Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Literary theory of the lovely bones
Literary theory of the lovely bones
Literary theory of the lovely bones
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Literary theory of the lovely bones
'The Lovely Bones' by Alice Sebold “My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.” These opening lines in Susie Salmon's engaging voice are the start of the novel, "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold. Susie speaks to us from her own personal heaven as she watches the people who touched her in life and death. Susie witnesses the growth within her family and a small circle of friends. Her story is not one about death, but about loss and confirming life in its face, about moving on not only for those she left behind but for herself. As the story progresses the readers witness the family and friends of Susie investigating, pondering, and even moving on from what had happened to her. Susie, however, is caught between heaven and earth and the only way to ascend into heaven is to move on and leave her family and friends …show more content…
As well as gaining sentimental feedback from readers, Sebold also makes the characters come to life. The first character introduced in the story is Susie Salmon, a fourteen year old girl who was raped and murdered. Sebold's emotion is displayed in her writing as a result of a previous, personal incident. While Sebold was a freshman at Syracuse University, she was beaten, raped, and urinated on by her attacker whom was never identified. Readers can tell that Sebold's emotions spill out on the pages as they interpret the novel. In turn, readers feel empathy and experience a vast array of emotions as the characters grow throughout the book. There are many different characters in the novel with whom readers can relate: Mr. Salmon, the hardworking dad who truly shows us how much a father can "love his child", Lindsey Salmon, the "Brainiac" of the family, who cannot help but wander what went on in Susie's life, and Buckley Salmon, the youngest child, who doesn't understand what has happened to
“The Lovely Bones” is a book written by Alice Sebold. It was published in 2002, and it’s about Susie Salmon, a girl that was murdered and no watches her family and murderer from her own heaven. She tries to balance her feeling and watch out for her family since her murderer is still free and with nobody knowing how dangerous he is. In 2009, a movie adapted from the book came out as well.
The Lovely Bones’s combination of themes work together to expose the raw emotion of a family in pain over the death of a precious loved one. The first and most significant theme to be presented in the novel is that of mortality. Throughout the novel, as Susie looks back over her violent death and its effects on her family, she makes a point that when someone dies, that person's desires and needs pass over with them into the afterlife (Thomas). For example, from watching her sister and Ruth Connor, she realizes that the concept of love is something she still wishes she could have, even in heaven. Her sister Lindsey meets a boy by the name of Samuel, and Ruth grows closer to Susie's first real crush, Ray Singh. These observations by Susie almost
Makeup is used by woman to enhance their appearance to others. Susie as the omnipresent narrator, questions the meaning behind this. “That morning there were no lipstick marks because there was no lipstick until she put it on for...who? My father? Us?” (43). When Susie brings up the idea of lipstick and makeup, the audience is forced the question its role. The notion of an illusive mask that hides an individuals true identity is metaphorically similar to that of which was previously discussed, Abigail’s mystery. Now that the makeup is off her face, it compliments the idea that her mother is a stranger; however, it also reviews the reason women use makeup. By posing the question, for “who?”, the audience is left to wonder whether it is for her family, or just culture fixing the women of suburbia to the role of being pretty wives, instead of having individual personalities. Sebold then makes Susie, when narrating about her father’s description of Abigail’s eyes, a product of the same society that confines women to a lifestyle. “‘Ocean Eyes’ my father called her...now I understood the name. I had thought it was because they were blue, but now I saw it was because they were bottomless in a way that I found frightening” (43). Again, the author, by utilizing the metaphor of “ocean eyes” brings forward the idea that Abigail is more than just a mother and wife. The endless depth of
Jack Salmon, Susie’s father, is most vocal about his sorrow for losing his daughter. However, his initial reaction was much different. Upon hearing that Susie’s ski hat had been found, he immediately retreats upstairs because “he [is] too devastated to reach out to [Abigail] sitting on the carpet…he could not let [her] see him” (Sebold 32). Jack retreats initially because he did not know what to do or say to console his family and he did not want them to see him upset. This first reaction, although it is small, is the first indicator of the marital problems to come. After recovering from the initial shock, Jack decides that he must bring justice for his daughter’s sake and allows this goal to completely engulf his life. He is both an intuitive and instrumental griever, experiencing outbursts of uncontrolled emotions then channeling that emotion into capturing the killer. He focuses his efforts in such an e...
