How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Come on, man, this is the kill."
I followed him down to the department garage, where the engines of half a dozen cars were roaring. […] Machine guns were unwrapped. Arm-loads of rifles and riot-guns were distributed, and packages of ammunition. (15.51)
The Op gets ready to go with Noonan to Whisper's supposed hideout. The cop cars are loaded with guns and rifles. Hammett gets us ready for the impeding gunfight scene by drawing our attention to all the heavy ammunition.
Quote #5
The machine-gun by the tree fired, haltingly, experimentally, eight or ten shots. Noonan grinned and let a smoke ring float out of his mouth. The machine-gun settled down to business, grinding out metal like the busy death factory it was. (15.79)
Noonan's men fire round after round of bullets into the warehouse where Whisper is supposedly hiding. Notice the sinister comparison here of the machine gun to a "death factory," churning out corpses by the dozens. The novel itself can be read as a kind of death factory as well, given the fact that several dozen bodies are killed.
Quote #6
"Shall we go out and look at the remains?" I suggested, getting up.
He neither got up nor looked up.
"No," he said wearily to his lap. "To tell the truth, I don't want to. I don't know as I could stand it just now. I'm getting sick of this killing. It's getting to me – on my nerves, I mean. […] Everybody's killing everybody. Where's it going to end?" (18.30)
All this blood and death is finally getting to Noonan. In one of his rare moments of vulnerability, Noonan expresses his disgust with all the killing and we actually find ourselves sympathizing with him. What does Noonan's disgust reveal to us about the dangers of violence?