In the novel The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson, one of the protagonists, Mikael Blomkvist, who is a reporter for the newspaper firm Millennium, is guilty of libel against a well-known business man named Hans-Erik Wennerstrom. Blomkvist is committed to clearing his name from this alleged misconduct because he is not actually guilty. Meanwhile, Henrik Vanger, a prominent 82-year old industrialist, who owns most of Hedeby Island in Sweden, hires Blomkvist to solve the presumed murder of his beloved niece, Harriet Vanger. He offers Blomkvist more than double his salary at Millenium and evidence of Wennerstrom’s crookedness to clear his name from the libel. As Blomkvist becomes familiar with Henrik Vanger’s family, 24 year-old Lisbeth Salander is introduced. Salander is a unique woman who has a photographic memory and a dragon tattoo on her back. Due to her troublesome childhood and poor social skills, she is considered to be mentally incompetent, but is actually quite brilliant. Nevertheless, she is placed under a state-appointed guardian named Holger Palmgren. After Palmgren suffers a stroke and dies, Salander is placed into the hands of Nils Bjurman, who turns out to be a masochist, who violently rapes her in exchange for her weekly …show more content…
allowance. Salander plots her revenge by videotaping Bjurman raping her. She then blackmails Bjurman into giving her control of her finances by threatening to release the video. Salander works as an investigative researcher, but after being contacted by Blomkvist to be his research assistant, she is intrigued by the case and eagerly takes on the job. Together, Salander and Blomkvist uncover the ominous Vanger family history and unconsciously put their lives in danger. After working together for a while, Salander begins to trust Blomkvist and they develop a romantic, sexual relationship. When they closely look through numerous pictures and videos of Harriet’s ventures on the day of her death they connect Harriet’s supposed murder to her dead father, Gottfried, and eventually to her brother, Martin. In addition, Blomkvist and Salander learn that Harriet was not actually murdered and managed to flee in order to escape Martin and Gottfried, who constantly used to rape her. At the climax of the novel, when Martin Vanger is about to kill Blomkvist, Salander manages to save Blomkvist by hitting Martin with a golf club. Salander chases after Martin with the intention to kill him, but ultimately, Martin dies in the car chase after he crashes into a truck. Together, Blomkvist and Salander find Harriet and reunite her with Henrik. After the mystery is solved, Blomkvist is upset because the information that Herik gives him about Wennerstrom’s crookedness is outdated and is of no use.
Luckily for him, Salander, who had previously investigated Wennerstrom, has information of Wennerstrom’s corrupt business practices on her computer. Wennerstrom was involved with international drug dealing and sex-trafficking and Blomkvist uses this information to write a report on Wennerstrom and clear his name from the alleged libel. On the contrary, Salander, who has a strong hatred for sex-traffickers, studies Wennerstrom’s finances, and drains millions of dollars as revenge for his wrongdoings. Wennerstrom,who is by now an international fugitive, commits
suicide. After Blomkvist successfully clears his name from libel, he and Salander go on a retreat and their romantic relationship continues. When Christmas arrives, Salander goes to Blomkvist’s house with the intention of revealing her love for him. She is unpleasantly surprised when she comes to see Blomkvist with his lover, Erika Berger, who works alongside him at Millenium. The book draws to an end on a forlorn note, with Salander backing off and ending her relationship with Blomkvist.
Elli talks about daily life in her neighborhood. Her mother does not show any compassion for her. When Elli complains of this, her mother brings up excuses that are unconvincing. Elli believes her mother does not care for her and that her brother is the favorite. Hilter’s reoccurring radio broadcast give nightmares to Elli, whos family is Jewish. The nights when the Hungarian military police would come and stir trouble did not provide anymore comfort for Elli. One night, her brother, Bubi, comes home with news that Germany invaded Budapest, the town where he goes to school. But the next morning, there is no news in the headlines. The father sends him back to school. He learns the next day that a neighbor’s son who goes to school with Bubi has said the same. The day after, the newspapers scream the news of the invasion. Bubi arrives home, and the terror begins.
