Maltese Falcon Symbolism

“It's all nonsense. It's only nonsense. I'm not afraid of the rain. I'm not afraid of the rain. Oh, oh, God, I wish I wasn't.' She was crying. I comforted her and she stopped crying. But outside it kept on raining.”(Ernest Hemingway, A Farwell to Arms). Symbolism is one of the most important parts of literature. It helps us give meaning to certain objects and/or people in stories and it adds beauty to writing, and sometimes certain symbols can be more ambiguous than others, making it more interesting to try to figure out the certain meaning of symbols in literature. We will be looking at a symbol from both The Maltese Falcon and the Murder on the Orient Express, by Dashiell Hammett and Agatha Christie, respectively. The two symbols we will
It can be debated as to what the definite meaning of the Falcon is, but the most compelling idea it could represent is greed and immorality. Brigid o'Shaughnessy kills Floyd Thursby because she does not want to depart with the Falcon. However, she does depart with it to give it to Captain Jacobi to give to Spade. Gutman is another character whom desires the falcon statue. In chapter 19, he tells Cairo, “For seventeen years I have wanted that little item and have been trying to get it. If I must spend another year on the quest--well, sir--that will be an additional expenditure in time of only"--his lips moved silently as he calculated--"five and fifteen-seventeenths per cent." Although the statue he received was fake, he still has a desire to get the legitimate falcon statue (Participle Phrase). Reading the book, it shows that the greed and desire for the falcon has more or less causal link to the deaths in the book. The desire for the falcon symbolizes immorality because it shows that characters are willing to murder for materialistic purposes and the magnificent falcon’s beautiful rare artwork attracts these characters it, representing greed (adjectives placed out of
He is evil and contemptuous, like that of a psychotic serial killer (Simile). In the Murder on the Orient Express, he symbolizes evil. In the first chapter, detective Poirot notices something off about Ratchett when he sees him, and goes limp with a sort of fear because of the evil emanating off of Ratchett (vivid verb). Around the second chapter, detective Poirot finds out that while Ratchett was sleeping, he was murdered, and it is later found out in the end of the chapter, the actual name of Ratchett is Casetti (Absolute phrase). Ratchett fleed the US and changed his name to erase his connection to the kidnapping and murder of the Armstrong’s family’s daughter. This obviously did not work, because at the end of the book, it is revealed that each of the 12 passengers stabbed Casetti one time and has some relation to the Armstrong family. The reason Casetti symbolizes evil is because of the actions he has committed has convinced others to desire to murder him in the name of justice, and some of these people are really cordial, and it’s scary that his actions has caused these people the desire to murder him(even though it was out of what they believed to be