The Thin Man

“Nora, coming in to answer the telephone, looked questioningly at me. I made a face at her over the girl’s head.”

Early in the novel, Hammett sets up the easy dynamic between Nick and Nora. Nora walks in on Nick and Dorothy embracing. The married couple’s response shows the trust and humor with which they treat one another. That Nora is never jealous of her husband’s behavior neutralizes Dorothy’s grasping nature, and so Dorothy directs her anger toward her mother rather than Nora.

“‘But besides I haven’t the time: I’m too busy trying to see that you don’t lose any of the money I married you for.’ I kissed her. ‘Don’t you think maybe a drink would help you to sleep?’

‘No, thanks.’

‘Maybe it would if I took one.’”

This dialog is typical of the couple’s banter, which shows them playing off each other with humor and ease. The fact that Nick is after a drink is typical, as every scene in the first half of the book has him with a drink in his hand or finding one. This scene takes place at five in the morning after they’ve been sleeping for a few hours and before breakfast.

“‘No—o,’ [Mimi] said slowly, ‘but I would like to talk to him.’ She put a hand on my arm. ‘You could find him.’

I shook my head.

‘Won’t you help me, Nick? We used to be friends.’ Her big blue eyes were soft and appealing. Dorothy, at the table, was watching us suspiciously.”

Mimi’s attempt at pulling at Nick’s heartstrings shows her as the femme fatale character of the novel. Using feminine wiles, however, affects no one but her daughter, Dorothy, whose jealousy is peaked. Because Nick isn’t moved by her attempts, Mimi’s methods of persuasion become more extreme until the end of the novel when she resorts to physical violence.

“I hit Nora with my left hand, knocking her down across the room. The pillow I chucked with my right hand at Morelli’s gun seemed to have no weight; it drifted slow as a piece of tissue paper.”

This scene shows how Hammett softens physical violence with comedy. That Nick’s heroism in saving his wife from a gunman is the result of him knocking her out is both shocking and funny. This quote also shows Hammett’s clear, economical imagery, and the vivid picture of the floating pillow slows down the scene that otherwise is over in a moment.

“You’re just showing off, that’s all it is. And what for? I know bullets bounce off you. You don’t have to prove it to me.”

This quote shows that Nick isn’t the only one with wit in the relationship. Nora can be just as snappy. While the power dynamics aren’t as lopsided as many relationships in the genre, Nick tends to get what he wants, while Nora is forced to acquiesce. This quote is an example, as she would rather they stay home than go to the Jorgensens’. They go anyway, as Nick is eager for clues.

“‘Can—can I tell you something that happened to me when I was a little child?’

‘Has it got anything to do with the gun?’

‘Not exactly, but it will help you understand why I—’

‘Not now.’”

This sequence becomes a recurring gag, as Dorothy tries to draw Nick into her personal world as part of playing the damsel in distress. Nick, however, doesn’t fall for it. Later in the novel, he shuts her down in the same way, declaring he doesn’t care about early influences and, as in this scene, forcing Dorothy to stick to facts. It establishes Dorothy’s role in the novel and also establishes Nick’s character as a no-nonsense detective and logical thinker.

“‘Mama’s afraid he’ll leave her if she hasn’t enough money.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘I’ve heard them talk.’

‘Do you think he will?’

She nodded with certainty. ‘Unless she has money.’”

While not a lot said by the Wynant family is true, this statement is. Chris is after Mimi’s money, and it is the motive of everyone in the book except Nora. Even Nick may be said to be guilty of it, as he jokes about marrying Nora for money in a way that implies it was indeed a factor.

“I don’t mind telling you I’d like to have you in on it—on the right side.”

Nick is not only desired by Mimi and Dorothy, but he’s also sought by the men in the book who want him as an ally. Guild’s eagerness to work with Nick is an indirect characterization that helps the reader understand how good a detective Nick was in the past.

“‘You didn’t ask me where I stayed last night. Don’t you care?’

‘It’s none of my business.’

‘But I found out something for you.’

‘What?’

‘I stayed at Aunt Alice’s.’”

Dorothy’s failure to capture Nick’s concern is again used for comic effect and illuminates Dorothy’s character. While she tries to be the damsel in distress, she hasn’t figured out that her cries for help must have an actual need behind them for anyone to care. Her continuous mundane answers to dramatic questions add to the humor of the novel.

“‘Did either of you ever see the Victor Rosewater your father had trouble with back when I first knew you?’

Dorothy shook her head. Gilbert said: ‘No. Why?’

‘I never saw him either, but the description they gave me, with some changes, could be made to fit your Chris Jorgensen.’”

This leap of intuition is typical of how Hammett reveals clues. Several of Nick’s ideas and solutions come in similar flashes. This style of telling rather than showing is a break from classic detective novels, which employ “fair play”: the reader has all the information the sleuth does. Here, the reader could not have known what Rosewater looked like. The result is an acceleration of the pace of the novel.

“‘Wasn’t Nora utterly terrified?’

‘So was I and so was the guy that shot me.’”

Nick and Nora’s marriage is more nearly equal than is common for the time and genre. While their friend Tip assumes Nora would be scared of the shooter, Nick sets her straight, establishing his respect for his wife but also inserting a humorous brag that is true to his character. He uses wit to distract Tip and perhaps himself from the fact that he and his wife were almost murdered.

“I love you, Nicky, because you smell nice and know such fascinating people.”

This is the only true declaration of love in the novel, and it’s touched with the couple’s characteristic humor. It illuminates part of what attracts Nora to Nick––his connection to a world with which she is unfamiliar. Just as she isn’t afraid but excited when a gunman comes to their apartment, she is delighted by Studsy and the brawl at the speakeasy, after which she says this quote.