Carole Wilkinson’s Dragonkeeper impressed me with its writing style and incredible settings. She uses very rich vocabularies and analogies which help to imagine the towns, villages, and environment of old China. In addition, there were hidden settings and these become apparent at the end of the story. When I found out the hidden settings, I recognized the characters’ unusual behaviors. Ping who is the protagonist of this book learns a lot of important things with her friends while their thrilling and wonderful journey
The film that we screened in class was titled the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and was directed by Ang Lee. The beginning of the film, Bai returns from meditating and decides to give up his sword. Once the sword is transported to Sir Te's, it is stolen by a masked character in all black, who is revealed as Jen later on in the film. Mu Bai, Shu Lien and Tsai go out searching for the sword and encounter Jade Fox, which is then followed by a battle; however, the masked character helps Fox escape. During that night Lo, a former lover of Jen, comes back to return her comb and then there is a flashback on how they met. After their encounter, Lo leaves Jen; however, comes back and tries to thwart Jen from getting married. In the end, Fox dies
A small, smoke-filled and well-lit room with a small circular table, some buffets and other furniture. Having everything typical to a middle and upper class residence, this room symbolizes the type of citizens who are tired and afraid of M’s reign of terror. Having the mobster’s meet in this room in the first place, Lang highlights the notion of the silent, scared majority of Berlin who will accept any course of action just to see to it that their children are safe and that their normalcy of life continues on, before M began abducting children. The cigar smoke filling the room is symbolic of the haziness and gray area that such a situation presents. One may stop to ask themselves, “Is this right? Are we doing the right thing by setting the mob loose on M?” or “If I was a criminal, would I want due process and a fair investigation and trial?” By the mob and the people taking matters into their own hands, they are essentially submitting to fear and thus usurping the due process of law. By having the mobsters in the room, the citizens are okay with ends being justified by the means and show that have lost complete and utter faith and trust in the police to keep their children
Everything is criticized at every level in this story, the people by the main character, the main character by the author and even the story by the author as well. The cruel egoistic personality of Anders is definitely identifiable through these different levels of criticism. I will prove that the inner motivation of this behaviour derives from Anders' egoistic personality which sometimes makes him cruel against others, sometimes against himself. Furthermore, I will prove that whenever Anders criticizes somebody or something he actually tries to punish because of the imperfectness of the object. In order to make the referring to the different part of the story easier I divide it into three parts. The first part ends when the robbers appear at the door of the bank, the second ends when one of the robbers shoots at Anders and the left is the third part.
The novel The Book Thief is a book about a young girl by the name of Liesel Meminger. Observing the life of this young girl is not easy as this is the time of Hitler’s reign in Germany. In a short period of time, this girl faces many difficulties. More than any child should ever have to encounter. She has to deal with being abandoned by her mother, the death of her younger brother, and relocation to another part of Germany. Immediately when Liesel arrives to Molching, her life is forever changed. She is forced to live with two strangers, now her new mama and papa. Liesel faces much abuse both at school and at home. At school she is made fun of for her illiteracy and at home, mama speaks very rudely to her calling her a swine and other insults.
Deviating from the norm within her time, Aphra Behn’s, “The Disappointment,” tackles the concept of sex from the female perspective, something still relatively taboo in the modern world. Behn offers readers a glimpse into the confusion and anxiety that accompany a woman’s loss of virginity, in addition to the heightened expectations of masculinity enforced on the man. By creating sympathetic and pitiable characters out of both Cloris and Lysander, Behn imagines a narrative in which there are no winners or beneficiaries in this uncomfortable exchange, directly resulting from societal expectations. During the specific instance in which Cloris gives into her desires only to discover that Lysander is unable to perform, the narrator illustrates
Words, so simple, yet are the most powerful ways of communication. The weight of words is one of most impactful themes in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief, and is felt throughout the entire novel. The Book Thief is a story that takes place during World War II, and follows the Hubermann family and friendships as the Narrator: Death follows them through their journey of Germany in 1939. Hans Hubermann is one of the greatest supporters of words right next to the Book Thief herself, Liesel Meminger. Words are emphasized through stolen books, spoken conversations, and thoughts of the characters. Hans Hubermann backs Liesel’s desire to read through many long nights, protects Max Vandenburg while in hiding, and consistently stands up against the dehumanization
Karl Stern is an artistic, lanky, beat up, Jewish fourteen year-old boy whose only refuge is drawing cartoons for his younger sister and himself. All that changes in an instant when he meets the boxer, Max Schmeling in his father’s art gallery. In exchange for a painting, Karl will receive lessons from the world renowned fighter and national German hero. Suddenly he has a purpose: train to become a boxing legend. As the years go by and he gets stronger, both physically and emotionally, so does the hatred for the Jews in Germany. This new generation of anti-Semitism starts when Karl gets expelled from school and grows until his family is forced to live in Mr. Stern’s gallery. Though the Stern’s have never set foot into a synagogue and do not consider themselves “Jewish”, they are still subjects to this kind of anti-Semitism. They try to make the best of it, but Karl can see how much it affects his family. His mother is getting moodier by the day, his sister, Hildy, hates herself because of her dark hair and “Jewish” nose and his father is printing illegal documents for some secret buyers. On Kristallnacht the gallery is broken into and the family is torn apart. Karl must now comfort his sister and search for his injured father and his mother. With the help of some of exceptional people, he manages to get over these many obstacles and make his way to America.
