“Spade’s thick fingers made a cigarette with deliberate care, sifting a measured quantity of tan flakes down into curved paper, spreading the flakes so that they lay equal at the ends with a slight depression in the middle, thumbs rolling the paper’s inner edge down and up under the outer edge as forefingers pressed it over, thumbs and fingers sliding to the paper cylinder’s ends to hold it even while tongue licked the flap, left forefinger and thumb pinching their end while right forefinger and thumb smoothed the damp seam, right forefinger and thumb twisting their end and lifting the other to Spade’s mouth. He picked up the pigskin and nickel lighter that had fallen to the floor, manipulated it and with the cigarette burning in a corner of his mouth stood up.” – The Maltese Falcon, pages 11 – 12
“Spade’s thick fingers made a cigarette with deliberate care…” is the first line of a paragraph that elevates Sam Spade’s simple task of rolling his cigarette into something that’s descriptive enough to almost be sexual in nature. Removing elements of the sentence show how Hammett’s details create an erotic image of Spade’s cigarette. The sentences, “Spade’s thick fingers… with deliberate care” and “thumbs rolling the… inner edge down and up under the outer edge as forefingers pressed it over” can be created simply by removing references to the cigarette.
This point is important though because it shows Sam in a position of power. Sam Spade is in control, he is the one rolling the cigarette, he is the one “spreading the flakes so that they lay equal at the ends”. It pushes the idea of masculinity that Hammett pins on Spade and seemingly continues with Hammett’s earlier description of Spade being almost the stereotypical image of masculinity. He’s described as long and bony and v shaped in a number of capacities in the first paragraph of the novel and in the cigarette paragraph, that image is shown in a different way.
As he goes through the motions of rolling his cigarette, he does it with practiced ease, with precision, most likely through experience of rolling them rather often. In the first chapter, we’re shown that he smokes a great deal, “On Spade’s desk a limp cigarette smoldered in a brass tray filled with the remains of limp cigarettes.” We can see bits of his personality come into play in this routine, bits of said masculinity that Hammett carefully characterizes him with. He is calculating and precise, he likes things equal, but only if it benefits him.
We can see his calculating, precise nature in how closely he pays attention to the flakes laying equal at the ends. How he carefully measures said flakes. But Sam’s selfish nature is also illustrated at the end of the passage, as the entire process of creating the cigarette, all his effort and time and patience, was all for his own benefit and enjoyment.
Spade’s lighter even has parallels to his character. Made of nickel and pigskin, the nickel would make it hard and cold. The leather, is a warmer feeling to hold suggesting that Spade isn’t completely without feeling, but it isn’t a soft material either. The leather is tough, strong and still with the capacity to be cold (as anyone with leather seats in a car can attest too). Spade picking the lighter off the floor that represents himself is also another aspect of this, suggesting that Spade is a man who will pull himself out of trouble. He doesn’t want help and will pick himself up and light the cigarette he rolled himself, by himself. All these aspects add to Hammett’s image of Spade being the image of masculinity, even if some aspects of this image are rather harsh.
The passage ends with the image of who Hammett wants us to imagine Spade to be. The iconic image of a man, perhaps a bit of a badass, with the cigarette he rolled himself “burning in a corner of his mouth”.
