Enduring Understandings

CHARACTERS:

Dashiell Hammett creates characters that are morally ambiguous, more specifically, his protagonists are morally ambiguous. Hammett’s protagonists are tasked with complex objectives. A common theme amongst these goals that the reader follows is to enact justice to the objectively crooked individuals that wreak havoc to the common people. The complexity in the objectives is the massive difficulty found in solving them. This difficulty leads the protagonists to methods that are not widely considered to be completely ‘moral’ as they lie, manipulate, or intimidate the ill-willed, but the protagonists' wishes are to create order or peace, creating a narrative that is not entirely black and white. One example is found in Red Harvest with Hammett’s protagonist, The Continental Op. The Continental Op’s solution to the increasingly dangerous gang war is to incite a massive shootout that leaves the issue permanently dealt with. The Continental Op openly states to his employer his promise to the city, “Now I'm going to have my fun. I've got ten thousand dollars of your money to play with. I'm going to use it opening Poisonville up from Adam's apple to ankles.” The Op’s label of ‘fun’ that he places on stopping conflict raises moral suspicion as he is treating an intense situation as some sort of game for himself. He also uses the money as his motivation to do his thorough investigating instead of an obligation to protect the innocent. The Continental Op explains his reasoning for instigating by stating, “Plans are all right sometimes," I said. "And sometimes just stirring things up is all right—if you're tough enough to survive, and keep your eyes open so you'll see what you want when it comes to the top.” The Continental Op understands the danger of his plan but continues through despite the potential horrors that could occur. Additionally, the Op shows his selfishness through his focus only being what he wants, disregarding the aftermath left below his desire at the top. Another similar protagonist to the Continental Op is found in Dashiell Hammett’s novel The Maltese Falcon. The protagonist, detective Sam Spade, has to make an emotionally taxing choice to lead his potential love interest, Brigid O’Shaughnessy, to spend her life in a prison. Brigid is guilty of murdering Sam Spade’s partner and Spade can not let her actions go untreated, “When a man's partner is killed he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it.” By deploying Brigid into prison, Spade creates justice and he honors the dead, but by doing so he also limits Brigid’s opportunity to create a new life alongside him. Brigid had pleaded for this outcome, “I’ve been bad—worse than you could know—but I’m not all bad. Look at me, Mr. Spade. You know I’m not all bad, don’t you? You can see that, can’t you? Then can’t you trust me just a little?” The line of morality draws between the methods of rehabilitation for Brigid. Could a life with Spade create better conditioning than a rough prison? It is not easy to pinpoint the best decision and that is why Spade is morally ambiguous as well as many other of Hammett’s protagonists, they are plagued with situations without one clear answer.

SPEAKER:

The narrator of Dashiell Hammett’s novels alternates from third to first depending on the specific novel discussed. Dashiell Hammett’s most famous novel, The Maltese Falcon, is in third person. Novels following the protagonist, The Continental Op, are in first person. Hammett’s excellent use of the third person point of view aided in gaining his initial popularity. Hammett writes in a realistic or believable manner and by using a non biased view his characters can be interpreted in a multitude of ways. By letting the reader create their own view of each and every character, more engagement in his writing is allowed. One example description of Joel Cairo from The Maltese Falcon’s narrator is, “Diamonds twinkled on the second and fourth fingers of his left hand, a ruby that matched the one in his tie even to the surrounding diamonds on the third finger of his right hand. His hands were soft and well cared for. Though they were not large their flaccid bluntness made them seem clumsy.” This quote offers a blunt observation which allows the reader to infer certain values, customs, or backgrounds of Cairo. But the narrator also makes an objective statement after the simple examination. This additional quality that the narrator adds helps to clear some mystery that the reader might not have picked up on, also helping to create foreshadowing or better character understanding. Not only does the narrator often make additive statements, but the narrator will also use figurative language as well, “She escaped from his arm as if it had hurt her. ‘Don’t, please, don’t touch me,’ she said brokenly. ‘I know – I know you’re right. You’re right. But don’t touch me now – not now.’ Spade’s face became pale as his collar.” It is unlikely that Spade’s face literally was ‘pale as his collar’, but instead the narrator used it as a way to emphasize the emotions of Sam Spade in an intuitive manner. Hammett’s clever use of the third person can even expand to compelling identifying events like in the novel, The Glass Key, “He chewed the cigar more than he smoked it as the taxicab crawled through theater-bound traffic towards Broadway.” From this quote alone, it can be inferred that the individual is nervous or anxious. This gives the reader a heads up for justification for unorthodox actions shortly after as the person might not be in the best mindset. An apt inference that can be created without context is a direct indicator to Dashiell Hammett’s expertly crafted point of views.

