When
people talk about history, or study it, they typically think of school and those
awful history books that are unnecessarily long, completely dull that put
pretty much everyone to sleep. What most people don’t know is that some of the
best history can be pulled from novels and stories that were written in that
time period to get an idea of what it could have been like in those days. “The
Maltese Falcon” by Dashiell Hammett is one of those novels that entertain the
reader while also teaching them about the history of that time. The book was
written about the mid-30’s to late-40’s and it paints the perfect picture of
what it could have been like to be a detective in San Francisco around those
times. The novel reflects the period in which it was written by painting a vivid
scene of San Francisco in the mid-30’s by using the brilliant dialogue to help
create the image of the time that it was written.
If
you think about what San Francisco must’ve been like in the 1930’s, you would
probably think about the stereotypical city life for that time period. Images
of old cars like the Plymouth P2, tram cars and men in suits roaming around to
their next destination. Another thing that would come to mind would be the
mobsters and classic detectives trying to solve murders. All these images are
clearly present within the novel and definitely reflect the period in which it
was written. This novel also reflects the past by the fact that they had a
massive lack of technology that we have now. This would make it incredibly hard
for detectives to solve cases because they had to find out who committed the
crime without the use of all the technology we have now. The novel states “Cairo
coughed a little apologetic cough and smiled nervously with lips that had lost
some of their redness. His dark eyes were humid and bashful and very earnest. ‘I
intend to search your offices, Mr. Spade. I warn you that if you attempt to
prevent me I shall certainly shoot you’” (Dashiell Hammett, “The Maltese Falcon”,
45). This was what one of the police officers said to the main character
because he was currently a suspect in a murder. The quote shows that the police
had to consider even the unlikeliest of suspects and turn over every stone
because there was that lack of technology. If this was present day, the police
would most likely have some sort of video evidence of a suspect and be able to
use different methods of finding the culprit. Also, The lack of technology on a
forensics level. This story was written before DNA evidence became huge; they
couldn’t rely on the convenience of DNA to help find their man. According to an
article “We tend to think that before Alec Jeffries’ eureka moment in 1984,
when he realized that genetic variations in DNA could identify individuals,
crime investigations were really just guesswork,” (Phys.org). This also shows
that back when the novel was written the police didn’t use DNA to find out who
committed the crime, so they had to just have enough of their evidence to
convict the person that they believed did the deed. This method was incredibly
ineffective because think about it, all the “evidence” could point to a man who
seems like he could have done it but was falsely imprisoned and couldn’t rely
on DNA to prove his innocence. It is really neat to see how the police would
conduct the investigation of the murder of Spade’s partner in the novel because
it paints the picture of what it could be like back then to try to solve something
as confusing as that.
The
next thing that reflects the time period that the novel is set in is its
dialogue. The story has so much dialogue that it is practically only dialogue.
This use of dialogue is what really paints the vivid picture of that time period.
There is one passage in the novel that has a great use of the dialogue and it
is "Spade's face became pale and hard. He spoke rapidly in a low furious
voice: 'Think again and think fast. I told that punk of yours that you'd have
to talk to me before you got through. I'll tell you now that you'll do your
talking today or you are through. What are you wasting my time for? You and
your lousy secret! Christ! I know exactly what the stuff is that they keep in
the subtreasury vaults, but what good does that do me? I can get along without
you. God damn you! Maybe you could have got along without me if you'd kept
clear of me. You can't now. Not in San Francisco. You'll come in or you'll get
out--and you'll do it today'" (Dashiell Hammett, "The Maltese
Falcon", 110). This passage was a little on the long side, however, it
needed to be to show the type of dialogue that is in the novel and how it
creates the imagery and setting of the story. The way that this passage uses its
language perfectly helps create the image of Spade being incredibly mad. Also,
it really helps give an image about the time period, the way that the passage
ended especially shows the type of grammar that would have been used back then.
What makes the passage’s image more vivid is the fact that the author was from
that time period, so he knew exactly what the language was, and the realistic
sound is the help that the reader needs to create that nice clear image in
their mind.
In conclusion,
the novel paints a perfect picture of what it must have been like to be a
detective in the period that it was written. Anywhere from the use of language
to provide clear vivid imagery, to the text’s lack of technology which furthers
the believability of the novel. I believe the use of dialogue throughout the
book proves that the novel is the best to portray the time period of the 1930’s.
Works
Cited
Bailey, Penny. “Before DNA:
20th-Century Forensics.” Phys.org, Phys.org, 6 Sept. 2011,
phys.org/news/2011-09-dna-20th-century-forensics.html.
Hammett, Dashell. The
Maltese Falcon. Orionbooks, 2015.
