Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender Essay

Female protagonists atomic number 18 ch each(prenominal)enged to break the stereotype that women be weak, and to instead illustrate that women are just as capable as men in most if not all things. Marele Days, The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender is a text in which the protagonist, Claudia Valentine subverts and challenges the male centred conventions of the umbrage fiction genre. She does this by world strong, who not only does the work of men, but also manages to thrive in a harsh setting where women are not ordinarily found. Understanding her character, and the agency that shapes her work, and where she lives is key to fully appreciating how Days text subverts the crime fiction genre. One of the significant ideas, explored by Marele Day is the issue of Gender. In the opening of the novel, Marele Day gives interpretation to invite the readers to a whirlpool of ash trays, empty bottles of Jack Daniel, a obscure blond in the bed, a hangover and a messy prone surrounded wit h scattered clothes. The use of imagery always the reader to understand this novel, is based upon a male protagonist.The supposedly male protagonist wakes up the nameless blond before going to a funeral. He refers the nameless blond as him. The readers are in a state of conundrum to whether the protagonist is hardy or Day has subverted the main character as a female. It is then on varlet three, Day reveals the narrators name Claudia Valentine and on page five that the audience learns her profession. People rarely come to private investigator with good news, Claudia uses her familiar sardonic style to depict that the readers have been tricked the intact time on the issue of gender expectation. Through the opening novel, the readers understand how Day uses gender inversion and parody to combat the crime fiction conventions. The readers are able to understand that Claudia is a stereotypical hardboiled detective who fits the conventions of a typical Private Investigator. This is dem onstrated when she visits the apartment of the deceased Mark Bannister in Bondi.Claudia belongs to a tough world of fighting crime as she is tough and cynical and possess a great deal of physical strength. This portrayed in the quote, My legs are my best weapon. I dont carry a gun like some of my cowboy colleagues. Parody and symbolism are used in the term legs because in the traditional crime fiction genre, the female legs are symbolic of attraction and love. Claudia also teases and adds sarcastic pettishness when she makes fun of themacho men. In addition, Claudia is a post feminine version of the traditional Private investigator, who uses her intellectual power rather than her physique, Theres more than one way of skinning a cat.Here, she uses idiom and typical terse, and witty, colloquial language style to demonstrate women unlike men possess skills other than brute strength and weapons. The readers understand that Claudia avoids turn to clashes and harsh violent methods when locating and fighting her enemies. She only expresses her tough, heroic and hardboiled character by using karate as a means of self-defence. Through these extracts, Claudia challenges and subverts these gender stereotypes and Claudia most certainly foliaged into a feminist hero whilst turning the traditional detective genre on its head.Furthermore, the setting of Sydney is profoundly explored when she steps into the corrupt surroundings of the video arcade. This is a typical crime fiction scene as merchandise are exchanged with a pay off. Day uses range of a function entendre in the phrase waiting for the developers to give them a new lease of life, or maybe just a new lease. This emphasises the urban center as treacherous, where decadence is an underlying motif in the novel. The stench of Sydney forces Claudia to equip many qualities and standards that showcases her toughened detective nature. This is illustrated when Claudia saunters over to the Maori (doorman), which implie s that she is a confident, nonchalant, typical PI. Her communication with the Maori is terse and witty the use of play on words smack and score, reveals Claudias usage of pun and humour.The readers grasp the notion that these qualities are associated with typical PI which adds further entertainment, humour to the story and appeal to Claudias character as she tries to understand the city of Sydney.Marele Day displays finer points of Sydney as a corrupted and powerful dwelling. After she is kicked divulge by the Maori, she goes to the hamburger shop. While eating, she mentions two opposite poles of Sydney Macquarie St and George St. She personifies George St as brash, bright lights and winking. With the use of personification, Day was able to give rise a spiffy vivid character. The readers visualise the modern city with its lavish lifestyle, beaches and harbour. In contrast, she reflects upon the corrupt and colonial history of Macquaries Rum Corps which in 1980s was equal as a co rrupt old boys network.This is where Sydney wasdepicted as crime capital of the South Pacific. Claudia is dismayed that Sydney is changing My city from the city she grew up with into a corrupted empire whose morals are obsolete and filthy. Finally, the use of first person voice in this arcade crime scene, creates suspense and action. This is portrayed when Claudia paces to the container terminal where she describes it as strong, menacing and all seeing. Claudia uses descriptive language and she puts a clear image into the readers mind about the double edged urban setting as dark and sleazy. To add to the misty and daunting surrounding, fighting and action takes place. Claudia, after observing what happened in the container terminal was intent to breakout, For the moment I had a more pressing task to get back to the car without being.Oh Christ (p.72).First person level emphasises the readers concern for Claudias safety and her vulnerability. Day employed many action verbs in one se ntence poised, kick, rolled, swung and swept. Day, crammed all these action verbs into one long sentence to inform the readers about the rapid, dangerous events unfolding in the crime scene as well as to create an atmosphere mingled with tense and anticipation. Claudias quick thinking and wise action enabled her to survive in the sleazy, dangerous underworld. In conclusion, Marele Day portrayed a hard-boiled detective character by exploring two key ideas Gender and the setting of Sydney. Through these ideas, Claudia Valentine subverted the crime fiction genre by breaking the stereotype that females are weak beings. Likewise, Claudia Valentine was able to thrive in a corrupt and harsh setting of Sydney, illustrating the notion that female women are just as capable as men in most if not all aspects.