SETTING:

Dashiell Hammett almost always sets his stories in densely populated cities. There are two plausible reasons for this. The first is because Hammett worked in cities while employed at Pinkerton Agency. The other reason may be because bustling areas help to mask evidence in an investigation, creating higher tension. Hammett’s novels are set in roughly the same time that they were written. This time period being the 20th century for every single novel. Specifically, the novels are set in the first half of the 20th century. The early 1900s are best known for WWI, The Roaring Twenties, and The Great Depression. As a result of the current events at the time, large cities became areas littered with crime. This phenomenon is highlighted in The Maltese Falcon when Sam Spade addresses its setting, “Most things in San Francisco can be bought or taken.” Spade’s meaning of ‘bought’ is to emphasize the influence that money has on the people in San Francisco. Even today people are driven by money, but when taking into account the time and location of Hammett’s novel, people were more desperate for any chance to make cash. Which helps to explain Spade’s meaning of ‘taken’ being the act of thievery as a result of the increased desperation at the time. Hammett employed a setting that could play up crime and immorality to better excite the readers with action and secrets. In the novel, Red Harvest, this corruption in large cities was explicitly mentioned, “I first heard Personville called Poisonville by a red-haired mucker named Hickey Dewey in the Big Ship in Butte. He also called his shirt a shoit. I didn't think anything of what he had done to the city's name. Later I heard men who could manage their r's give it the same pronunciation. I still didn't see anything in it but the meaningless sort of humor that used to make richardsnary the thieves' word for dictionary. A few years later I went to Personville and learned better.” The protagonist, The Continental Op, at first issues the comparison to a ‘meaningless sort of humor’ due to his ignorance of the crooked town. He then later realizes his mistake when he spends time in the city. His ignorance mirrors the facade that large cities put up and allow for. Large cities on the outside look wealthy and prosperous, but hidden in the dark alleys and vacant lots is where horrible actions, death, and deception brew. Hammett uses this to his advantage when tackling his literature. He creates great mystery by exploiting the ignorance of inner city struggles of the reader.

PLOT/STRUCTURE:

The plot of a typical Dashiell Hammett novel follows the hardboiled detective protagonist as they are tasked with stopping a sensitive and dangerous operation. The start to the novel usually consists of a simple yet confusing instance of crime, commonly murder, that evolves into a complex network of criminal activity as the protagonist follows clue by clue. The protagonist becomes tied closely to the large network in some way and promises to end it once and for all. This journey will uncover multiple persons of interest, all involved in the network of criminals in one way or another, that have to be studied by the protagonist. In some of Hammett’s novels, one of these individuals is a love interest to the protagonist that brings complicated implications into the hard work of the protagonist. When nearing the end of the novel, a very important event involving large heads of the criminal network will be enacted. This event will close the protagonist's case with legal or illegal justice. With the closing of the case, there is usually a final loose mystery that will be explained. Two novels by Dashiell Hammett that follow this structure closely are Red Harvest and The Maltese Falcon. The dangerous operation in The Maltese Falcon is criminals after a valuable souvenir worth thousands. Sam Spade, the hardboiled detective, finds his way into the mess through a client worried for her sister. This evolves into the mystery of the death of Spade’s detective partner, spanning farther reach. Spade is offered ten thousand dollars to locate the Maltese Falcon. The love interest of the story is none other than the client that reached out to Spade. Her real name being Brigid O’shaughnessy. The large event that closes the novel is Spade’s intelligent display of deceivement. In the end, Spade realizes his partner’s killer is Brigid O’Shaughnessy. The treacherous operation in Red Harvest are the many gangs that have inhabited and taken control of Personville. The protagonist, The Continental Op, becomes enveloped into this objective after solving the murder of Donald Willsson. Elihu WIllsson, the father of Donald, offers The Continental Op ten thousand dollars to take the city back for him. The love interest in Red Harvest is Dinah Brand who is also romantically involved with a head gangster Max Thaler. Dinah Brand is murdered and the Op is blamed for her death. The groundbreaking event is the large gang shootout that the Op incites. This results in the death of all of the leaders of the gangs, leaving the city back to Elihu. The Continental Op’s great realization in the end is figuring out who actually murdered Dinah Brand.