and Hank in the film “A Simple Plan” are both affected by greed as they both turn into murders who backstab their friends, they both ruin their relationship with their wives, and they both end up destroying their lives.

Greed is a common, yet detrimental factor in society today. All around the world people experience this type of attribute, whether it is for power or for the simple concept of desiring more in life. In order to further this prevalent theme, Peter Jackson created the film The Hobbit-Desolation of Smaug, in 2013. In this film, he continued the adventure of Bilbo Baggins and the dwarves and set them off to reclaim their ancient dwarven city guarded by the dragon, Smaug. Throughout the entire movie, the characters face many tough obstacles, those being orcs, elves and most importantly the evil dragon. Those elves actually came to their rescue later on in the movie, proving their loyalty. Those noble elves were Tauriel and Legolas. Also, a major character in the movie was Gandalf, which was the powerful wizard. In the movie, he aided in their adventure by leading them to the proper trail while also providing them with many struggles they may encounter on the way. While all of the characters and setting play a key role in shaping the movie as a whole, the theme of greed is a much greater aspect throughout the film. Peter Jackson implements personification, symbolism, and foreshadowing in his movie in order to point his audience towards the bigger message, greed is the root of all evil.

The basic principles of living a happy life consist of morals and virtues. But those alone cannot satisfy a human’s selfish desire of wanting more riches and power. The evilness within Daisy created a cycle of problems that she could not escape. Daisy’s greed and corruption led her to take shortcuts and break the principles of a human by cheating on her husband, neglecting her daughter, and betraying Gatsby.

Greed affects everybody one way or another. It changes how people act in important situations. Greed can force people into doing what is beneficial to them and not the masses who could have their lives changed for the better based off the decision made by one greedy individual. Greed takes over people's mind and turns them into savages who will stop at nothing to get what they want. Greed is alive and well in Lord Of the Flies by William Golding, Greed can be seen numerous times throughout this fantastic book where dozens of young boys get stranded on an island with no adults and only themselves to stay alive. Throughout the book the boys come to treat each other very harshly and become violent when something does not go their way. This

Throughout the years, it has been common knowledge that greed is the powerful thing that rules with fear and drives many of the people in this world to their own demise. Sometimes, it’s not even their fault, and they are just paying the price of another person, who always in the end, gets paid back with punishment. And such it is in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, a tale written in 1901 of the innocent, the guilty, and the mysteries around them. The story is the investigation by Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes of the mysterious death of the late baronet, Sir Charles, whose nephew, Sir Henry, was the inheritor of the estate and fortune located upon the eerie moor. The Baskerville line, it seems, is plagued by a hound who walks upon the moor at night, all because of the greed of the evil Hugo Baskerville, who lived many generations before Sir Charles. While there, things get quite heated, with the discovery of a not only of murder plot belonging to Mr. Stapleton against all Baskervilles, multiple deceptions and disguises, but ultimately the answering of the impending question - was the family ghost real? Doyle develops the theme of the novel that greed is a powerful motivator by illustrating that greed leads to impulsive behavior and actions because greed pressures people to take extreme measures, alters men into monsters,

Dashiell Hammett who worked for a detective agency, wrote the novel The Maltese Falcon in 1929. In this novel the protagonist is a fictional character that Hammett created and named Sam Spade. Sam is a private detective hired by another character in the novel named Brigid O' Shaughnessy. Being a detective comes with many job responsibilities and being a private detective becomes even more complicated. In Hammett's novel there are many conflicts throughout his writing. Most conflicts have to do with Spade in some form considering he is the detective and also the protagonist. Are the conflicts in the story relating to Spade within himself; man versus self, or caused by another character; man versus man?

Holden Caulfield is a very depressed individual. Throughout The Catcher In The Rye Holden's outlook on society is very clear. Behind every outlook is reasoning to them. However, Caulfield’s reasoning is extremely vague. Dave Pelzer was abused since he was a very young child. In A Child Called It Pelzer’s outlook on society is completely different than Holden Caulfield’s. Which is funny considering David’s reasoning is his abusive alcoholic mother. Comparing and contrasting Holden Caulfield’s outlook on society in The Catcher In The Rye with David Pelzer’s outlook in A Child Called It has there similarities and differences due partly to their childhood experiences as well as thoughts and decisions.

Throughout history Americans would do anything to get more power and wealth. This lead to people to use wicked tactics like manipulation and seductiveness to achieve that, in doing so expresses how greed and personal desire ruined the lives of many people. In The Great Gatsby, people that lived in Long Island and New York City in the early 1920s were divided into different classes based on wealth. The East Egg is where all people that were born into wealth were, the West Egg is where all the people who work for their wealth are, and Daisy lived in the East Egg because she married Tom Buchannan escaping the life that she didn’t want but for a life that could achieve her dream. Daisy can be defined as evil because she is basically using Tom for

Both of these stories have a greed with evil intentions in mind. In “Federigo's Falcon” Monna Giovanna shows greed saying “I'm imploring you to give me this falcon.”(PAGE NUMBER)She says this to Frederigo after he invited her into his home. Knowing the falcon is his last true possession after he lost everything trying to win her. She now wants to take it from him. In “The Pardoner's Tale” the three rioters show enormous amounts of greed. One of them saying to the other “ As you attack, i’ll up my dagger through his back.”(PAGE NUMBER) This was when one of the three rioters left so the