Social criticism refers to a situation where malicious conditions are revisited with reference on how they have been entrenched in the social structures. Social criticism is geared towards getting practical solutions by applying certain measures to reform the society. Social criticism has permeated the academic arena, specifically in literature. Fictional literature has been used widely to expose social vices in societies. The Scandinavian fiction has been used largely in the crime novel to portray social criticism (Stieg, 6).
Notably, when Scandinavian crime fiction is mentioned, novels like “The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo” and “Silence of the Grave” come into play. The fiction novels have been rated, and their content has achieved a widespread acknowledgement. The novel “The Girl with the dragon Tattoo” uses a woman as the leading character whereby all events in the novel are centered on her. The novel opens with the introduction of Mikael Blomkivist who has lost a defamation case under doubtful circumstances.
Mikael is set to start investigations of his niece who disappeared forty years ago. As the story unfolds, and Henrik, who has hired Blomkvist to carry out the investigation, is convinced that the disappearance of Harriet was engineered by family members. The investigations take a different turn when Blomkvist meets Lisbeth who proves to have a good memory, bad temper and intimacy issues (Stieg, 24).The two team up to unfold the mystery behind Harriet’s disappearance (Stieg, 7).
During the investigations progress, it is discovered that Harriet’s death forms part of a series of murders that took place in 1950s and 1960s. The novel depicts men as violent among the Swedish society. This is evidenced by the fact that, with the exception of Blomkvist, every male character in the novel is violent. In the process of the investigation, Blomkvist’s relationship with the daughter and a co-worker deteriorates considerably (Stieg, 8).
The novel presents a morally questionable cycle where a rape revenge fantasy is presented. The empowered woman in the novel stops at nothing to revenge. The nature of the violence that she goes through depicts a crime dominated society. The novel builds a society based on violence against violence.
The society is not represented as depending on the due process of the law. The leaning towards reactionary violence stems from lack of trust in the established institutions. The issue of revenge being a better option in the Swedish society is evident when, at the end of the novel, Blomkvists makes efforts to bring down the executive who worn the lawsuit mentioned at the beginning of the novel (Stieg, 12).
The violence on Lisbeth in the novel portrays the society as working against a woman since rape is the norm of the day. Lisbeth turned into a hacker and planned to take revenge on her abusers by letting out all the dirty secrets about the wealthy. Her revenge is not confined to what has been done against her, but she takes revenge on behalf of women in general. The novel presents a situation whereby women are viewed as sex objects.
Therefore, raping cannot be ruled out from such a society. A reader is shocked by the treatment that Swedish men give to their women. In addition, the book presents other crimes such as murder and suicide. The novel has a slight criticism on the Swedish welfare state. Bureaucracy is evidenced by the police investigations and the role of such bureaucracies in showing how investigations are obstructed.
The tradition of employing the use of technicalities to deny people justice is what Lisbeth and Mikael are aiming to eliminate. A different way of carrying out investigation based on learning and knowing that seems immune to obstruction is introduced by Lisbeth. This method of investigation mainly centers on investigation through hacking that cannot be obstructed (Stieg, 26).
The novel introduces the reader to the vengeance and violence in the Scandinavian society. The novel portrays the Swedish society as that which is not ready to depart from the Norse legal system that advocated for personal revenge. The parallelism between the ancient justice system and the modern legal system is clearly depicted in the novel when Lisbeth decides to take revenge.
The writer tries to cast blame on the failure of institutions such as the police to offer excellent investigations. He also considers the weaknesses of the justice system to awaken an alarming desire to take personal revenge. The renewed nationalism and contemporary violence are evident in Sweden at a time when justice is left in the hands of individuals. In the culture of violence, the writer strives to differentiate between men and female violence. The novelist shows that women are greatly affected by violence (Stieg, 22).
Genders comparison of violence in the novel shows that men are more violent than women. Cultural setting shows that many men are violent, and they consider women as objects upon which they can perpetuate their violence. The rape scene shows the state of crime in the Swedish society. The writer further paints justice as influenced and not free to everyone.
