The Significance Of The Black Bird In The Maltese Falcon Essay

His lust for her is obvious since he spends the night with her and when Brigid asks whether he loves her Spade replies, “’It’s easy enough to be nuts about you” and looks her up and down “hungrily” (Hammett, 214). However, there are also hints that Spade may have deeper feelings for her as well. Although Spade often flirts with women, he seems to treat Brigid with more respect than he does most women. For example, while he is always touching and teasing Effie and dismissing Iva, he treats Brigid with much more respect, offering to help her and often protecting her. Though he certainly does not trust Brigid, he also seems to be attracted to her mystery and authority over him as his employer as well. Spade’s feelings for Brigid are later called into question, especially by Effie, because he turns Brigid over to the police, but he has a difficult time doing so. Although he knows that Brigid is actively manipulating him and he refuses to let her go, he is obviously unsettled about his decision because his eyes become bloodshot and “his long-held smile had become[s] a frightful grimace…he put[s] a hand on her shoulder. The hand [shakes] and jerk[s]” (Hammett, 213). However, even though Spade admits that he may indeed love Brigid, and his physical agitation suggests he does, his pride prevents him from letting her escape. He gives many reasons for this, claiming there is an honor code that he must follow concerning his partner’s killer and that letting her go could make him seem suspicious or hurt his business. However, he ultimately refuses to let her escape because he refuses to be the victim of her manipulation, telling her “I won’t play the sap for you” (Hammett, 213). Spade’s need to be the smartest person in the room is shown multiple times, and it is this pride that ultimately prevents him from saving Brigid; although it seems he has

In Francine Prose’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read: How American High School Students Learn to Loathe Literature”, the author is trying to explain why high school students are not asked to read more quality pieces of literature now a days. In my opinion I agree with Prose because I think the texts we read in high school are not challenging and not a lot of students enjoy the readings because they cannot relate. Prose uses the rhetorical strategy of degrading the books high school students are reading and she uses her own personal experiences to support her argument.

"Black Bird" utilizes many different types of humour, but in particular this novel is satirical, mocking human weakness and society, and morbid, dealing with misfortune and death with an often pessimistic outlook, and often ironic. And of course, Basilieres also makes great use of puns. In a humorous but ironic fashion, Basilieres makes fun of the Catholic Church through one character 's name, Father Pheley. Pheley is a pun

A character that Sam Spade had a hard time trusting was a woman named Brigid O?Shaughnessy, who was also know as Miss Wonderly. Effie said to Sam, ?She?s a knockout.? Not only did Effie and Sam Spade see that she was pretty, but so did his partner, Miles. Miles said to Sam, ?She?s sweet...Maybe you saw her first, but I spoke first.? Brigid takes on the sexy woman figure whose voice is gentle, helpless, and manipulative all at the same time. She is very self-centered and tends to deceive others in order to get what she wants. Brigid said to Sam, ?Can?t you shield me so that I won?t have to answer their questions...I am afraid and alone.?

The effect of the dashes in “by long-continued succession of notes and phrases, by swoops, bleats, echoes, rapidly repeated bebops-I mean rebopped bebops-...” represent the short pauses that someone would hear in Birds musc.

I chose the poem "Dark swallows will" by Gustavo A. Becquer for this project. The reason I chose it is because I've read a lot of other poems by Bequer and have liked them. His ideas about poetry and love are idealistics; he thinks that love and poetry are like dreams that have a definite shape, a shape that is not satisfactory for him. So when I read this poem, the idea of that god – like love called my attention and I found it interesting to analyze it and to find the real message. The theme of love is always associated with poetry, but in this poem we'll find the theme of love as something that "will not return".

In traditional hard-boiled American detective fiction there are many themes that seem to transcend all novels. One of those themes is the concept of power and the role in which it plays in the interaction and development of characters. More specifically, the role of women within the novels can be scrutinized to better understand the power they hold over the other characters, their own lives and the direction of the story. Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon exemplifies the varying ways in which female characters attempt to obtain and utilize power in hopes of influencing, manipulating and succeeding.

