Image:
This image shows a scene from the Swedish movie, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It shows how Lisbeth Salander has no facial expresion even though she is being assaulted. Her role in the book is depicted in this photo quite well. It shows her calm exterior and lack of a sense of personal space. She doesn't seem to be phased by what is going on in this photo and it seems that way throughout the whole book.
Quote:
"I'm not joking. This may have started out as a historical mystery, but what with dead cats and people trying to blow your head off we can be sure we're on somebody's trail." (Larson, 418)
This quote is from Chapter 22 and this chapter talks about the consequences of Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander continuing to follow through with the case. In this quote, Salander (the heroin of the book) is talking to Bloomkvist (the protagonist) about an event that just occured. This story has a lot of mysterious parts to it and this quote is from the height of it. This quote summarizes the central part of the book, in that Bloomkvist is on a mission and he is so enveloped in it that he will stop at not cost.
Connections:
1) There is an attempted murder against Bloomkvist because of what he is researching. Today many people are hated purely based off what their job is. In the book, Mikael Bloomkvist is looking into the murder of a woman by the name of Harriett Vanger who is the niece of the industrialist Henrik Vanger. Because Mikael is snooping around the Vanger family he is scrutinized and hated purely for his work. A good example is how Martin Luther King was assassinated for the work he did. He was an activist for civil rights and because of his ideals and work he was hated. Bloomkvist is also hated based on what he is researching.
2) CSI (the crime scene investigation show) is a lot like the story of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. As an avid fan of CSI (all three shows) I enjoyed this book. It was like a long episode of it in book form. CSI usually begins with a murder and they go through the motions of figuring out who the murder was and sometimes along the way one of the investigators may get hurt. In the books case, Bloomkvist is the investigator and although he ends up still alive in the end, he hits a few bumps along the road. Between going to jail, almost getting shot and ultimately figuring out the mystery, he lives the life of a CSI.
3) The corporations vs. the media. In this book there is the conflict, from the start, between Wennerstrom and Bloomkvist's magazine, the Millenium. Conflicts like these, where the media is exposing difficult truths within large corporations, are present in today's society. The media is constantly exploiting different companies and even people for the sake of their publication. Us Weekly and People are prime examples of publications who exploit others for the sake of their puplication, when they make up stories for shock factor.
Reflection:
This book was simply amazing. The thriller has so much depth to it that it is quite the page turner. It starts off slow, when beginning to introduce the characters, but once you reach page 100 it is hard to put the book down. The story is compelling because of the characters. It is not compelling because of the story of a missing girl but because of the characters trying to find her. The characters and their relationships with one another create such an interesting story because of the way they interact with one another. The way that Bloomvist can carry out so many lovers so casually and still have a piece of mind and how Salander can be raped but stay so emotionless; it's subtleties like that, that keep the story moving while at the same time having a mystery behind it. I would completely recommend this book to anyone interested in a compelling mystery. However, it is a little bit gruesome and dark, so be mindful of that.
Questions:
1) Is there something "wrong" with Salander allowing her to function the way she does? Could it be autism or some other disease?
2) How will Bloomkvist and Salanders relationship continue in the future books?
3) How come Henrik Vanger didn't find someone to investigate the matter sooner?
4) What role does the accident on the day of the disappearance play in the greater picture?
5) How did Salander maintain such a low level of moral? How was she able to hack peoples computers with no sense of personal space?
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