Harry Lavender Speech

652 Words3 Pages
English half yearly speech: All texts, regardless of form or composer, inherently presents different voices in their composition which are created by expression of their mood and emotions towards a specific situation. The texts that will be used to effectively convey this concept are “ The life and crimes of Harry Lavender” by Marele Day and Charlie Chaplin’s speech in the movie “The Great Dictator”. These two texts will be used to demonstrate textual conventions and language with different voices and how these two texts uses voices to critique the importance of distinctive voices in defining and developing characters. In “The Life and crimes of Harry Lavender” the composer uses the voice of Claudia Valentine in the detective genre to convey the idea of gender roles can affect the detective genre. Marele Day deliberately places Claudia within the detective genre to subvert the masculine dominated stereotyped role of the male protagonist to an empowered female detective, reflected in her personality shown when she says “I was changing cars more often then I change underwear”. Furthermore, this is reflected through Claudia’s cynicism, shown through the juxtaposition in “Jack Daniels: Empty. And an ashtray: Full” as Jack Daniels is a very strong whiskey which mostly man drinks. Additionally through the use of slang ‘ There was a good looking blonde’ demonstrates the characters ambiguous nature as Day plays with the gender stereotype in the opening scene, making the reader assume the protagonist is a male. Thus molding and defining the distinctive voice of Claudia in the detective genre. At the start of the novel it quoted “I woke up feeling like death. Ironically appropriate, given what the day held in store” is a simile and paradox which then creates suspense. As the story progresses, Claudia’s distinctive voice is created by her perspective and emotions.
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