“I’ll be damned.” Then he laughed in his throat and said: “Alright. God ahead. I won’t stop you.”

On page 51 in The Maltese Falcon Sam Spades character is thrown a curve ball. Cairo’s pointing the gun at him changes the perspective completely in the book. Earlier, in my other essay, I focused on the “devilish” character that Sam portrays, but at this point in the book everything has been turned around on him. The control is no longer his to command, which is a big deal to him. Cairo points the gun at him and he responds, “I’ll be damned”. This is the main quote I am going to focus on. Samuel Spade is a private investigator, he is alwasy used to being in control of situations. When Joel Cairo pulls a gun on him the whole situation becomes out of Sam’s hands. Why I’m focusing on this is because throughout the novel Sam has been made out to be a very controlling character, always on top of each situation. With this extreme case going on, Sam has become part of a world he isn’t necessarily used to. The significance of this quote is that Sam is confronted with the possibility of extreme danger. In the bigger picture Sam has never faced a situation where he is not in control. Sam is a person of searching, he is used to the ability to look at things in his own way. With this however, already in a case out of his hands, he is faced with the challenge of letting someone else be in control of what’s happening. Sam has been working on a case that has exposed his personal side, whether it be having an affair, or whatever, Sam is thrust into a situation where his professionalism can no longer help him. In cases of extreme danger the true personality of someone comes out. Scary, spontaneous action cannot be planned for, so Sam’s true side really does come out. Sam is a character who tries to hide his physical, and human, desires underneath his facade of calm professionalism, but having affairs says otherwise. I think that his internal struggle is actually the main issue throughout the novel, making the question does the job make the man, or does the man really make the job.