Preview

Marele Day the Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
440 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Marele Day the Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender
To what extent is, the life and crimes of harry lavender a novel about Sydney?
Discuss the notion that the setting is a distinctive voice contributing to the last effectiveness of the story. Include specific reference to the set text and at least one other text of your own choosing. Marele Day uses descriptive language to depict the city of Sydney in The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender. Day distinguishes the city of Sydney through various characters to bring out the truth behind the beautiful city. Through this unique setting, Chinese spelt with a capital C by Nicole Ng explores the same unique descriptive language through the setting of a Sydney School. This essay will explore how the two texts demonstrate the characters, techniques, and languages to discover the extent of each setting. Voice is distinctive in its emotional connection with a certain place. Marele Day demonstrates the descriptive language to depict the city of Sydney, closely bringing it to life by describing it as an urban jungle full of varied facades, inhabitants and mechanics. The life and crimes of harry lavender takes place in Sydney, Australia. This is quotes in, "We swung down the hills overlooking the black expanse of Bondi Beach and the lights twinkling on the foreshores. So pretty and so innocent, the façade of the lights covered a multitude of sins and one of those sins was murder." Day focuses below the façade of glamour and attractiveness to the seedy underbelly of the city. The author demonstrated that there is a clear notion and connection to the world beyond the more ordinary and conventional sites. The authorial nature of the voice evokes the ethos of the speaker. This demonstrates how Marele uses Claudia to play her voice to make philosophical comments about Sydney and its nature. Claudia’s unique and authoritative voice symbolizes a female version of the tough talking male detective. Alcoholic homeless father left her at 5 years old; now-insane lives on the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Through the use of techniques, writers are evidently able to create a wide range of distinctive voices and bring people and their experiences to life. When distinctive voices are created, it helps the reader to understand and perhaps even relate to the character of the text. The use of distinctive voices ensures people to be created and their experiences to be brought to life. "The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender", written by Marele Day, is strategically able to create distinctive voices and experiences throughout the novel by incorporating a variety of characters including Claudia Valentine, a female investigator in big city Sydney, Australia, and Harry Lavender, the antagonist of the novel and the boss of Sydney's underworld. Day's strong and clever use of techniques, effectively create a range of significant, distinctive voices. In contrast, "Weapons Training" by Bruce Dawe is able to create a very strong, distinctive voice that brings to life the character of a strong-minded, stern drill sergeant, as he delivers a monologue to all the young new recruits. Both texts have used a deliberate choice of techniques, and creation of the distinctive voices within the texts.…

    • 1255 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Lavender The Distinctive Voice of Claudia Valentine – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – First person narrative, short sentences, disregard for strictly correct grammar, writing is ‘economical’, her narrative is tough and in the style of chandler school Language: Straight forward, staccato style, tough, clear, ironic, colloquial, unconventional, ‘clipped’ style ‘Hard-­‐boiled’ detective Sustains interest throughout the novel Convincing tone Omniscient (as detective of Sydney) Her distinct voice plays on gender roles, with the reverse of familiar conventions, seen in the first pages of the book. Her voice also leads the reader to assume it’s a man, playing on appearance versus reality. ‘As I got out of bed I realised I wasn’t the only…

    • 4381 Words
    • 142 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    How does Day use Distinctive Voices to portray the main ideas in the life and crimes of Harry Lavender?…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Distinctive voices are created in texts through the use of the protagonists, antagonists and setting. Contemporary composers manipulate characteristics of texts to portray its distinctive voice. This is evident in Marele Day’s novel the Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender, by the giving the protagonist Claudia Valentine - a hard boiled detective, the antagonist Harry Lavender – A major crime boss and Sydney each a distinctive voice. John Badham also incorporates this into the film The Hard way with the use of the protagonist John Moss – a hardboiled NYC Cop, the antagonist The Party Crasher – a serial killer and NYC. Emphasis on their voices increases readers’ identification with the text.…

    • 801 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lavender Motif used throughout the Book: Lavender is a flower of beauty, when spraying the lavender sent is a relaxant to the senses .Harry lavender is the opposite breaking away from the beauty and definition of lavender.…

