After completing the reading for class it seems like a theme that is constantly being expressed in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is dysfunction and the mystery associated with the dysfunctional relationships. The book starts off describing the crazy results of Blomkvist’s trial against Wennerstrom. The audience is presented with the story of Blomkvist receiving the inutile allegations of international financial fraud from his childhood friend. We are positioned to question the friend’s purpose of planting these allegations in Blomkvist: Did he intend to set up Mikael or were the rumours about Wennerstrom true? The results of the libel case also punished Blomkvist’s magazine, Millennium. The magazine is facing retaliation from Wennerstrom, a change in leadership, and a backlash from employees and financers. The ineffective allegations led Blomkvist to pursue Herr Vanger’s freelance assignment. We become aware that the Vanger family and Wennerstrom also have some unavailing relationship and start to ponder whether the mysteries surrounding the Blomkvist / Wennerstom and Vanger / Wennerstrom conflicts are connected. Through Mikael working on Harriet’s case and the Vanger autobiography, the reader is overwhelmed with the Vanger family’s façade. To the outside world the Vanger family appears to the be the highest echelon of refinement, but we discover that the family is filled with perverse ideologies, addicts, and abusive men. The social condition has gotten so hectic that many family members no longer communicate with each other. And Henrik Vanger’s accusation of a family member killing Harriet has only added to the maladjusted family structure. Even Lisbeth Salander embodies this dysfunctional theme. She is extremely introverted and socially impaired. In multiple instances Salander is at risk of being institutionalized. At this point in the reading we are unaware of what caused Lisbeth to become the woman she is now.
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