The Snowman Character Analysis

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Harry Hole
In The Snowman, by Jo Nesbo, Harry Hole, a detective that takes his job unbelievably seriously not only for himself , but for others benefit, brings him into dangerous tasks he needs to solve. His job has become the basis of his life and he is very confident with the skills he has acquired. It is the thing that provides him with a purpose. Everyday on the job was to his full potential. If he let down others he was failing himself even more than anything else. Harry’s life is lonely and depressing, but also filled with up and down turns. His journey to find the snowman is challenging, but Harry lives for the drive it brings to him. He feels that his purpose is from what he does within his professional working life. The things that
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Harry’s image is important to him because his job is a priority. Harry was bored with his life before the murder and tried distracting himself with working out for a burn and tension. The Snowman plays mind tricks with Harry by setting up easy targets for Harry to find him, example Sylvia Ottermen’s head being put on top of the snowman. The “cat and mouse” game they play together brings Harry excitement and closer and closer to his final goal of catching the serial killer and becoming a hero. With the body being nowhere to be seen, it seems as if the Snowman wants to be caught by leaving Sylvia's head as the face of the snowman,after she went missing from her farm house. Also, another clue that had caught Harry’s attention was the serial killer leaving Jona’s moms scarf on the snowman as a way to laugh out loud when nobody else was laughing. “He turned slowly back to the snowman. Now he realised what it was that had made the snowman so familiar. It was wearing a scarf. A pink scarf. The scarf Jonas had given to his mother for Christmas” (40). This action really affected Jona’s and Harry, as it would for any child who had just lost their mother. To the snowman, It is all about who can have the last laugh. Once Harry notices the killer is toying with him he states, “Perhaps because he knows I’m the only policeman in Norway who has caught a serial killer, he sees me as a challenge” (202). The serial killer feeds off of Harry’s determination to find him, so Harry’s ethical journey becomes a thrill for the Snowman. The Snowman really forces Harry to think and raise his mastered skills to another level. “It wasn’t the long hours, Harry. You were obsessed. You are your job, and what drives you isn’t love or a sense of responsibility. It’s not even personal ambition. It’s anger” (33). Said by

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