Justice In Hammett's The Maltese Falcon

In the Maltese Falcon, Hammett builds a detective through the genre of hardboiled fiction and his writing style. Like a boiled egg that has lost all softness. “The writing style is gritty and tough.”(the big read). In the writing a hard boiled detective is a “man at odds with society, whose motivation stems not from monetary reward but from a personal code and the search for truth.”Throughout the novel, Spade’s definition of a detective comes to be a hardboiled hero that isn’t afraid to use violence to seek the truth and corruption to bring about justice. This genre thoroughly develops Spade’s definition of a detective through his “violence and corruption”; while also showing his unwavering personal code of justice as detective.

Through Spade’s hard boiled personality, he is defined by his harsh actions and use of corruption to finish solving a case. One of Spade’s harsh decisions was made during the situation when he had to find the lost $1,000. He risked losing Brigid's trust and affection for him and“Made Brigid strip search for the $1,000 dollars because he didn’t trust her."I did not take that bill, Sam." said brigid. Spade responded "but I've got to know. Take your clothes off."(pg 110 Hammett). Although he had been affectionate to Brigid, As a detective he was only using her …show more content…
This traits ultimately contribute to his definition of not only detective, but a successful one. At the end of the novel when effie is in disgust of Spades actions against Brigid,she ultimately realizes what it means to be a detective and understands Spade as a detective. "Your Sam's a detective."(Hammet 118). She then continues and says “"I know--I know you're right. You're right.” From this moment she realized Sam was hardboiled but driven by a personal code of justice. She also realized what it mean to be a detective, and why Spade was so