The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The best love stories, family saga, mysterious murder, and the worst financial trickery are best captured in the novel Girl with the dragon tattoo. The book has won the status of a bestseller as well as the best sensational novel that currently has a popular motion picture. The story revolves around the mysterious disappearance of a young girl named Harriet Vanger from a wealthy Swedish family. The novel gives events and episodes of her disappearance that dates back about forty years. In the novel, the story also captures the endless attempts by the girl's determined uncle to unearth the truth about her murder and those behind the murder.
The book also introduces the readers into the lives of Mikael Blomkvist the lawyer and Lisbeth Salander the hacker and a genius. Blomkvist was hired to lead a legal procession in Harriet's case while Salander acts as his personal assistant and special advisor. Their investigations however lead them to territories that were initially beyond the scope of their investigations since they discover high-level corruption in the Swedish industrial sector.
The book introduces Blomkvist as an investigative journalist working for the Millennium Magazine. From the beginning of the story, Blomkvist is contacted to investigate a corruption case against Hans-Erik Wennerstrom, an industrialist and a businessperson. Unfortunately, Blomkvist loose the case and therefore the court ruled that they should pay damages to the accused before being imprisoned. While Blomkivist was waiting to serve his prison sentence Vanger approaches him with the task of investigating Harriet's case. Vanger is confident that only Blomkvist has the ability to bring or investigate the circumstances that led to her death although he believes that it was a murder case. On his way to meet Vanger in the island, Blomkivist is secretly photographed by Slander who had followed him closely.
Lisbeth slander is a young woman who has never lived a trouble free life. To begin with, she had engaged in several crimes and she has even been a professional computer hacker. After setting her father on fire while he was resting in his car, Salander was sentenced to probation and this is the cause of all her troubles. On top of the probation, Slander is assigned a guardian who is in charge of her finances and therefore she has to report to him regularly. His guardian seems to be the cause of most troubles that constantly follows the young girl. Her first meeting with the guardian is the beginning of her troubles since the guardian assaults her sexually and threatens her not to reveal to anyone. After this fateful event, Salander goes away and promises herself never to visit her financial guardian again. However, this does not live to her expectations since her laptop is damaged following a scuffle at a tunnel and therefore she has to visit her guardian for financial assistance to replace her computer. In this second visit, she decides that she would be prepared and in addition to that, she would capture the events with his guardian using her camcorder. This however does not live to her expectations because the man caught her off guard before she had set the camera and again she is abused sexually. Slander was a genius and therefore she plans how to carry out revenge attacks on the man and she was successful.
Blomkvist learns of slander through her attempts to hack his PC although she sent him a useful clue on Harriet's disappearance. Later he traces slander's residence and persuade her to assist him with the investigations. Blomkivist assisted by slander finds a lot of information about Harriet's family that could link to the causes of her death. Slander and Blomkivist are not only an excellent investigation team but they also end up establishing a committed relationship. In their investigation, they meet Martin the serial killer and a Nazi sympathizer. Martin attempts to kill Blomkivist while Slanders was away but slander arrives in time to save him from the killer. Later Blomkivist is sentenced to six months imprisonment and while in prison he receives a lot of reading materials from slander that proves to contain all the information he needed in the investigation. After his release, he published the information about Wennerstrom on the Millennium Magazine. This information reveals the darker side and history of Vanger's family that had never been told before or imagined.
The book The Girl with the dragon tattoo focuses on various important themes but family, morality, sex, violence and ethics stands out as the main themes in the book. The novel is based on characters that are in one way or the other related through family ties. The families introduced in the novel collaborate and interact in a number of ways. In particular, the members of these families collaborate in various fields such as crime and finding their oppressors. In the book, Harriet had a good relationship with his uncle Mr. Vanger although her parents are not mentioned in the story. The good relationship between Harriet and her uncle makes him not to rest until he brings her killers to justice. His determination makes him to hire Blomkvist the lawyer who ends up collaborating with Slander. Although Harriet's death occurred, forty years ago and her body was never found, Mr. Vanger is determined to peruse her killers. This shows that the characters lived in families with good relationship ties and that were ready to die for one another.
The families in the novel not only collaborated in doing good but they also acted together in doing wrong. At the end of the novel, the book reveals that Vanger's family had a bloodier and a darker history through Blomkvist's investigations. This proves that Vanger's family did not collaborate only in doing good things but they also collaborated in doing wrong. In particular, the family was behind the disappearance of the young girl in their attempts to control her inheritance. This shows that Harriet and her uncle lived in well-established families that lived close to one another. The book also shows the other side of family life where we meet characters who never cared much about family life and family matters. In particular, Slander is a young girl who does not have any family affiliations and who lives a free life. At the beginning of the story, Slander murders her father by setting him on fire. Although his father was an abusive man, her action shows how she was not concerned with the family. In addition to this, her father had abused her throughout her life and this show that he too did not care about family life. From this event, Slander got into trouble with the law that made her to live under the care of guardians who turned out to be as abusive as her father was. She later forces his guardians to abandon her and she decides to live a free life without any family affiliation.
