English 358:358, Fall 2023
“O pines, whisper to Jesus. . . Goose-flesh came on my skin though there still was neither chill nor wind.”
Toomer, Jean. “Becky.” Cane, p. 10
The story is revealed to be narrated from the first-person perspective. How does the differ when told in this perspective, as opposed to third-person? It suggests to me the narrator is expression a modicum of guilt. The perspective reads as a confession of his and the community’s culpability in the ostracization of Becky and her sons.
“It was Sunday. Our congregation had been visiting at Pulverton, and were coming home. There was no wind. The autumn sun, and bell from Ebenezer Church, listless and heavy” (Toomer 10).
Cane, Jean Toomer, p. 10
Switching between staccato sentences and longer sentences makes the passage seem more raw and real as it mirrors how thoughts form. The shorter sentences create breaks in the flow of the passage to emphasize the importance of smaller details in the setting of the vignette.
“Cotton bales are the fleecy way
Weary sinner’s bare feet trod,
Softly, softly to the throne of God,
’We ain’t agwine t wait until th Judgement Day!’”
– Toomer’s Cane, “Cotton Song”
This shows an obvious poetic form, which is present through the whole piece but the composition really hammers this in, allowing description to become poetic in a way that isn’t too descriptive. While there’s less description, there are still word choices that characterize in a powerful way
“A strange thing happened to Paul. Suddenly he knew that he was apart from the people around him. Apart from the pain which they had unconsciously caused. Suddenly he knew that people saw, not attractiveness in his dark skin, but difference. Their stares, giving him to himself, filled something long empty within him, and were like green blades sprouting in his consciousness.”
Cane, Toomer, Bona and Paul, p. 104.
This example of indirect discourse is going on inside of Paul’s mind and it is a revelation about his identity. The Crimson Garden’s patrons have made him aware that he is judged foreign and “apart” from the white world. His student friends have treated him as an exotic being, Art actually trying to imitate him with his playing jazz piano. Art also questions his own identity because of his friendship with Paul. This is also a foreshadowing of the last paragraph of this story, when Paul must bare the weight of his otherness. He again has identity foisted on him by a manipulating white society.
“Becky had one Negro son. Who gave it to her?… She wouldn’t tell. Common, God-forsaken, insane white shameless wench, said the white folks’ mouths… Poor Catholic poor white crazy woman, said the black folks’ mouths. White folks and black folks built her a cabin, feed her and her growing baby, prayed secretly to God who’d put His cross upon her and cast her out.”
Toomer, Jean, Cane, pp. 8
This passage speaks to racial identity. Even though Becky is a white woman, because she conceived a child with a black man, she and her child are ostracized and alienated from white and black societies. This is particularly interesting considering that Toomer was of European and African American ancestry, and was able to pass as a white man.
Hair- silver gray, like streams of stars, Brows- recurved canoes quivered by the ripples blown by pain, Her eyes- mist of tears condensing on the flesh below And her channeled muscles are cluster grapes of sorrow purple in the evening sun nearly ripe for worms
Cane, Jean Toomer, p. 14
The passage implies a distortion or lack of beauty that is still romanticized, giving the narrative a melancholic feel and possibly foreshadowing the novel’s unconventional perspectives on its other themes.
“Significance. Superstition saw
Something it had never seen before:
Brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear,
Beauty so sudden for that time of year.”
–Cane, Jean Toomer pg 7
“‘Will you stop it?’ he demanded in a low impatient voice. ‘This isn’t the spot for the school-girl act. Listen to me. The pair of us are sitting under the gallows.’ He took hold of her wrists and made her stand up straight in front of him. ‘Talk!'”
Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, page 209
At the end of the day, being good or bad doesn’t matter- you just have to talk and try to get out as clean as possible. Spade’s choice in the end wasn’t a good one, but it was done in cunning because he knew it was the only way for him to get out. Also, at a certain point, pretending to be good and innocent does not work- your actions come up to get you (except if you’re Spade).
“I must say that you passed the test with flying colors, sir. It never occurred to me that you’d hit on such a simple and direct way of getting to the truth.”
– Hammett, The Maltese Falcon, 197
With this we see a direct telling of what morally drives Spade, which is the truth. However, it is how Spade tries to uncover the truth that makes his “goodness” brought into question. Ultimately, Spade exemplifies how good and bad are not concrete examples, and how his gritty American lifestyle makes him the morally confused hero he is.
They shook hands and Luke said: “Say, that’s too bad about Miles.”
“Uh-huh, a bad break.” Spade jerked his head to indicate the boy on the divan beside him. “What do you let these cheap gunmen hang out in the lobby for, with their tools bulging their clothes?” (pg.95)
The quick change of subject makes him seem very uncaring, especially for someone that he was partners with. You’d think he’d at least say more about Miles or try to comment on it further, but instead, he just pivots to the current situation at hand.
“Spade, who had held his breath through much of this speech, now emptied his lungs with a long sighing exhalation between pursed lips and said: ‘You won’t need much of anyones help. You’re good. You’re very good. Its chiefly your eyes, I think, and that throb you get in your voice when you say things like Be generous, Mr. Spade’ ” (Hammett 35)
Spade uses his “help” to his advantage by draining as much money out of Brigid he can while she appears to be at his mercy, but he is still cautious of her captivating vulnerability. While Spades morality is questionable because he seems to be using his upper hand in the situation to his advantage, he also just wants to know the truth so that he is not painted to be the murderer for protecting her because suspects that she is manipulative and is still not telling him the complete truth.
