Maltese Falcon: Existentialism
Introduction
Existentialism starts with the premise that essence is preceded by existence. Existentialists have a belief that the process of definition encompasses choice, solitude and freedom. A person must not be involved so much with other peoples’ lives that will cause his/her autonomy to be diminished.
Discussion
Hammet applied existentialism in his writing. Maltese Falcon is an example of literature which is excellent in which themes that are existential are seen in the story. The story starts when Brigid who is attractive and young woman approaches Spade and Miles who are private detectives and she wishes to employ them for the purpose of rescuing from Thursby, her sister who she thinks is under his control. These two detectives starts the case which results in Archer’s death and also it motivates Spade into hunting a statue that was mysterious in a Falcon’s shape which jewels encrust it. At the end, the murder of Archer is solved by Spade and turns the murderers over to the police although he was willing to do so. What makes Maltese Falcon an existentialist novel is that it focuses on death. (Hammet).
In their writings, existentialists focus on death because a limit which is temporal to the self destination is provided by death and this is the reason why Hammet focuses on death in his novel ‘Maltese Falcon’ Sam spade who is a detective is an existentialist since he was involved in the investigation of the murder of Brigid’s sister. Also Spade tells a story to Brigid about Flitcraft who was in a case that was there before and that was solved by Spade. He was to find the husband of Flitcraft who left with resources that were enough but his whereabouts were not known. ‘Help me, I need help so badly’, Brigid. Hemmet and Spade are existentialists because they stress the point that people don’t change so easily and this is the reason why Spade told Brigid that story.
They say that once a person has defined him/herself, it is not easy to become a person who is different. Hammet puts this in his novel to insist that creation of one’s life needs hard work and choices that are difficult. This novel is existentialist because it depicts Sam spade as a detective and this is the only way he earns a living and this shows that to maintain his identity, there are behaviors that he cant change i.e. it is a part of detective to catch and bring criminals to justice. The other reason that makes this novel existentialist is that existentialism states that a standard of universal applicability must be met by a person’s behavior i.e. it is a must that actions of a person are applicable by all. Spade applied this as a detective which is the definition of himself.
Commitment to act when a person’s partner is killed is included in his self definition and if he violates this, he will not be living within the definition of himself that he created. ‘When a person’s partner is killed, he has to act’, Spade. The other reason why this novel is existentialist is because we can see that Flitcraft had a definition of himself as a businessman and a husband who was dedicated. Even if he changes countries and wives, that definition remains. (Hammet).
Conclusion.
Maltese Falcon which is a novel written by Hammet gives existentialism exposition which is literal. Unlike other novels about detective, the human life nature is explored and this is the reason why the novel continues to be studied and read. This novel is read because it offers puzzles that are less intricate in a context of philosophy that is bigger and as a result this novel will continue to be studied and read for many generations to come. (Hammet).
References
Hammet.D.The Maltese falcon: Vintage books.1989
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