“The chief thing […] is not to let her tire you out. When you catch her in a lie, she admits it and gives you another lie to take its place and, when you catch her in that one, admits it and gives you still another, and so on […] [She] keeps trying and you’ve got to be careful or you’ll find yourself believing her, not because she seems to be telling the truth, but simply because you’re tired of disbelieving her.”

Nick’s comment about Mimi is also a comment about the world of the novel. Truth is impossible to find in a corrupt world, and detectives uncover one lie only to be confronted with two more. The Hydra-like quality of the corruption makes for world-weary detectives. Nick, however, is able to rise above it, as he has money, parties, and a spouse he can trust to which he can retreat. This marks a difference between him and other Hammett detectives. While they succumb to weariness and get deceived by the femme fatale, Nick can escape and replenish enough to resist the lies.

“‘I told him I didn’t know whether you two (Nick and Mimi) were “still” playing around together because I didn’t know that you had ever played around together, and reminded him that you hadn’t been living in New York for a long time anyway.’

Nora asked me: ‘Did you?’

I said: ‘Don’t try to make a liar out of Mac.’”

Nick’s roundabout way of avoiding questions is typical of his character at this point, but it’s also a way of telling the truth that doesn’t commit him to anything or diminish his mystery in front of others. It’s also an example of the theme The Inescapable Past and how Nick’s earlier life is inescapable for him as characters constantly refer to previous cases or relationships.

“‘I don’t suppose he ever told you he saved my life once in a shell-hole in—’

‘He’s nuts,’ I told her. ‘He fired at a fellow and missed and I fired at him and didn’t and that’s all there was to it.’”

This brief and seemingly throw-away dialogue during a polite introduction turns out to be one of the big clues. It also reveals one reason Nick is so popular, as his modesty around what is obviously a heroic moment illuminates his loyalty and humility. However, in the hardboiled world, loyalties run shallow. Macaulay, Nick later states, was planning on killing Nick, and Nick has no qualms about putting Macaulay in jail.

“‘Before I went to sleep last night I made a list of all the—’

‘There’s nothing like a little logic-sticking to ward off insomnia. It’s like—’

‘Don’t be so damned patronizing. Your performance so far has been a little less than dazzling.’”

Nora is the only female in the novel who isn’t dazzled by Nick’s personality. This passage shows, however, that while their relationship is progressive in many ways, her ideas about the case are secondary and are more a source of amusement for Nick rather than something to be taken seriously. Nora is rarely out unchaperoned and doesn’t do any of the sleuthing. The passage also references methods used in classic detective fiction, and Hammett is having a moment of fun having his detective dismiss this method.

“‘Are you watching his shop?’

‘We’re kind of keeping an eye on it. Why?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said truthfully, ‘except that he’s pointed his finger at a lot of things that got us nowhere. Maybe we ought to pay some attention to the things he hasn’t pointed at, and the shop’s one of them.’”

This quote is characteristic of Nick’s quick logic, which often appears out of nowhere. While many mystery writers take the reader through the detective’s thought process, Nick’s thoughts about the case are rarely laid bare—unusual in a first-person detective narrative. The result is that the revelations regarding the mystery appear to come from inspiration rather than rumination.

“‘Clyde gave them to me of his own free will—they’re mine.’

‘What’s yours?’”

The novel reaches the epitome of Mimi’s ridiculous behavior. Her lies have become increasingly obvious, and even she doesn’t attempt to deny them by the end. This blurting out of the thing she just made a deal to be quiet about highlights both the pervasiveness of corruption and the humor of the novel.

“‘Really Nick. I think you’re a half-wit sometimes with your silly suspicions.’

‘I’m studying to be one. Three more lessons and I get my diploma.’”

This comment from Nick is typical in that it’s witty but also reminiscent of Hammett’s other more hardboiled detectives. It echoes the jaded sarcasm of Sam Spade and indicates that Nick is fed up with Mimi’s behavior. That she would call him a half-wit after the bumbled and greedy attempt to cover for Macaulay pushes his good nature to its limits.

“I laughed—not at the joke—and said: ‘Wynant’s not that thin, but he’s thin enough, say as thin as the paper in that check and in those letters people have been getting.’”

Nick suddenly realizes and reveals the lie that has been with the reader since the title of the book. The definition of the word thin shifts to reveal the solution as it no longer refers to physical girth. Thinness now refers to reality, as the man, the letters, and the suspicion placed on him are all false and lack substance.

“Mimi turned to Macaulay and said: ‘You son of a bitch.’ Guild gaped at her, more surprised by that than by anything else that had been said.”

Guild’s stereotypes and expectations about beautiful women have been present from his first line of dialogue and have hampered his ability to see things clearly. Mimi’s profane admission of guilt shocks him into inaction at the crucial moment when the murderer is trying to get away, highlighting how much this stereotyping of women has hindered his ability to do his job.

“‘But I thought everybody’s supposed to be considered innocent until they were proved guilty and if there was any reasonable doubt, they—’

‘That’s for juries, not detectives.’”

Nora is not a usual hardboiled character. She believes in justice and is unhappy with how it isn’t possible in the corrupt world of the genre. Nick sets her straight during the last few pages of the novel, during which he explains that a story that fits is good enough for him, even if it doesn’t get a conviction or change the behavior of the other characters.

“He’s a terrible shot. I saw him shoot during the war.”

This quote is one of the only times Nick reveals his thought process when it comes to solving the crime. Up until this point, the clues and ideas seemed to come out of nowhere, but here Nick takes the time to explain his logic, linking the fact that the killer had to empty his gun for both killings with his knowledge of Macaulay’s past. That he reveals this to his wife and not the police is relevant. For the outer world, Nick prefers to keep his effortless persona, but for the woman he trusts and who sees through the façade, he is willing to reveal his mind.