In order to analyse this sequence, the narrative links that are drawn here must be addressed. After Dreyman’s long-term friend commits suicide due his ‘black-listing’ by the Stasi, an infuriated Dreyman is driven to write an anonymous article about concealed suicide rates. He sends this article to be published in the West German magazine, ‘Der Spiegel’. All typewriters are listed in the GDR in order to track all authors, so in order to avoid arrest, a miniature typewriter is smuggled across the border. This typewriter is concealed beneath a threshold in Dreyman’s apartment. After one unsuccessful search by the Stasi, drastic measures are taken in order to bring down Dreyman. Under interrogation and blackmail due to her perscription drug addiction, Christa-Maria, reveals to the Stasi where the typewriter is hidden. However, before the Stasi can search the apartment for a second time, Wiesler removes the typewriter, unbeknownst to both Dreyman and Christa-Maria. While the Stasi are searching the apartment Christa-Maria sees the horrified look on Dreyman's face as he realises she has disclosed the typewriter’s location. Guilt-ridden, sh...
While the script is often one of the most crucial elements in a film, the brevity of speech and precise movements of the primary character accentuate the changing nature of his integrity. As viewers follow Captain Wiesler of the East German secret police, it is soon clear that he only says what is necessary, such as when noting his surveillance partner’s lateness or setting instructions for the surveillance bugging team (“twenty minutes”). It is important to note that Wiesler does not say a single word when Axel Stiegler cracks a joke in the cafeteria about Honecker, or when Grubitz himself makes a joke. Only
As seen, unlike the public perception of Lisbeth, she shows herself to an critical thinker who is able to overcome any adversity posed to her. Lisbeth’s ability to recognize that Bjurman’s sadistic behavior will continue and to record every consultation between herself and Bjurman would be a wise decision. Hence, this displays that Lisbeth is not mentally challenged but one with, “a high degree of discipline and self-control” (Burkley para 9) to retain her extensive knowledge only for necessary purposes. In addition, Lisbeth demands Bjurman to “inform my bank that I— and I alone— have access to my account” and that he will not contact her unless she initiates an invitation (Larsson 373-374). Thereafter, Lisbeth’s informs her guardian that in case of any tragic event that an automated video of the rape will be sent to every news outlet in the country. Nevertheless, Lisbeth reveals that regardless of the actions taken by Bjurman to control her, she would not allow him to dominate
She is not quite as carefree and unburdened as the present day Sarah, who flits back and forth between her two suitors while seeming beholden to neither of them. However, Sarah is almost androgynous at times, with her less quintessentially feminine attire and pipe-smoking; with her refusal to conform to societal expectations and settle down with one boy or the other, she appears the perfect modern woman. But this accolade truly belongs to Marianne; at the beginning of the film, Marianne is relying on Isak to be her transportation to Lund and is quite literally a secondary character, a passenger, in their conveyance there. Abruptly, Marianne begins to be the driver, as Isak gets lost in his memories; it is she who tosses the bickering couple out of the car. She has decided her path: to keep the child, regardless of the repercussions the decision has on her marriage. In the end, Evald reluctantly accepts the child in an effort to stay with Marianne. This does not necessarily qualify as a happy ending for the couple; their continued union, in fact, seems quite tentative. However, Marianne’s relationship with Isak has improved tremendously; as he comes to terms with the mistakes of his past, she is able to recognize his genuine contrition and forgive him for how he has treated his son, and by extension,
Josef K. awakes one morning to find himself accused by a mysterious legal authority "Someone must have been spreading lies about Josef K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning."ii His crime is unnamed, one of which he knows nothing. The novel follows his many attempts to obtain justice from authorities with which he cannot communicate well. Josef K.'s attempt to find justice end in his utter frustration, his complete loss of human dignity, and his cruel death by stabbing.