Genre
Crime Thriller
Setting and Context
Sweden, 2002
Narrator and Point of View
Third person, focusing on multiple categories.
Tone and Mood
The mood of the book is generally dark, following with the genre, crime fiction. The narrator remains objective most of the time, occasionally showing an emotional reaction.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Mikael Blomkvist
Major Conflict
Blomkvist is hired to find Harriet Vanger, the missing niece of the previous owner of the Vanger corporation. While doing this, Blomkvist tries to save his magazine, Millenium, and restore his credibility.
Climax
Blomkvist is captured by Martin Vanger and is almost murdered. He is saved by Lisbeth, and they learn that Harriet is still alive.
Foreshadowing
Blomkvist is threatened with a dead cat, and his cabin is broken into, which foreshadows Martin attacking him, and almost murdering him.
Understatement
She became known as “the girl with two brain cells”—one for breathing and one for standing up.
Salander eventually became Armansky's foremost investigator.
Allusions
The novel alludes to the Bible, specifically to the book of Leviticus in the way that the women are murdered.
Imagery
Salander fitted into this picture about as well as a buffalo at a boat show. Armansky’s star researcher was a pale, anorexic young woman who had hair as short as a fuse, and a pierced nose and eyebrows.
Larsson helps the reader visualize what Salander looks like, through simile and descriptive language.
Paradox
None
Parallelism
None
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Sweden hadn’t yet been hit by the interest rate shock.
Sweden is used to represent the Swedish economy.
Personification
None
