Dashiell Hammett explores the concept of community in his novel, Red Harvest. In this aptly cynical description of Poisonville, Hammett uses easy language and hyperbole to demonstrate the prevailing state of affairs in America at the time. At this time crime runs high, big business is dominated by political and schismatic power. and the citizens constantly lie, and cheat, and swindle for their own profit. healthy interpersonal relationships are almost impossible. To work in a company like this Hammett needs to create a different account of the private investigator. He needed to create someone who knew the dangers and temptations of the towns. Someone who would be shrewd and cunning enough to play against himself. The Continental Operative is Hammett’s best shot to create such a character. At first Op seems to be the hero that Poisonville so desperately needs, but as the plot progresses he finally shows the human nature of human. /a> really cannot resist the first anarchist urges of power and wealth.
In creating the continental character of Op, Hammett manages to show us a man whose rights lie in no particular faction. With the aid of a pragmatic ideal, he imitates, breaking any rules necessary to achieve his ultimate goal. Sometimes in the novel, it reminds us more of treachery than of the detective story. Cunning, cunning, and cunning as he interrogates and plots the release of many of Poisonville’s villains. There are times in Red Harvest’s narrative that it’s hard to tell whether Op is an honest detective or a crook. Hammett uses Ope to establish a fundamental opposition between good and evil and then blurs the line between the two. Because Op is not exactly a model citizen (Nor is he a pillar of physical beauty – short, fat, middle-aged, almost like Thomas Hobbes’ in the Leviathan of angry brutes), it is worth doing many things so as not to become more chaste in character. Look, the guy is carrying more fake identities than a high school sophomore. (“I was digging through my card case and going through the collection of the documents I picked up here and there. One way or another.” ) By doing this, he can reveal to us the “heart, soul, skin and viscera” (Red Harvest, 12) of the villain Poisonville by no means.
But despite his questionable actions, Op also manages to show us that he does, in fact, prove to be an honest, ethical detective. The code adheres strictly to those who believe that attorneys cannot advance their causes. From the beginning, Elihu tries to buy Opus’ cooperation; Op repels him, mentioning the general rules against taking bonuses or prizes. The operative is distracted, principled, and dedicated. It is completely in the air.
Unfortunately, Poisonville ended up in Op. Dinam admits at the end of the novel, “Poisonville is right. It poisoned me.” (Red Harvest, 145) Hobbes again like Op, the idea of violence for personal gain is overcome. He becomes an active, involved, interested participant in the “red harvest” and no longer represents the active guardian of morality. Op “declares war on Poisonville” (Red Harvest, 62), and his intervention results in a violent bloodbath that only ends when all the major staff (except Willson and Op) are eliminated. Here, Hammett is trying to say that in this dark world, everyone eventually falls.
It is no accident that the people who do the most op are often the most corrupt. It is usurped by Helios Sene, a man caught in every crime. “Elihu Wilson was Personville, and he was almost the whole state.” Dinah Brand, a “dirty dove…a de luxe driver, a big league gold miner” and the femme fatale of the fairy tale, slipped her hand into the pocket of almost every male in Poisonville. He also often shares the Op with the Chief of Police, Noonan. Aside from the fact that Poisonville deals in the shadows, he’s also grossly two-faced. He is always happy to see Opus and always expresses concern for his safety even as he makes two attempts to kill him. (It’s always nice to surround yourself with people who care, right?)
From Hammett’s story, nothing is what it seems. Whether it’s plainly obvious (as with Noonan), or more subtle (as Dina is held up for cash), we can’t take anything here at face value. Of course, this applies to individual citizens as well as to the social order of the whole state. In Red Harvest, the middle of Hammett’s Personville streets are simply the stage for a huge fiction, where gangsters masquerade as businessmen, capitalists deal with staff, and no one is the wiser. Poisonville is a troubled world where behavior is erratic and emotion is hidden. There is also ambiguous language here, and Hammett makes it clear that he does not feel that language can accurately reflect reality. It seems sad that Op is the only reader who is ever honest.
The novel concludes more cynically than it began – we are shown (after a somewhat noble attempt by Op) that despite its success, Poisonville continues to sink deeper and deeper into chaos, despite its “cleansing”. The town is “all nice and clean and ready to go to the dogs again” (Red Harvest 181), and Op fully aware of this has made no significant changes to the environment. Hammett’s sad picture of this big city is simply a microcosm of American society in the 1920s. His unapologetic brutality is necessary in order to accurately describe the political climate and popular attitudes of the upheaval at this time in history.
