The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Symbols

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Have you ever been called a name you did not enjoy? In the novel The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Steig Larsson characterizes Mikael Blomkvist, Lisbeth Salander, and Harriet Vanger through the use of literary devices. In the story, Mikael, a mere journalist, and Lisbeth, a private investigator, work together to solve the murder of Harriet that happened many years ago. The author used allusions to mirror Mikael and Lisbeth as characters in Astrid Lindgren's children's books and to link the spirituality of Harriet to Mikael's daughter. From the beginning, Mikael is constantly referred to as Kalle Blomkvist, a detective in Lindgren's books, despite his plea of only being a journalist. A reporter asks for a comment on Blomkvist's trial, and says, "Give us a sound bite, Kalle Blomkvist" (Larsson 8). This quote shows that many people know Mikael as the storybook character and use this nickname often. The author …show more content…

To explain Mikael's revelation, the author alludes The Bible, specifically the Book of Leviticus. This allusion is an explanation from the narrator, which says, "She had not written down telephone numbers. The figures indicated the chapter and verse in Leviticus, the third book of the Pentateuch (Larsson 252). Harriet had written down names and series of numbers that Mikael assumed were telephone numbers. When his daughter mentioned recently becoming spiritual and reading her Bible, he realizes Harriet was similar to his own daughter. As Mikael found out early in the investigation, Harriet grew up without a father most of her life just as his daughter had after their divorce. This childhood caused both of the girls to become independent and rely on a higher power. Without the link between his daughter and Harriet, Mikael would have never figured who he was investigating and why she originally went

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