How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"I want a man to clean up this pig-sty of a Poisonville for me, to smoke out the rats, little and big. It's a man's job. Are you a man?"
"What's the use getting poetic about it?" I growled. "If you've got a fairly honest piece of work to be done in my line, and you want to pay a decent price, maybe I'll take it on. But a lot of foolishness about smoking rats and pig-pens doesn't mean anything to me."
"All right. I want Poisonville emptied of its crooks and grafters. Is that plain enough language for you?" (5.19)
When Elihu Willsson hires the Op to clean up Personville, the Op is only too happy to oblige, as long as Elihu promises to let the Op use whatever methods he wants to accomplish his goal. Only a stranger like the Op would be able to tackle this "man's job" of cleaning up Poisonville because the Op has no selfish motives tied to the town. None of the gangsters want the Op to succeed because they want to stay in power. The Op is literally the only person in Poisonville who is in a position to rid the city of its crime.
Quote #2
"I'm able to take care of myself."
"Maybe. But you know the racket's too good to last. You've had the cream of the pickings. Now it's get-away day." (8.46)
The Op tries to warn Whisper that his gambling racket won't last much longer. Whisper is only one among four other rival gangs competing for power. The Op is out to try and destroy every single faction, and he uses Whisper as his pawn to get the ball rolling.
Quote #3
"What's your idea of how to go about purifying our village?"
[…] "The closest I've got to an idea is to dig up any and all the dirty work I can that might implicate the others, and run it out. Maybe I'll advertise—Crime Wanted—Male or Female. If they're as crooked as I think they are I shouldn't have a lot of trouble finding a job or two that I can hang on them." (10.76)
The Op jokes with Dinah that Poisonville is so corrupt that all he has to do is put an ad in the paper requesting the services of a criminal, and he'll be knee-deep in crime. But jokes aside, the Op's words here are pretty spot on. There isn't a single character in the pages of the novel who has completely clean hands, except for Donald who is murdered before we even meet him. Can you think of anyone in the novel who isn't involved in any crime whatsoever?
Quote #4
"I knew the dick—MacSwain. […] He had been a pretty good guy, straight as ace-deuce-trey-four-five, till he got on the force. Then he went the way of the rest of them. (11.25)
Dinah tells the Op that MacSwain started off being an honest man but quickly become crooked as soon as entered the police force. What is it about being in Personville that turns a cop into a criminal wearing police uniforms? Do they see too much corruption and become disillusioned, or is the lust for power contagious?
Quote #5
Poisonville was beginning to boil out under the lid, and I felt so much like a native that even the memory of my very un-nice part in the boiling didn't keep me from getting twelve solid end-to-end hours of sleep. (14.77)
The Op has succeeded in setting the four major criminals against each other, and Personville is about to burst at the seams. What is the Op's place in all of this crime? Is he a criminal, too? Does he get a free pass because he's supposedly fighting for justice? How do we determine who's the criminal and who's the good guy?
Quote #6
"Know anything about this Poisonville?"
Dick shook his head. Mickey said:
"Only that I've heard parties call it Poisonville like they meant it." (15.10)
There's an obvious symbolic importance to why the natives of Personville have nicknamed the city Poisonville. When the Op becomes enmeshed in the politics of the town, he notices himself getting poisoned by the lust for blood and power. He almost finds enjoyment out of all the killing and bloodshed. The air in Poisonville must be pretty toxic.
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?
Quote #10
"You're going to have the mayor, or the governor, whichever it comes under, suspend the whole Poisonville police department, and let the mail-order troops handle things till you can organize another. […] It can be done, and it's got to be done. Then you'll have your city back, all nice and clean and ready to go to the dogs again." (26.40)
At the end of the novel, the Op gives a gangster-free Personville back to Elihu. But the real question is whether the city is truly rid of its crimes and criminals. How long will this state of peace last? The Op does say that the city will probably "go to the dogs again," so does he believe so little in his success that he's predicting the eventual decay of Personville later on down the line?