Discuss how the composer's ideas are conveyed through the textual forms and features prescribed in the text you have studied.
"The life and crimes of harry lavender" composed by Marele Day is described as a witty, wryly humorous and fast-paced thriller novel. The story revolves around a female protagonist , Claudia Valentine. She challenges the conventions and expectations of their time by her feminist approach towards her occupation and male dominance. Being an independent private detective, Claudia's' strong will power and courage had fuelled her to solve the mysterious death of Mark Bannister. The effects, style and structure of this Australian crime fiction creates suspense for the target audience and the hard boiled sub-genre. The central themes and concerns explored within this text are deception, good vs evil and corruption within a modern society.
(Background info) The turn of suspicion began with a note only stating on it "terminal illness", this note was anonymously given to Marilyn Bannister, mark's sister. The notion behind this clue led to Marilyn to an old school friend to examine the case. Mark's death was proclaimed as cardiac arrest which Marilyn also thought was suspicious. The cause of the death was Sydney's ruthless criminal underworld which follows to the main culprit Harry Lavender. Harry's character portrayal of a godfather like figure was built upon the foundation of his childhood. He was a young isolated holocaust survivor which also shaped his cold-killer nature. Day’s novel is seen as deceptive as the character portrayal of Sally Villos is a fake façade for the majority of the novel. Day employs descriptive words such as “cute, flighty and ultimately dangerous” which is a modern day appropriation of a femme fatale, beautiful but morally duplicitous. Sally vilos layered make up represents the external mask she wears to the world. The significance of the recurring mirror motif symbolises the fakeness of Sallys reflection illuminating that appearance can be deceptive. Sally is caught and her web of lies are finally cleared up as the investigation reveals the truth that she has relations with Harry Lavender as his illegitimate daughter, epitomised in the repetition of third person narration couple with ellipsis in “I was his…his…his…daughter”. The disclosure that sally is the person who injected heroin into Mark’s body and played a major part in his murder has been encapsulated utilising colloquial language coupled with alliteration in “I wanted them to think it was the smack” hence deceiving the law about the actual motive behind Mark’s death. During Mark’s funeral, Day further deceives the
audience with sallys fake grief at the funeral which is highlighted through the rhetorical question in ”why?...why?...”. Sally is metaphorically reflected to be as the city of Sydney as Day via becoming the humanised face of the city outwardly glamorous but inwardly despoiled again emphasising the theme of appearance vs reality. Her callous insensitivity is juxtaposed with valentines integrity as days employment of sport imagery coupled with assonance in “she looked at me cautiously, waiting for me to open service” helps characterise the cat and mouse relationship between valentine and sally. Day utilises sally to continuously deceive valentine and the audience whilst depicting that crime is a game that sally vilos intends to win.
The Importance of good vs evil are strengthen by Claudia valentine and harry lavender and the power play that develops between them in a race to find the last remaining copy of bannisters manuscript. Claudia’s investigation for answers to mark bannisters deaths brings her in grave danger with the antagonist harry lavender. The use of first person within Lavenders memoirs, assists in creating an underworld presence and reveals another perception of Sydney, although this polish holocaust survivor never appears in person. Days utilization of emphasized history sets up the impact of harry lavender depicted by the unmistakable tone of strength whilst showing a stark juxtaposition of dull and vile symbolism of lavender as he is given a figurative feeling of being similar to ‘cancer', which is gradually obliterating the city of Sydney. This is uncovered through Claudia’s expression, "the guiltlessness of a period past, before the stench of lavender. Be that as it may, the stench had dependably been there". Days utilization of the city of Sydney and the solid rule of harry lavender, underneath the city’s "sparkling exteriors", extend the understanding that appearances can be misleading. The useful rule of lavender if further implied through Claudia’s analogy, "I felt like an onion with intense chestnut skin peeled off". Marele days decision of her home town Sydney as a setting, incites a response from the peruse that the novel is one of revelation, investigation and a quest for truth. The relationship in the middle of valentine and lavender is additionally obvious as we made mindful that appearances can be beguiling as Claudia is gotten between the universe of wrongdoing and an aching for some steadiness. A consciousness of valentine and her children’s mortality are exemplified by flashbacks to her youth whilst strengthening Claudia’s unpredictable and defenseless characterisation. This is portrayed through the hyperbolic explanation couple with recurring theme of the eyes symbolism "the length of I didn't begin draining from the eyeballs". Claudia straightforwardly addresses the audience about how she sees the
world in her figurative, alliterative description of "the most established lady on the planet showed up through everything I could see an eye, modest blue lake in a desert of wrinkled hills". Valentine determines that being a female in the hardboiled investigator world van be favourable position in light of the fact that individuals open up to her effectively which helps in the exposure of the puzzle behind who set the defective pacemaker in imprint rail whilst the gathering of people are presented to the intention of his demise.
Days characterisation of harry lavender as a supreme figure es on her worries that wrongdoing pays inside of a present day society whilst making force. Lavenders haughty voice is typified through obvious and meddling utilization of first individual solitary and possessive pronouns, "I" and "my". Lavenders rehashed reference to "purple" and his hyperbolic dreams of a state burial service accentuate his egocentric mentality as does the way he portrays his life as "history". His megalomaniac identity is likewise stressed by day through lavenders appointment of the Ode "at the going down of the city’s child they will recollect that me" which highlights his twisted feeling of self. Day utilizes a change from first to third individual dialect "THEY WILL WANT to know the beginnings, the tyke that makes the man" to portray his adolescence which serves to build up the foundation of the character, giving the group of onlookers a more noteworthy understanding into the brutal impact on mankind of fierce world occasions, for example, war. The imagery ed in lavenders presentation "I have ventured of to those boat of idiots" depicts his own conviction to turn into the oppressor as opposed to the casualty. Claudia's inference to lavender 'the ever show obscurity they would rather overlook' plainly portrays the abhorrent that works inside of the city, furthermore inside of him. Day depicts lavenders life and criminal acts as "long and renowned" and anticipates the reason that he will "survive ing". Lavender is graphically exhibited as considerable as he will be leaving a "mountain with (his) name on it" which unmistakably underscores days worry that society is permitting malice to win unpunished.
The life and crimes of harry lavender is a highly modernised novel that mirrors the stereotypical male investigator and