Though the story opens as pro-feminist, many believe that the writer departs from this notion when he portrays Lisbeth as subordinate to men. The complexity of her character and skills in her hacking, which are mainly meant to achieve revenge, leaves many unanswered questions regarding the pain of the women in the society and the determination to take revenge. The writer builds on the character of the woman as strong when she opts to take revenge.
This shows celebration rather than sympathy in revenge. A reader can possibly avoid the temptation of celebrating Lisbeth’s actions when she is taking revenge. At the end of the novel, the reader wonders whether the writer wanted to portray revenge as necessary or was trying to show how revenge has consumed the community.
In other words, the writer seems to agree with the notion that revenge is unavoidable in Swedish society, and only a strong woman takes revenge. In the societal context, the writer used the stereotypical male impulse to build the character of Lisbeth (Stieg, 32).
In the novel, “Silence of the grave”, the author applies the crime epic story telling with a unique sociological complexity. The author opens the story with a thrilling narration of discovery of a skeleton on the estate located at the outskirts of Reykjavik. The excavation of the place leads to a discovery of red bushes surrounding the place.
Therefore, the reader is introduced to a twist of suspense in making a guess on who may have planted the bushes on the hillside. The archeologists were left to undertake their work, but the detective ordered the place to be investigated. The investigation on the area around the hillside points to the small farms where there was a military base. This base was manned by the British army at the time of the World War II. The detective makes interviews on the residents of the district, and the history becomes clear to him (Stieg, 24).
The place is surrounded by mysterious stories. The shocking part of the author is employing thrill in his work evidenced when he invites a voice from the grave to have a conversation. The story is sad, and it is narrated by an abused wife who lived in the hill before. The narration takes a portrayal of the society as being violent to women and purely patriarchal.
The connection between the story and the buried skeleton is left as food for thought on the parts of the reader. The writer does not make the skeleton voice mean that the woman and children were killed by the sadistic laborer who worked on the hillside. However, evidence points to the notion that the two are related.
The use of the parallel narrative leaves many questions that the reader gets answers as the story continues. The writer unveils the history and makes and exposes the history of Swedish community that has reached the new age. The attachment of the society to the historical past has gradually affected today’s Swedish, living styles (Arnaldur, 12).
There is breakdown of social values. The narration shows a situation whereby the society’s social values have completely broken down. The discovery of the skeleton was accompanied by a parallel voice of an abused woman and neglected children. The author portrays the society as being very ignorant about the weak. According to Elrendur’s work, there are cases of spousal abandonment and neglected children.
There is despair that surrounds the society, which does not seem to care. The detective experiences cases of neglect in his day to day duties. He encounters the worst experiences of a society that has lost touch with the observance of moral and social obligations. The introduction of the book is closely related to the conclusion whereby the detective becomes very compassionate after meeting gloomy men in his line of duty.
While the detective is taking an interest in investigating the presence of the bones, he is faced with a strange encounter that makes him leave immediately. His daughter is taken to hospital. It is discovered that she has comatose. He is instructed by the doctor to talk to her (Arnaldur, 13).
The novels “The Girl with A tattoo,” “Silence Of The grave” and “Blind Goddess” has been viewed like a mirror hence helping readers to have a glimpse of the Scandinavian society. The mentioned novels carry themes of violence, revenge and crime. It has been established that the vengeance justice is still rooted in the living styles of the Swedish people.
In the novel, a woman is treated like a sex object and violence is more pronounced amongst men than women. The second novel centers on neglect and abuse of spouse. It becomes hard for a situation to go unnoticed since the community’s social values are greatly ignored. The detective investigating the human bones experiences similar social breakdown in his family. This makes it easy to get a real picture of the entire society (Holt & Reading, 23).
Works Cited
Arnaldur, Indriedason. Silence of the Grave. New York: Eda Publication, 2002. Print.
Holt, Anne & K. Reading. Blind Goddess. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc. 2012. Print.
Stieg, Larsson. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. London: MacLehose Press2008. Print.