The girl with the dragon tattoo written by Steig Larsson is a very powerful novel that is slowly uncovered and more secrets are revealed as the story progresses. For me the first 150 pages more or less were very confusing as I was still getting to know the characters and being introduced to them. This caused me to be not as focussed when reading as the story didn’t really seem to flow for me as it constantly changed between the perspectives of Mikael Blomkist and Lisbeth Salander. At this point in the book I especially did not know much about the character of Lisbeth Salander and what she had to do with the story and plot. Mikael Blomkist was the lead writer of millenium which is a big magazine company, until he gets slammed for libel and defamation of financer Hans-Erik Wennerstrom and faces prison time. Blomkist is a character that I see change immensely as the novel progresses, where at the start he is only persuaded to take on Henrik Vanger’s crazy assignment because of the reward of top secret information that he would receive at the end of his one year deal. He took the deal in an attempt that the information he would receive could help save his reputation and career. This instantly showed to me that he was shallow and just wanted to save himself, so the rest of the world would no longer see him as a disappointment and convict. However, as he begins his investigation and gets to know the people of Hedestad and his new investigative partner, Salander, he becomes more invested in the job at hand. It becomes not only about solving the case but about bringing justice to this girl and for Henriks sake.
The whole Vanger family represents a family of corruption and fake relationships. They are the owners of one of the biggest corporations in all of Sweden where a majority of their family has been overpowered by money and status, where they don’t represent any sort of normal family. When I think of the world family I think of love and support, a tight knit group of people that are always looking out for each other. This is not the case in the Vanger family as it is a family falling apart with certain characters that are depicted as very nasty people.
The disappearance of Harriet Vanger is something that Henrik Vanger has spent his whole life pondering, wondering what happened to that teenage girl and why no one knows. When he hired Blomkist for this near impossible task he was reaching for once last chance to find the truth, and write a family chronicle while he was at it to keep the rest of the family at bay. This task seemed like a complete waste of time as no cop or special investigator had ever cracked the case or even got anywhere close to a lead. Blomkist slowly begins to uncover the most intricate of details that noone has ever noticed and begins piecing together a puzzle that gets weirder by the second. As the book progresses, the case hits the big turning point- Martin Vanger and his father, Gottfried Vanger are behind all of the murders over the past 30 years. Before this point I didn’t really have any opinion on Martin, just that he was the odd workaholic brother who no longer had a sister. At the instant I found out who Martin Vanger actually was I was disgusted and appalled by his character and morals. He was a disgusting, misogynistic woman predator who found pleasure and enjoyment in torturing and eventually killing vulnerable girls. “I’m more of a serial rapist than a serial murderer. […] most of all, I’m a serial kidnapper. The killing is a natural consequence – so to speak – because I have to hide my crime.” This to me shows how he objectified vulnerable women and saw them as toys to play with.
This really highlighted to me the fact about gender inequality and the objectification of women that is still going on today. Equality is a type of distributive justice which is concerned with giving all members of society a ‘fair share’ of the benefits and resources available. It is something that should not even have to be thought about and should just be done. “I think you’re wrong. It’s not an insane serial killer who read his bible wrong. It’s just a common or garden bastard who hates women”. This quote by Salander reveals her deeply held belief in the importance of personal accountability. Martin violence against women was a deliberate choice and because of that She punishes those who hate women with no regret and a sense of justification for doing so. Too often men are seen as the superior race where they are gifted many advantages in jobs, the pay they receive and how they are seen by other people. The fact is that women and men can do a job to the exact same standard where women should not be restricted to what they can and can’t do according to men. This superiority and dominance that is associated with men leads on to the idea of sexual objectification. Martin Vanger is a sadistic, sexual predator who objectified and took advantage of foreign women with no connections in sweden to feed his own psychotic mind. This to me highlights and makes me really think about how we still have a long way to go before full gender equality around the world. Currently iceland is the only country in the world that has made the gender pay gap illegal where the new law requires companies to prove that they pay men and women equal, for equal work. When Blomkist found out what Martin and his father did to all of those poor girls and Harriet he was determined to tell the world and publish his findings- to bring justice to the situation. Henrik Vanger however, was very against this idea and pulled the pin on the family chronicle and the information promised to Blomkist. This showed me something about Henriks character- he was more like the other self centred Vangers than I thought. Blomkist had been fighting all year to get justice for Harriet but it became more than that when the extent to Martin and his father’s crimes were revealed. Many dozens of innocent woman had been brutally killed over the time period of roughly 40 years, with none of them being solved. He chose vulnerable women- prostitutes, immigrants, women with drug problems and those whose families wouldn’t notice them gone or wouldn’t have the means to pursue an investigation. It now not only became about justice for Harriet but justice for the dozens of women and their families and friends who have not a single clue to what happened to their loved ones apart from they were brutally murdered. For Blomkist to hear that he can’t publish his findings went against every moral he had, where he knew what happened to the lives of many but was not able to even tell their families. A need for justice comes when something needs to be put right but not being able to bring justice to something so important and corrupt breaks everyones morals.
This novel constantly surprised me at many instances throughout and kept me guessing about what was going to happen next. Throughout the whole novel I assumed that Harriet was dead and it wasn’t until Blomkist turned up in Australia on a ranch looking a lady by the name of Anita that the truth was uncovered. This was the point in the novel where as everyone assumed harriet Vanger was dead it is brought to light that in fact she has not and she fled in an attempt to get away from her family and save herself. I was shocked and overwhelmed by how the whole story fit together in such an intricate puzzle-like manner. It was never predictable which is what I really enjoyed about it and it got me thinking about the whole scenario and even making my own guesses about what really happened to Harriet and who was involved. After reading the girl with the dragon tattoo I am left wanting more, feeling the need to continue reading on to the other books in the series. I felt as if I began to be in the novel and gained strong connections with the characters, where I began also feeling the need to get justice for the murdered women and their families just so they could at least know what happened to their loved ones.
MERIT