The Girl Who Played With Fire Symbols, Allegory and Motifs

The Girl Who Played With Fire Symbols, Allegory and Motifs

The dragon tattoo (Symbol)

In this novel, Lisbeth Salander has many tattoos on different parts of her body, but the dragon tattoo is the most significant for her. At first it may seem that this is a drawing which simply decorates her back, but in fact it has a profound meaning. This tattoo symbolizes strength and power, strength is a quality, which helps to survive in all difficult situations, and power is a quality, which allows controlling people, who deal with evil. The dragon tattoo shows her real soul.

Coffee (Symbol)

Coffee is the best friend for all personages of the novel. Mikael always drinks coffee in his office, Lisbeth Salander prepares it in her apartment and coffee’s smell energizes her. Coffee is a symbol of energy and meditation, energy helps main characters to manage with various issues, meditation helps to relax after exhausting days.

Violence (Motif)

In this book, the motif of violence concerns not only main heroine Lisbeth, but also the whole female segment of the characters. Men do not respect women, mock them, do not consider their opinion, and are sure that every female representative is a worthless puppet in the hands of such strong and powerful men. Violence is everywhere, it has pursued Lisbeth since her childhood. Violence on her mother and Lisbeth's personality is a reason to begin to destroy self-esteem of rapists and forcibly press on their morale.

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