Cause And Effect In Danshiell Hammett's Maltese Falcon

When analyzing cause and effect within a story, you always find the author asking the questions, who, what, where, when, why and how. In Maltese Falcon by Danshiell Hammett, in the beginning of the story you are given two main characters that are important to the whole plot of the book: Brigid O’Shaughnessy the woman claiming to be looking for her “missing sister” and Detective Spade the man trying to find out who killed his partner. During the whole novel the author gives you clues that point out the obvious on who the killer actually is from Brigid’s office visit, the flamboyant queer, and lastly the prize for death. Let’s start things off with the office visit which, sets everything into motion. Brigid alone is the cause of why so many …show more content…
While Cairo wanted the Maltese Falcon to give to his boss, Fat Man aka Kasper Gutman, who possess a criminal background and has been looking for the Maltese Falcon for over seventeen years. When Gutman and Spade first encounter each other they’re discussing the whereabouts of the Maltese Falcon. Just like Cairo and O’Shaughnessy, Gutman too offered extreme amounts of money for Spade’s services. This is a common occurrence for the bad guys of this novel. All three offered well over the amount needed for their specific job to be done, it was as if to me they were also paying for coverage from the police. That and the fact that they all went to a private detective instead of one who works for the Police Department. Which on their hand is smart but raises my suspicions even more that they’ve all done something wrong. By the end of the novel you have Gutman and his sidekicks Wilmer and Cairo, O’Shaughnessy, Spade in one room trying to find a fall guy for all the murders by stating that they should hand Cairo or even O’Shaughnessy to the police. That was heart-warming, in a way if you think about it, Gutman and Wilmer aren’t related and during the time period in which the novel takes place inEven though Gutman protests at first about Wilmer being the fall guy for all the murders he changes his mind from Wilmer being like a son to him to him especially in a time period in which homosexuality was intolerable in societies. With all of the actors in the murders of Archer and Caption Jacobi, who was seduced by the feminine fetal known as Brigid O’Shaughnessy to drop off the package, they all come together with pinning the murders on Wilmer. You have Wilmer knocked out in the chair, Gutman and Cairo leaving the apartment, and O’Shaughnessy left with Spade. You’d think the novel would be over, they all claimed a fall guy and Spade has called the police department giving them exact detail as to where both Gutman and Cairo are traveling as