Hammett uses many descriptors to achieve the suspense of the fight, along with detailed wording to note the speed and time lapse of the fight, and the elements that another writer may uses to explain the story.
Hammett uses descriptive writing to capture the suspense of the fight. The character Continental Op anticipated the altercation based on his questioning of Mr. Soules. Hammett describes how the protagonist is planning his next move and how will he get out of the situation.
The description of the small office with five men standing toe to toe as the protagonist holds a gun, engulfs the reader in to wanting to know what will happen next. Hammett details the standoff between the men prior to the altercation, noting everyone was waiting for that one person to make the first move. Hammett notes in the story, “I didn’t like my position at all. The office was entirely too small for me. I had a gun, true enough, and whatever weapons may have been distributed among these other men were out of sight. But these four men were too close to me; and a gun isn’t a thing of miracles” (Kennedy, 2020).
…show more content…
Hammett uses time to convey how long the altercation takes place. In what may have been a few minutes, to the protagonist the fight lasted seemingly an hour. The protagonist losing consciousness creates a type of gap in time during the altercation. Hammett starts the sequence with, “I slid the muzzle of my gun—I had been holding it in my lap for minutes…” (Kennedy, 2020) Hammett leaves the reader to approximate the time of the fight with, “Then we fought some more” (Kennedy,