How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
She let go of my lapels, put her hands behind her, and laughed in my face.
"All right. Keep it to yourself – and try to figure out which part of what I told you is the truth." (4.128)
Dinah's pretty good at hiding the truth herself. She lies often to the Op, and carries many of Whisper's secrets, as well as the explosive information about Tim's death which out not to be true at all. Is Dinah's lying different from the Op's lying? In what ways?
Quote #5
"Whisper says, 'It never hurts anybody to have an alibi. We were here all the time, weren't we?' and he looks at O'Brien, who's behind the bar. O'Brian says, 'Sure you was,' and when Whisper looks at me I say the same thing. But I don't know no reasons why I've got to cover him up nowadays." (12.106)
When Whisper was still pals with O' Brien and Pete, he was able to come up with a foolproof alibi for Tim's murder by getting his friends to lie for him. The Op also repeats the same deception after he's a suspect for Dinah's murder and asks Reno to lie for him and say he had been there all night. Lying becomes a powerful tool when you have allies who are willing to lie for you.
Quote #6
The chief wanted me to come out to his house for dinner, but I lied out of it, pretending that my wrist – now in a bandage – was bothering me. It was really little more than a burn. (14.6)
The Op again tells a falsehood to the Noonan, but it's only a white lie. What is the effect of all these minor lies that proliferate throughout the text? Is Hammett trying to create an overall atmosphere of distrust among everyone?