How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
The first floor was ankle-deep with booze that was still gurgling from bullet holes in the stacked-up cases and barrels that filled up most of the house.
Dizzy with fumes of spilled hooch, we waded around until we had found four dead bodies, and no live ones. The four were swarthy foreign-looking men in laborer's clothes. Two of them were practically shot to pieces. (15.90)
In this shootout scene, Noonan and his men fire into an abandoned warehouse, thinking that it's Whisper's hideout. Whisper isn't there, but the police discover a whole stash of alcohol, which is a clear allusion to the Prohibition ban on booze. The four foreigners are probably workers hired to transport the alcohol from place to place.
Quote #8
They were evenly divided—Pete and Whisper against Noonan and Reno. But none of them could count on his partner backing him up if he made a play, and by the time the meeting was over the pairs had been split. Noonan was out of the count, and Reno and Whisper, against each other, had Pete against them. So everybody sat around and behaved and watched everybody else while I juggled death and destruction. (20.32)
The Op has succeeded in pitting each criminal against another. But how does the Op come off in this scene as he "juggles death and destruction"? Is he portrayed in a good light as the hero who brings criminals to justice? In what way might the Op be as complicit in these crimes as the rest of the criminals?
Quote #9
"There was plenty else I could do […]. But it's easier to have them killed off, easier and surer, and, now that I'm feeling this way, more satisfying. I don't know how I'm going to come out with the Agency. […] It's this damned town. Poisonville is right. It's poisoned me." (20.36)
There's that word again. Poison. The Op admits that he feels poisoned by the bloodlust of Personville. He not only thinks that it's necessary for the criminals to be killed off, but he also finds it more satisfying. That's a bit of a red flag, a hero normally doesn't enjoy death and murder. So is Hammett presenting the Op as a kind of antihero?