One of the staples of the film noir is the hardboiled detective that is utterly out of control in many aspects of his life. Several elements of Spade’s character had to be altered to meet the code consequently and ultimately weakened his character. His drinking had to be kept to

Dashiell Hammett who worked for a detective agency, wrote the novel The Maltese Falcon in 1929. In this novel the protagonist is a fictional character that Hammett created and named Sam Spade. Sam is a private detective hired by another character in the novel named Brigid O' Shaughnessy. Being a detective comes with many job responsibilities and being a private detective becomes even more complicated. In Hammett's novel there are many conflicts throughout his writing. Most conflicts have to do with Spade in some form considering he is the detective and also the protagonist. Are the conflicts in the story relating to Spade within himself; man versus self, or caused by another character; man versus man?

Spade also states to Brigid that he also can’t let her get away with her crime because, “I’m a detective and expecting me to run criminals down and then let them go free is like asking a dog to catch a rabbit and let it go” (Hammett, 214). Brigid tries to convince Spade that since they both love each other all these factors shouldn’t affect their relationship, and that his ethics shouldn’t matter in this. Spade reveals to her in the end that he won’t run away with her even if he wants to because this would betray his principles as detective (Dashiell Hammett, 215). Spade sense of justice is too strong to let Brigid to convince him to betray his code and he states that to her several times during the novel. Spade also works with the police to apprehend criminals even if occasionally he has

this rationalization is the basis of Stephen’s internal epiphany; she is, toStephen, “an envoy from the fair courts of life”. This wholesome bird-like girl with “long

To begin, the naïvety and distorted views of reality that Briony Tallis possess reveals her inability to understand the meaning of justice. Briony, who is only thirteen at the time, “views the adult world from a child’s perspective, seeing adult acts through the lense of melodrama” (“Atonement” 7). As result, in reading Robbie’s letter she immediately “[casts] herself as her sister’s protector” (McEwan 115), and thus imagines that Robbie is attacking Cecilia in the library. This can be seen in her perception that Cecilia’s forearm “was raised

Brigid O’Shaughnessy plays the role of femme fatale, meaning “deadly woman” in French, and she uses her femininity to manipulate Sam Spade. For example, Brigid lies to persuade Spade to keep helping her, “And the lie was in the way I said it, and not at all in what I said.” She turned away, no longer holding herself erect. “It is my own fault that you can’t believe me now.” Spade’s face reddened and he looked down at the floor, muttering: “Now you are dangerous” (Hammett 36). Spade acknowledges that she draws him in with her good looks, and that she makes him feel sympathy towards her, which is giving Brigid the upper hand towards Spade. Brigid is described as a very attractive woman in the book, and this is the other way she controls Spade like a puppet. For example, she has control over Spade by sleeping with him, “She puts her hands up to Spade’s cheeks, put her open mouth hard against his mouth, her body flat against his body” (Hammett 89). It can be inferred that after that, they end up sleeping with each other and this is a way that Brigid builds up an emotional connection to Spade, so he will be on her side and trust her more than anyone else. Ultimately, Spade ends up betraying Brigid, and tells the cops about the murders she commits. Spade admits he loves Brigid but it will not keep him from telling the cops about Brigid murdering Archer, “You

He tries to suppress the bluebird’s existence through means of denying it, using escapist techniques such as drinking, smoking and participation in prostitution to deter his mind from the presence. “there’s a bluebird in my heart that/wants to get out/but I pour whiskey on him and inhale/cigarette smoke/and the whores and the bartenders/and the grocery clerks/never know that/he’s/in there”

The title of Wallace Stevens poem, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," is misleading, because he does not only offer thirteen ways of looking at blackbird, but the poem offers us many insights on how humans think. "Blackbird", written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, has many similarities with "Thirteen Ways of Looking at A Blackbird" other than just their titles. They use many poetic conventions to explain their poem 's ideas, both writers use a blackbird to compare to humans and human nature, and imagery plays a big role in getting across their points.