Maltese Falcon Essay

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The Mission For The Black Bird

The Maltese Falcon is a mystery novel written by Dashiell Hammett. Original name Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American novelist known for his mystery novels and short stories. He was also a screenplay writer and political activist. Hammett is best known for this best selling novel. Hammett wrote this novel in the 1930’s and based it off the Great Depression. The novel revolves around the main characters; Detective Sam Spade, Brigid O’Shaughnessy, Casper Gutman, Joel Cairo and minor characters. Brigid O’Shaughnessy walks into Detective Spade’s office asking for his help to get her sister back, who ran away with a criminal named Thursby. Spade and his partner Archer know she is lying but Archer tries to follow …show more content…

The police accuse Spade of the murders. Spade discovers the truth about O’Shaughnessy and how she was bamboozled out of a deal by Thursby, so Spade decides to help her retrieve the jeweled Maltese Falcon. O’Shaughnessy was in a deal with her boss Casper Gutman and Joel Cairo. O’Shaughnessy disappears again, so Spade makes a deal with Gutman to sell him the Falcon for ten thousand dollars, but it turns out to be a fake, which leads to Gutman to continue the search for the Maltese Falcon. Simultaneously during all this drama Gutman and Spade plan a fall guy for the murders, but Spade gets O’Shaughnessy to confess to the murders and turns her into the police. The prevalent theme in The Maltese Falcon is maintaining loyalty in relationships. Although it is not obvious, the plot is based off of loyalty. It appears that throughout the whole book no one can maintain their loyalty to others. The loyalty in romantic and friendly relationships in business relationships are broken. The promise of loyalty could be bought by anyone who presented a better business offer that would benefit the other character. Loyalty in this book became …show more content…

If the setting was altered, it cause a chain reaction in the plot. The plot of The Maltese Falcon revolves around nineteen-twenty’s San Francisco, around the time the stock market crashed. The crash of the stock market lead to high crime rates. The crashed stock markets, eliminated jobs, increasing the money people needed, this meant people did whatever they could to provide for themselves or their families. “ insert quote”. The chase for the maltese falcon ties into greed because of the worth of the falcon. The criminals in search of the money cannot obtain jobs, so they turned to the life of crime to suffice.
The mystifying feeling established in the novel can be attributed to the description of the setting. When a reader envisions the novel, they likely think of a fog filled urban city that is always quiet, and dark with the lampposts on. The obscure feeling can also be accredited to the fact there are a lot of secrets in the novel. “ inserts quote”. The murder of Thursby and Myles Archer adds unto the mystery, as no one knows who killed them. Hammett leaves the reader in the dark, as they become more enticed by the mystery he creates surrounding unanswered

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