Thursday, April 19, 2018

Reading Notes W13: The Maltese Falcon PART 2

Citation: "The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiell Hammett p 44- 149

So far, the shock seems to continue. The reader constantly is made to feel like they know more than some characters yet the reader either
1) doesn't know enough
2) has false information
3) has opposing information an is left to decide *like a detective*
 The descriptive language is selective, but very descriptive none-the-less, which is very common for detective novels such as this.

The main character, Sam spade continues to be hard to judge. He had relations with Brigid and tells Cairo it's just to get to the black bird statuette, only because Cairo is asking for it in reward of $5,000. He also lies about that number to another man he thinks may offer more, saying that he will receive $10,000 instead. I'm still not sure if i can coin Spade as a good detective. He seems to be monetarily inclined, however, in reading the background information, Dashiell created this character based off of the dream detective, so its hard for me to pin him as a bad cop just yet. In analyzing the work, its almost like being a detective as well. You kind of have to pick the most truthful sounding facts and hope it doesn't twist around later down the line.

1 comment:

  1. Hey April! Old school mysteries are great. We never really know what's up even when we are paying extra close attention to all of the clues :D This story is very interesting and surprisingly liberal for its day. The point in the story where you are at, I am reminded, was right where I was. Is Spade bad or good? I felt so tossed around!

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Reading Notes W17: Poem, PART B

Works Cited: "Poem" by James Madison Bell http://mshenglishcourses.pbworks.com/w/file/123178953/205%20Bell.pdf -In commensalism...