Reading the book The Girl with the dragon tattoo reveals that the characters in the book are obsessed with sex and sexual immorality. Slander's father used to abuse her sexually and this made her to kill him. The writer of the novel paints a picture of men who viewed women as sex objects and therefore they could proceed to have sex with them without their content. The novel goes on to narrate the story of slander's guardian who used to assault her sexually. In a particular event, the guardian forces her into having oral sex with him before threatening her not to reveal to anyone. In addition, the guardian threatened that he would reveal the psychiatric hospital case if she failed to comply with his demands. This event shows that men used women as sex tools and in addition, they could use their naivety to get away with their sexual evils. This particular event also shows that men considered sex as a form of payment or compensation and therefore they could demand sex incase a woman was unable to pay her debts. Sex for commercial purpose is a major theme that comes out through the novel; characters in the book believe that sex can be used as a form of compensation. In particular, men in the novel demand sex from women in situations where they are not able to meet their debts. Slander's guardian for example demands sex from her based on her guardianship. The novel not only portrays sex as a commercial tool but also as a revenge tool. Slander sodomized her guardian as a form of revenge for what he did to her in the previous meeting. In addition to this slander took pictures of his naked body and threatened to reveal them if he did not abandon his financial guardianship on her.
The book not only displays sexual harassment on women but it also shows events where women are lured into sex through plots and schemes. Blomkvist uses his collaboration with Slander to demand for sexual favors from her. In this particular event, force is not applied but the woman in focus submits into the man's sexual demands due to his schemes. Although the two investigators establish a strong relationship, Blomkvist use Salander for his own selfish gains. Their relationship also shows that Blomkvist is using her to fulfill his selfish sexual desires.
From the beginning to the end of the novel The Girl with the dragon tattoo violence plays a major role in the development of the plot and the characters. The novel begins with murder and ends up with murder cases, and in all these events, violence is demonstrated. Salander murders her father for the abuses she suffered from him. The novel develops into an investigation story of a sixteen-year-old girl who was allegedly murdered by unknown assailants. The novel is built around violent characters and plot and the writer uses them to show the level of violence that exists in the community. The writer introduces the life of Slander a girl who had lived her life through violence and crime. She begins by setting his own father a blaze before continuing to assault her guardian and finally watches martin burn to death. The girl is also involved in a scuffle in which her laptop became damaged and this event shows that Slanders was a violent girl.
At the end of the novel, the writer introduces us to Anita a girl who lives in Australia and it turns out that she was the real Harriet. It also turn out that Harriet was never murdered but instead she is the one who killed her father before fleeing to Australia with the help of her aunt. Harriet's father used to rape her brutally and that is the main reason that she decided to kill him. Using an oar Harriet knocked and kept her father under water until he stopped breathing (Larsson 45). These events show that the characters in the novel and in particular women are violent.
The novel paints the picture of violent women that is beyond expectations of most societies and communities. The novel also shows women who are extremely violent who goes to the extent of committing murder as a means of revenge. To begin with, Salander killed her father for constantly abusing her; at the end of the novel, Anita killed her father for alleged abuses. This shows that women believed in violence especially murder as the best form of revenge especially where they suffered sexual violence.
The writer of the novel also brings the picture of violent men and in particular men who use sex as a form of punishment and violence against women. The novel begins with the story of how Slander was constantly abused by her father before she killed him. The novel goes on to show her sufferings in the hands of her abusive guardian. Finally, the novel talks of how Harriet suffered sexual violence from his father and brother Martin before she managed to eliminate her father.
The novel begins and ends with characters that have poor morals and ethics and this demonstrates the lack of morals in the modern society. The writer talks of how Salanders father abused her sexually before she eliminated her. The novel also talks of Harriet who was sexually abused by her father and brother Martin. The writer of the novel paints a picture of a generation of killers, hackers, rapists, and people who lacked morals and ethics.
Although the characters in the novel lack morals and ethics they strongly believe in justice and rewards for breaking the law. At the beginning of the novel Harriet's uncle, hire Mr. Vanger to investigate the alleged death of her niece Harriet. This proves that Harriet's uncle believes in justice and that anyone who goes against the law should be punished. He also knows that services of a lawyer are necessary in such legal procession. As a lawyer, Mr. Blomkvist believes in justice and this is demonstrated by how he waited to serve his six months jail term without default. The novel also shows characters who are lucky to evade justice in particular and Salander avoids the police and arrest due to here criminal life. This event shows that although slander lived a criminal life she was successful in avoiding justice. The event also shows that she was aware of the power of justice and law.
The writer develops this novel through the above themes and they are useful in the writing process. The writer uses these themes to develop moral teachings and lessons to the readers. The writer also uses these themes to capture the attention of the readers since these themes are the current in the modern society. The writer also uses the theme to paint the picture of post Nazi society by showing how the society lacked ethics.
Works Cited
Larsson, Stieg. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. London: Penguin group, 2010. Print.