Point Of View In The Maltese Falcon

Point of view is a mode of narration that helps the readers understand what is going on around them. In mystery writing, the point of view of the narrator is what helps us learn the information that is taking place in the story. The attitude of the narrator is important because the reader is believing his/her beliefs or opinions on the matter. Most of the time, mystery writings are written in first-person, which only gives the reader that character's side of the entire story. Many differences in point of view can be found in the novels, The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett and Defending Jacob by William Landay. The third-person point of view is the best for mystery stories because it gives the reader more information and an unbiased perspective of the narrator.

We only get to hear what he/she has to say about the situation. Therefore, most of the information is coming from that character. In The Maltese Falcon, we were able to get more information throughout the story because of it being in third-person. An example would be when the kid that was stalking Spade. The narrator says, “an undersized youth of twenty or twenty-one in neat grey cap and overcoat was standing idly on the corner below Spade's building” (Hammett 52). We as the readers are the first to find out about a boy waiting outside for Spade. In Defending Jacob, we only got to hear the story through Andy’s eyes. We were only able to hear the thoughts of other characters through Andy interviewing them. There were still a lot of questions we had about many characters in the novel. We also cannot travel to other scenes like we can in third-person unless Andy takes us there. We are following the steps of Andy so that also adds to the limited information we receive in this point of