George Bland

Character Analysis

George Bland is the sixteen-year-old Salander has an affair with in Grenada. The age of consent in Sweden is fifteen, but in Grenada it's eighteen. While Salander might not know this, her creator almost certainly did. Larsson seems to be testing us here, showing that regardless of laws, which differ from place to place, each case has to be judged on its own, by the reader. Salander doesn't see a problem with her relationship with George, and it seems to be consensual. We don't know how the Grenada authorities would react. Would reactions be the same or different if the genders were reversed, but the personalities the same? What do you think about this? Is Salander wrong for sleeping with George? Why, or why not?