Fire (Metaphor)
The title of this book is a main metaphor, which is concerned with the main heroine Lisbeth Salander. Lisbeth, who is playing with fire, plays with danger, fire is a danger that follows the girl. Lisbeth plays with her life and destinies of many people but she cannot predict whether she can survive or die. She even does not know when this game will be finished, life is very unpredictable. This “game with fire” can bring not only physical pain, but also a moral fall. Thus, fire is metaphorical representation of all those difficulties and dangerous situations she gets engaged in.
Good hacker (Simile)
Mikael Blomkvist considers himself virtually computer illiterate, but Salander handles computers “as if she has made a pact with the Devil.” He is delighted with her giftedness and reckons her very talented. It means that Lisbeth is too good at computers and she is a great hacker.
Weariness (Simile)
By the time Lisbeth has landed at Gatwick in London, she has missed her connecting flight to Sweden and she has had to wait overnight before she can be rebooked. Salander feels like "a bag of bananas that has been left too long in the sun." The author means that this expectation makes her very tired and she is very irritated.
