Sam Spade-- A man among men

A detailed Summary of Sam Spade-- A man among men


In the novel The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett trails a semi- crooked Private Investigator on his quest for payment. The story begins with Brigid O'Shaugnessy, under the guise of being a "Miss Wonderly", offerring the principle character, Detective Sam Spade, and his partner Miles Archer two hundred dollars To complete a simple tail job.. When Spade realizes "Miss Wonderly" is a fake, he confronts her saying if he is to work on her job, she needs to come clean about her situation. She doesn't. Shortly thereafter, Spade receives a visitor in his offices. Joel Cairo offers Spade five thousand dollars for the return of the "falcon." Once Spade accepts, Cairo weilds his gun and Makes known his intent to search Spade's offices for the bird. Brigid and Cairo, who became aquainted during th original theft ogf the Falcon in Hong Kong, meet in Spade's apartment and Cairo is cornered and attacked. Spade then comes in contact with Mr. Gutman, The intended recipient o the Falcon when it was taken from hong kong, in the end offers 50 thousand dollars for the return of the precious object to him. Spade's interaction with the other characters in the book occurs over many cigarettes, booze, and a lack


Spade has a relationship with women. In fact, he has many relationships with many women. The predominant Spade/ female relationship in the books is that of him and Brigid O'Shaugnessy. From their introduction, Spade looked at Brigid as a sex object, who happened to have money. The book progresses and Spade and O'Shaugnessy become entangled in one another, in all senses. At the end of their tenyer, however, Spade turns Brigid in for killing his partner. Somewhat upstanding of him to do from the legal point of view, but a betrayal the trust Spade told brigid she could have in him. The relationship between Spade and Iva Archer. Iva was the wife of Miles Archer, deceased. Spade and Iva had an affair, which led Iva to believe that Spade had killed his partner to marry her. At one point Iva shows up at Spades office saying, "You killed my husband, Sam. Be kind to me." Iva is my least favorite character because she is the female counterpart to Spade, the embodiment of stereotypical women. She needs a man. She sacrifices herself for a man. She doesn't know she's been used. She's a complete and utter moron. The relationship between Spade and Effie Perine is different from the others. Effie is Spade's right hand man, so to

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Approximate Word count = 834
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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