How Does The Maltese Falcon Character Change

772 Words4 Pages

1. What has your experience been, thus far, reading your books? The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett used his character development, event organization and literary devices to convey his final message; everyone is born with some degree of gluttony, but excessive greediness can lead to misdemeanor. The majority of his characters were motivated by greed. In the cases of some characters, ambition overtook moral reasoning. Characters like these were the antagonists of the book. The Maltese Falcon, changed my opinion on this topic. Before reading this book, I underestimated the power of greed. I knew it was strong enough to influence actions in a negative way, but I never knew how it affected the everyday person. The protagonist, Detective Spade, …show more content…

The search for the falcon is the major cause for the other conflicts. The Maltese falcon is a gold bird statue studded with gems and encased in lead paint. The figurine is worth millions of dollars. Therefore, the greed-driven characters in The Maltese Falcon don’t stop their search for the statue until they lay have their hands on it. Since there are many people going after this relic at once, the race to see who could get to the falcon becomes dangerous, resulting in many misdemeanors. A result of the dangerous search for the falcon, a girl named Brigid O’Shaunessy went to detective Sam Spade for help. The night after their first meeting, Spade sends his partner Miles Archer to shadow a man named Thursby who has dangerous relations with Brigid, and, that night, both Thursby and Archer were found dead. Spade soon gets involved in Brigid’s case. This is to protect her from the other pursuers of and help find the figurine. Spade involves himself not for the primary purpose of the case, but to find out who Archer’s murderer is. Ever since the night of the murder, the police have been following him around, accusing him of killing his partner-in-crime. Spade, at the end of the novel, is able to find and turn-in the murderer and avenge his