The character I choose from the novel Lovely Bones is Mr. Harvey. His role in this novel was that he is a serial Killer. What is a serial killer? A serial killer is someone that killed more than three people over a period more than a month. Mr. Harvey killed Susie the main character in this novel. He rapped her, and cut her body up, and packaged it, and drove 8 miles and dumped it in a sinkhole.. Mr. Harvey doesn't really have a family. His dad abandons his mom after the argument that they next to the car in the streets over truth and consequences in Mexico. His mom was desperate that she taught him how to steal and shoplift. We know that his father was an abusive person. He also taught him about buildings. We know that Mr. Harvey’s life and Susie’s are the not exactly the same. In fact we know its the total opposite. Mr. Harvey never know what love is, since his father was abusive and his mother was a thief. Susie always had a loving family. Her dad and mom loved her and was overly protective.
Susie Salmon, a new addition to heaven, at first despises the idea that she is in fact dead. With the love that grows for her ever-aging family and earth-friends, along with the new-found love for her recently made friends in heaven, she is able to overcome this anger and regret to move on into the next heaven. Susie explains A simple game they oftentimes played in heaven, which helped to ease her emotions. “‘How to Commit the Perfect Murder’ was an old game in heaven. I always chose the icicle: the weapon melts away.” (Sebold 83). The icicle as susie’s murder weapon of choice in the classic heaven game is a dead giveaway of george harvey’s eventual fate. This foreshadowing also helps us feel a sense of revenge as Harvey finally gets what he deserves. Susie’s choice of this weapon helps us know that though he was never caught and jailed as he should have been, what goes around comes around, and the icicle was no match for Harvey. Susie finally got her revenge. The love Susie had for all the innocent girls harvey may have chosen as his next victims was so strong that she was able to convince the icicle to fall and kill the one who had killed her. this revenge was out of the love she had for mankind, and this love conquered the boundaries of death into life, and life into death....
Her father eventually figures out that Mr. Harvey killed her, he lets the police know but they have no evidence against him. When Susie’s soul was leaving Earth she touched a girl named Ruth. Ruth along with Susie’s crush, Ray becomes obsessed with Susie’s murder. First, Lindsey breaks into Mr. Harvey’s house knowing he is the killer to try and find evidence against him. She finds out that he has raped and killed many other girls, she escapes with the evidence.
. This story embodies how the author saw her experiences that she had lived through.
At age fourteen, there is very much more life to live and when Susie was exiled from her home, friends, and family, she was alienated. When Susie’s life was taken away from her by George Harvey, Susie was not able to say her goodbyes. Her death was so sudden that Susie’s family was not able to find out she was really dead until the police officers found Susie’s bell hat. That not being enough evidence to find the man
Lindsey, in an attempt to deny pity, refuses to acknowledge the family’s loss, “‘What exactly is my loss?’” (Sebold). Susie’s death causes Lindsey to turn into a cold and bitter child. She focuses on hiding her pain, rather than evolving as a person. This flawed mourning process causes the members of the family to suffer mentally and revert into
The narrator of the book is a girl, named Scout, who has an influential impact on the readers to understand the lessons told through a young child’s point of view such as her
...in her character during her stay at the hospital. Susie realizes that her patient is afraid of dying and thus she comforts her as she weeps and makes her feel loved.
Not long after, Susie’s parents; Abigail and Jack Salmon get a call from Len Fenerman, the detective in charge of Susie’s case. He explains to them that they had found one of Susie’s elbow bones. The next morning Jack tells Susie’s younger 13 year old sister, Lindsey, what was found. Lindsey’s reaction was to just throw up. Later that day, even though the crime scene had practically been ruined, the police and detectives go out and start digging up the cornfield. Susie’s school books, class notes, and other personal belongings were found. Including a love letter from the first, and only boy she ever loved, Ray Signh. Ray had slipped the note into her books the day before she died, but Susie never got the chance to read it. The rumors at school, of course, were flying around like crazy. Continuing watching from heaven, Susie becomes more and more frustrated as her murderer, Mr. Harvey, goes on with his life like nothing had ever happened. Several days later, Len Fenerman tells that Salmon family that Susie is more tha...
According to Edson, a person could identify with the character when they find the character sympathetic. There are a few personality traits and story circumstances that creates Susie sympathetic for the audience. Susie is a brave character and it is shown in the earlier part of the film, when she rushed her brother to the emergency room and another part of the film that shows her bravery is when she stepped into the underground room with Mr. Harvey. The unfair injury that Susie gone through in the movie is being compelled by Mr.Harvey to look at the ‘clubhouse’ he built, but it was actually a trap.