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Themes

Feminist Issues: The novel's main character, V.I. Warshawski, is an unabashed feminist. We learn at one point that she was very active in the seventies, fighting for women's rights. She serves on the board of directors for a not-for-profited battered women's shelter, Arcadia House. She takes at face value the claim that Tamar Hawkings, the homeless woman in the tunnels, is indeed running from an abusive husband. She even watched her friend Lotty teach students how to perform abortions during her undergraduate years. [15]

Clearly, Paretsky wants the reader to agree with these views; those who do not are cast as bad guys (and deservedly so, as casting a wife-beater in a hero role would be more than a little repugnant). For instance, Fabian Messenger, whom Warshawski observes abusing his wife and daughter, hires a Freudian psychologist to "analyze" his daughter in the hospital. When he is proven incorrect (and a liar) by Vic, it is not only a triumph for an intrepid private investigator, but a triumph for feminism as a whole.

 

Racial Issues: Race plays an important role, if not in the plot of Tunnel Vision, then in the development of the characters that inhabit its pages. First, V.I. Warshawski's boyfriend, Conrad, is an African-American. This shows the reader that Vic is open-minded about issues such as race. While many women would still balk at dating outside their race, Vic does not care about such things.

Additionally, the "bad guys" are portrayed as insensitive towards racial issues. At the cocktail party held at the Messenger house, "the only black men in the room" are the two bartenders who serve drinks to the partygoers. [16] Paretsky shows us that the rich, patrician, right-wing partygoers see African-Americans as servants instead of equals. This is in stark contrast to the attitude displayed by Vic. Thus, the reader has another reason to cheer when V.I. outsmarts these men.

 

Chicago Politics: There are two aspects to this theme. First, the novel plays on the bureaucracy and corruption for which the Chicago Machine is notorious. Also, it expresses a liberal (by which I mean "leftist" or big-D "Democratic") attitude for which Chicago is also well known.

We see the former aspect in the character of Cyrus Lavalle. He works at City Hall, so he is able to get inside information and relay it to Vic--for a price. This brings to mind images of a corrupt political body that will give away any sort of information if the price is right. And, rightfully or wrongfully, that is the image many people have of Chicago.

The reader also soon realizes that the "bad guys" all have conservative attitudes. For instance, Alec Gantner, a co-conspirator in the money-laundering plot at the center of the novel, is the son of a Republican senator. Donald Blakely, another co-conspirator, says the owners of Vic's building would be "within their rights" to arrest the homeless woman Tamar Hawkings for trespassing.[17] Because Paretsky portrays those two as cold-hearted caricatures of conservatism, the reader cheers when V.I. foils their schemes. She scores one not only for herself, but for Chicago's downtrodden and destitute.