The Maltese Falcon

The hardboiled detective genre is a literary form of tough, unsentimental American crime writing that applies an increased level of realism to detective fiction. It is not afraid to depict graphic violence and sex, takes place in sordid urban backgrounds, and uses fast-paced dialogue. Hardboiled protagonists often battle against organized crime and corrupt legal systems, rendering them more cynical and emotionally detached than their traditional genre counterparts. They also use violence when necessary and often act in morally ambiguous ways to ensure they solve the case. Dashiell Hammett is credited as one of the founding pioneers of the genre, and his writing would go on to influence the likes of Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain, who further popularized the genre in the proceeding decades.

Many of these characteristics and tropes are evident throughout The Maltese Falcon. Spade shows little respect for authority figures in the justice system that he sees as incompetent or corrupt, and instead relies on his own moral code for guidance. While he is emotionally detached and keeps his thoughts and feelings veiled, he is prone to lose his temper and act violently. Despite all the temptations around him, such as his attraction to money and women, he stays true to his pursuit of truth and justice. He also demonstrates biased or outright bigoted beliefs toward people who do not fit into his sense of justice: Spade actively perpetuates misogyny and sexism, fat phobia, antigay bias, and xenophobia in his interactions with other characters. These attitudes are common in hardboiled detective fiction, and they reflect a conflation of aspects of a person’s identity with assumptions about moral character and, somewhat ironically, a narrow view of right and wrong when it comes to concepts of masculinity and femininity.

Spade’s discrimination and aggression toward those who do not align with his ideals reflects the time period in which the hardboiled detective fiction novel originated. Stereotypes regarding the behaviors of women and men alike are encouraged in the genre, and masculinity is reinforced as honorable, typically through a violent male detective who doesn’t need any additional firepower other than his brute strength to win the day and save the damsel in distress. In this formulaic narrative common to the genre, female characters are often unexplored, beholden to the men in the story, villainized for any display of their own agency, or unseen and unheard altogether. Men who do not adhere to societal expectations are ostracized. The genre’s treatment of individuals outside of societal norm reflects the anxieties of the time period and demonstrate the harmful prejudices perpetuated at the time.