Firearms and Masculinity in The Maltese Falcon The Maltese Falcon is a work of criminologist fiction by Dashiell Hammett that follows a private agent, Sam Spade, as he attempts to sort out reality encompassing an old sculpture of a bird of prey. Spade typifies 1930's American manliness – he's strong, prevailing, dispassionate, and an honest person. Firearms during the 1930s, like today, were viewed as an image of intensity, manliness, and predominance. Spade, the character generally significant of manliness, doesn't convey a firearm all through the novel since he needn't bother with one. He depends on his beast quality and road smarts to get by. The male characters on the opposite side in this novel – Joel Cairo, Casper Gutman, and Wilmer Cook – all utilization firearms and even draw them on Spade at different focuses in the novel. These characters' utilization of firearms makes up for the various ways that every one of them do not have the customary highlights of American manliness and in this manner places them contrary to Spade, which underlines his own manliness.