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender’ by Marele Day and my related text the ‘Sorry…

    • 1700 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender is crime novel about contemporary Australian life, written with all the ambiguity and moral sophistication of most “who dun-nits ".…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “I woke up felling like death. Ironically appropriate given what the day held in store”.…

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel “The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender” the composer Marele Day’s persona Claudia Valentine uses distinct elements and characteristics of language to create subversion of conventional American crime fiction. Claudia’s voice creates a more feminized contemporary genre style, which alters the audience’s interpretation of the novel. Claudia is presented as a hard drinking loner replicating the classic 1940’s private investigator lifestyle. However, there is a subversion of the genre stereotype portrayed through Claudia’s gender and her romance with Steve Angell, who she is “drawn magnetically towards” which foreshadows a possible romantic relationship. This subversion is also evident in the maternal tones of Claudia’s voice when she is fearful for her children’s safety, begging her ex-husband to “Keep them safe Gary.” The expression of Claudia’s femininity through elements and characteristics of her language enable the audience to perceive this character as not being a stereotypical, marginalized, impecunious and emotionless conventional American crime fiction detective. However, Claudia’s personal life is juxtaposed by her tough career as a detective; who must expose the social, judicial and political injustices of the crime boss Harry Lavender and in a tone of revenge states “I would get Lavender... for what he’d done to my father… what he was doing to my city.” As Claudia’s career as a detective she must also solve crimes including the Mark Bannister murder. To do this she uses possible connections to Mark Bannister such as his…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    After January

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The setting of the play represents Australian outdoor life style and brings up the hot topic of development for discussion. This play’s setting is in a famous town, Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast. It is a well-known beach that Australians love to holiday at. Aussies love beaches and it is part of their lives. Like the young Australian boy Alex in the play says “I go the beach early because I ‘m in the habit of it.” Being set in Caloundra embodies Australian culture and their outdoor life style. The setting also brings up the hot topic in relation to urban development versus environmental protection and urban dwellers who transfer their urban lifestyle to the country. They are not really interested in the environment and looking after it. “To them an alternative lifestyle means another way of making money.” says Cliff. Alex agrees with Cliff about developers and says “I could probably do without it.” The audience will connect with this issue.…

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Harry Lavender

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Harry Lavender is the antagonist of the novel, who is the boss of Sydney’s underworld. Lavender was…

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are two distinctive voices, Claudia Valentine and Harry Lavender. Claudia valentine is shaped to be a strong character, who is not inhibited by traditions. Her independent nature and “hard bitten” experiences make her more observant and resourceful. However as we keep reading; we understand her insecurities and the subtle heart all women have. Harry Lavender the antagonist of this novel is a man of strong power who is metaphorically illustrated to be the heart, the veins, and the blood of Sydney. He is a man of corruption and crime, and a symbol of the calamitous facade of Sydney. Both voices are created by the world of Sydney or how the author has quoted “the sewage of Sydney”.…

    • 961 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Harry Lavender Essay

    • 269 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender undermines many of the stereotypes within the genre of crime fiction. Marlene Days’ prominent themes are introduced in the extract. Power is characterised particularly through the antagonist, Sydney underworld figure Harry Lavender. Day also portrays the idea of deception and façade through her rendering of the duality of the city of Sydney and the characters within it. Days’ setting of the late 1980s conveys an era where new technology is seen and an ominent threat and a useful tool. These themes are represented in the extract and a novel as a whole.…

    • 269 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Distinctive voices can change our perceptions and views towards an individual. This is shown in the novel “Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender” by Marele Day. The novel tells the story of Claudia Valentine, a private female detective and Harry Lavender, a ruthless individual who believes he has power over all of Sydney. The distinctive voices of both Harry and Claudia change our perspective towards the story and characters.…

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Choose a novel or play in which cultural, physical, or geographical surroundings shape psychological or moral traits in a character. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how surroundings affect this character and illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole.…

    • 374 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays