Harry Lavender Codes And Conventions

Warping the conventions of the hard-boiled detective genre facilitates the ability of the audience to distinctively explore ideas and attitudes present within Marele Day’s prose fiction, ‘The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender’. The representation of the protagonist, Claudia Valentine, subverts both gender stereotypes associated with the hard-boiled genre as well as the conventions of the genre, which serves to provoke a renewed perception of the novel. In addition, Day uniquely personifies a city to embody the role of the femme fatale to cleverly challenge the audience to uncover the true nature behind a facade. Moreover, Day confronts societal values towards criminals by portraying the antagonist as a victim of his own upbringing.

Day subverts

The city of Sydney provokes connotations of beauty, glamour, and prestige, however, Day’s personification of Sydney as a femme fatale character exposes the corrupt and seedy underbelly that exists behind the enchanting illusion. Day establishes the personification of Sydney using the pronoun “she” which serves to reinforce the femme fatale characterisation. Additionally, Sydney’s feminised representation is corroborated in an extract from ‘The Urbanisation of Australia: Representations of Australia in Popular Culture’, where Sydney is characterised as, “a woman who is beautiful and corrupt. She is seductive, dangerous, a femme fatale.” Day further manifests the illusive front of the city through a description of its enchanting disguise, “Sydney Tower dazzling the city with fool’s gold at sunset”. The metaphor, along with the cliched expression of “fool’s gold”, reinforce the notion of the city’s deceptive appeal. Criminal figures, such as Harry Lavender, contribute to the city’s sordid nature through male corruption, as mentioned in the extract, “this is the Sydney that the villain, Harry Lavender, has created.” It is figures like Harry Lavender, that manipulate the city to benefit their own ambitions through the criminal underworld, “Pawns arranged in a pattern”. The metaphor

Society’s moral and ethical values are relentless towards criminals as society demands justice for crimes. However, Day provokes the audience to challenge these rigid ideals by presenting Harry Lavender as a product of his own unfortunate upbringing. Day introduces and develops the character of Harry Lavender through unique chapters in the novel which are extracts from his biography. It is through these extracts that the context of Harry’s past is revealed. Harry makes reference to how an upbringing of an individual shapes the person they become. This is accentuated through the metaphor, “They will want to know the beginnings, the child that makes the man,” which alludes to his own childhood acting as a catalyst to his life of crime. Harry’s criminality originates from a childhood of neglect and oppression. This is illustrated by the simile, “like a caged animal,” which emphasises his rejection from society due to his cultural background. The simile further reiterates Harry’s social exclusion due to his lack of familiarity with the land, supported by an extract from ‘The Urbanisation of Australia: Representations of Australia in Popular Culture’, “[Sydney] is alien.” As a result of his troubled youth, Harry evolves into an amoral individual, highlighted in his