Students of the detective story have explained the flourishing of this genre as an expression of the conflicts of late nineteenth and early twentieth century society The detective story is essentially an allegory The crime is a symbolic enactment of some innate human impulse of lust or greed and its solution at least in the traditional story represents the reintegration of the personality with society its lawless impulses quelled so that society can again function smoothly In Hammetts peculiar version society is returned to its former state but that itself is shown to be corrupt and false