“She sighed and leaned against him. I awakened and you weren’t here and then I heard someone coming in. I was terrified.’
Spade combed her red hair back from her face with his fingers and said: ‘I’m sorry, angel. I thought you’d sleep through it. Did you have the gun under your pillow all night?”
Dashiell Hammett, Maltese Falcon, Vintage Books, Chapter 10, p.94.
It’s probably true that Brigid O’Shaughnessy was terrified. But why with her lover and protector? She uses her body as a weapon and lies to Spade with every breath she takes including having the gun all night. At this point, Spade has searched her apartment and knows her story is false for at least the second time. He is gentle with her, probably loves her, but is not fooled for a minute. His morale code is airtight even among gangsters, felons, and women he loves. She has no morale code, trusts no one and even with Spade, keeps a gun under her pillow.
“He went to John”s Grill, asked the waiter to hurry his order of chops, baked potato, and sliced tomatoes, ate hurriedly, and was smoking a cigarette with his coffee…”
Hammet, The Maltese Falcon, Page 165
I find Spade’s use of time extremely interesting in the conversation of his moral compass. In this scene, Spade is taking time to order and eat a meal before he leaves to go find Shaughnessy. I think this can give the reader a chance to interpret his own inner monologue or conscious and how he is never really in a rush to approach serious problems, like Shaughnessy possibly being in danger or when Archer was murdered. Maybe this alludes that Spade knows more than we do and there is a reason he is not so quick to act on things.
Hammett, Maltese Falcon
“She was a lanky sunburned girl whose tan dress of thin wool clung to her with an effect of dampness. Her eyes were brown and playful in a shiny boyish face…” (1)
“The lieutenant was a compactly built man with a rounded head under short-cut grizzled hair and a square face behind a short-cut grizzled mustache…” (17)
“Her face was wan, taut, and fearful over tight-clasped hands. “I haven’t lived a good life,” she cried. “I’ve been bad – worse than you could know – but I’m not all bad. Look at me, Mr. Spade. You know I’m not all bad, don’t you? You can see that, can’t you? Then can’t you trust me a little? Oh, I’m so alone and afraid, and I’ve got nobody to help me if you won’t help me. I know I’ve no right to ask you to trust me if I won’t trust you. I do trust you, but I can’t tell you. I can’t tell you now. Later I will, when I can. I’m afraid, Mr. Spade. I’m afraid of trusting you. I don’t mean that. I do trust you, but – I trusted Floyd and – I’ve nobody else, nobody else, Mr. Spade. You can help me. You’ve said you can help me”
Hammett, Dashiell. The Maltese Falcon. p.27 Orion, 2005
Hammet’s persistent use of repetition combined with the general depiction of women in this novel so far emphasizes their appearance as fragile and meek creatures in need of men to function.
“She was a blonde woman of a few more years than thirty. Her facial prettiness was perhaps five years past its best moment. Her body for all its sturdiness was finely modeled and exquisite. She wore black clothes from hat to shoes.”
Hammet’s The Maltese Falcon, page 25
The style focuses a lot on character descriptions, making sure the reader knows exactly what everyone in the narrative looks like. Taking it’s a detective story, this could be a way to show the way a detective may observe people, or this is just a way to show how the character Spade views women in particular as they are describe in different ways than the men in the novel.
“She’s so young and his bringing her here from New York is such a serious- Mightn’t he – mightn’t he do – something to her” (8)
-Hammett, The Maltese Falcon pg 8
Hammett’s use of dashes creates a pause in the scene to make the dialogue feel more real. Compared to commas, dashes create a harsher break in the sentence to emphasize Ms. Wonderly’s fear and uncertainty.
“The police think I shot Thursby,” he said.
“Who is he?” she asked, separating a cigarette-paper from the packet, sifting tobacco into it.
“Who do you think I shot?” he asked.
When she ignored that question he said: “Thurby’s the guy Miles was suppose to be tailing for the Wonderly girl.”
Her thin fingers finished shaping the cigarette. She licked it, smoothed it, twisted its ends, and placed it between Spade’s lips. He said, “Thanks, honey,” put an arm around her slim waist, and rested his cheek wearily against her hip, shutting his eyes.
“Spade’s thick fingers made a cigarette with deliberate care, sifting a measured quantity of tan flakes down into curved paper, spreading the flakes so that they lay equal at the ends with a slight depression in the middle, thumbs rolling the paper’s inner edge down and up under the outer edge as forefingers pressed it over, thumbs and fingers sliding to the paper cylinder’s ends to hold it even while tongue licked the flap, left forefinger and thumb smoothed the damp seam, right forefinger and thumb twisting their end and lifting the other to Spade’s mouth.”
-Hammett, The Maltese Falcon pgs 11-12
“The block of new, perfect and expensive flats in which Lord Peter dwelt upon the second floor, stood directly opposite the Green Park, in a spot for many years occupied by the skeleton of a frustrate commercial enterprise.(9)”
Before knowing who lord Peter is, aswell as before learning anything about the story, we know that he lives in a perfect and expensive flat, that was anything but perfect and expensive until just recently