Dashiell Haemmett Corkscrew Analysis

From the novel Corkscrew by Dashiell Hammett, written in 1925, we see many different writing techniques. We see various symbols that show the despair of the town. The sentence structure helps identify the important points in the passage giving an in depth description of the scene and evoking a sense of urgency at times, and the author successfully uses foreshadowing to catch the reader’s attention. The author uses diction and imagery to create the image of a town filled with an unknown evil, and the struggles of the new sheriff trying to figure out what is going on.

The author uses symbolism to describe the aura of the town, creating an oppressive atmosphere for the reader. The oppressive heat tells the reader that the town is hiding something,

or that something is strange here. The man decided the car was “Boiling like a coffeepot…” (l.1), as they were driving in, and feels as though the heat will cause them to “…all blow up…” (l.11), it is extremely hot. It is clear that the heat exists for a symbolic purpose, to show the oppression of the town before we even enter it, making it seem as though something already rules over the people inside. The way the town is described also incorporates a strong sense of symbolism. The man describes it as empty “No person was in sight” (l.23-24), and the town was so small that calling it a “…village would be flattery; fifteen or eighteen shabby buildings slumped along the irregular street…” (l.19-20). Any of the former glory the town might of held is clearly diminished, the buildings not only few, but also looking tired, or old. The town is seen first as an empty desolate place, somewhere that few people would dare to live, a depressed landscape painted by an artist lost in a sea of pain. The town is described as a dirty place, giving us a look into the hidden attributes of the people within it. The dirt on the outside is symbolic of a dirt that is much harder to clean away, a dirt hidden within. Even the simple task of washing is consider useless because you would simply be dirty again “… water won’t do you no good. You won’t no sooner drink and wash than you’ll be thirsty and dirty all over again” (l.35-37). It is a reminder that if you only clean the outside of your body, then you will never truly be clean. The fact that the dirt is forever exist on the outside of the bodies of the people in the town, seems to indicate a hidden type of dirt, like the people have done things that they keep hidden, that no one can see.
Hammett uses sentence structure to give us insight into the officer’s thoughts and highlight little things as important.

The driver is shown as knowing the area when they enter Corkscrew, as within minutes of arriving in the town he “…vanished into a building labelled Adderly’s Emporium” (l.25).The lack of desire for communication with the officer is clear as: “The driver felt as little like talking as I” (l.3). The short sentence provides emphasizes, telling us that this statement is important, and gives the impression that the people in the town are either not very accepting to new people, or they are hiding something that they do not want anyone else to know. The driver may very while be the reason that his identity was revealed rather quickly, which makes the reader uneasy. Not long after he enters the Canon House, he discovers that “Somebody had kept my secret right out in the open!” (l.58).The sentence has only one point revealed, is short and clearly desires notice. In fact, it is written as its own paragraph, but the fact that this sentence is seen as important indicates that this secret being revealed so soon will have a large effect on this story, especially if the town is hiding something that they do not want a police officer to

know.

Everyone appears to know something that the officer does not, and they avoid conversation or acceptation of the new guy in town as if they are hiding something.

The people in this area are seen as secretive, including the driver, and the police officer is determined to find out what it is they are hiding. We see that the officer himself suspects something is wrong in this town when he starts to arm himself. : We see that the officer arms himself not only visibly but he also thinks it is important to keep some things hidden: “Their smallness let me carry them where they’d be close to my hands without advertising the fact that the gun under my shoulder wasn’t all my arsenal” (l.67-69). This provides the description we need to know not only what he was doing but why. The officer knew something dangerous was afoot, otherwise he would have been unlikely to feel the need to hide some guns, as he clearly does here. Corkscrew must be hiding something if he already felt that something was off in this

town.
The welcome he received even before his identity is revealed also indicates something off about this town. When he first enters Canon House, we see how the cashier did not even try to make him feel welcome, in fact he “sat on a stool and pretended he didn’t see [him]” (l.33). This unwelcoming behaviour shows how visitors are not wanted, and tells the reader that the people are not exactly friendly. It is clear that something is being hidden, otherwise the manager of the inn would not take kindly to this blatant disrespectful of costumers. We see some characters that do not appear to fit into this small town, despite the way the others seem to accept them. There were two people he saw that did not fit “a thin girl of maybe twenty-five… You’ve seen her, or her sisters, in the larger cities, in the places that get going after the theaters let out” (l. 50-51, 52-53). He indicates that this girl is some type of prostitute, someone who gives herself to men in exchange for something. The other suspicious person is “a slim lad in the early twenties, not very tall… His features were a bit too perfect in their clean-cut regularity” (l.54-56). The man is described as someone from “range country” (l.54), indicating that he may be some type of farmer, but it seems unlikely that plants grow in this desolate wasteland. This man is with the prostitute, and the police officer immediately identifies them as people who do not belong. The police officer immediately arms himself after he cleans himself off. We see how he “… stowed a new .32 automatic” (l.66). He is getting ready for battle, telling us that he is already expecting one soon.
The author has proven through these methods that the town is hiding something, but also that the officer is ready for the battle. Already, the officer knows that the knowledge of a police officer coming there and disrupting things will likely not sit well with many in the town, and it appears that the officer knows that as we watch him arm himself. Through skillful foreshadowing, strong symbolism, and thoughtful sentence structure, we see that there is more to come, and Hammett has made sure that the officer is ready for it. Hammett has made it no secret that something is happening here, the only question is what?