Literary Devices in Red Harvest
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Personville in the late 1920sThe good: The Jazz Age and dancing flappers. The bad: The Stock Market Crash. Prohibition Era. And the ugly: Gangsters, gamblers and bootleggers.Would you believe us if...
Narrator Point of View
First person, the Continental OpRed Harvest is written from the first-person point of view of the anonymous Continental Op. We definitely found it a bit odd to be seeing everything from the Op's po...
Genre
MysteryWell, no brainer with this one. Detective novels always fall under the genre of Mystery. A crime is committed, the detective has to follow a string of clues to uncover the mystery, and the c...
Tone
Dark, No-nonsense, CynicalThe tone of Red Harvest is super light-hearted and fun and…… oh we just can't pull that off. This stuff is dark. First of all, since Red Harvest is written in first pe...
Writing Style
Hardboiled, Terse, StraightforwardIf we could only pick one word to describe Hammett's style it would be "hardboiled." And no, we don't mean eggs for breakfast. The term hardboiled is used to descr...
What's Up With the Title?
"Poisonville is ripe for the harvest." These words are spoken by the Op, but he's not talking about farmers and the physical act of harvesting. The word "harvest" here is being used metaphorically...
What's Up With the Ending?
Bear with us. The final couple chapters of Red Harvest are a whirlwind of events that can be difficult to follow. This is intentional on Hammett's part. The chaotic buildup towards the ending of th...
Tough-o-Meter
The fast-paced dialogue and action-packed scenes in Red Harvest make it a pretty quick read. But don't let appearances fool you. There's more going on in this novel than just gunfights and racy con...
Plot Analysis
The Op Gets a GigLike any good old detective novel, Red Harvest opens with a mysterious murder. The Continental Op is hired by Donald Willsson to uncover the corruption in Personville. But Donald i...
Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis
Anticipation Stage and "Call"Okay, we admit that so there aren't any actual monsters in Red Harvest. The Op doesn't have to battle any ogres or sea monsters, but he does have to contend with the se...
Three-Act Plot Analysis
The Op arrives from San Francisco to help Donald Willsson expose the criminal activity in Personville, only to find out that Donald has been murdered. Being a stranger in a new city, the Op has his...
Trivia
Dash had an intense romantic relationship with the famous Lillian Hellman, a playwright most known for works like The Children's Hour and Toys In the Attic. There's even a movie about their fiery l...
Steaminess Rating
Red Harvest is pretty tame when it comes to its steaminess factor. There's no sex at all, and only a vague love interest that doesn't lead anywhere. We're not even sure if the Op is into Dinah, but...