When two teenage girls die, many lives are affected as time passes. This is the case with Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones’ protagonist, Susie salmon and Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why’s protagonist, Hannah Baker. Both of them die at a young age, and the lives of the people they were close to change forever. The two novels can be seen and compared through the psychoanalytic lens by looking at the behaviours of people that were close to Susie and Hannah after the deaths of the two girls. Psychoanalytic theorists have expanded on Sigmund Freud’s work and believe that human behavior is deterministic, that people’s behaviours are based on their past experiences (Rubin). Both of these novels have a unique style of writing where both of the girls, though dead, are the ones that speak for most of the novel. Hannah Baker’s and Susie Salmon’s lives, before and after death can be seen through the psychoanalytic lens where both start to accept their fate as time passes. Thirteen Reasons Why’s Clay Jenson and The Lovely Bones’ Jack Salmon can both be seen through the psychoanalytic lens in the way they coped with the loses of Hannah Baker’s and Susie Salmon’s lives as years, or tapes pass. Ray Singh and Justin Foley were both the first kiss of Susie Salmon and Hannah Baker, respectively. How they reacted and dealt with their death can be compared through the psychoanalytic lens.
When Susie Salmon passed, she was terrified in the afterlife. She felt angry, that life is very unfair, and most of all she missed everyone she loved. Susie was still young and was not ready to let go of her family. “I hadn't yet let myself miss my mother and father, my sister and brother. That way of missing would mean that I had accepted that I would never be with...
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...’s father, Jack can be looked at and compared through the psychoanalytic lens in the way they both behaved at the deaths of Hannah and Susie. The first kisses of Susie Salmon and Hannah Baker, Ray Singh and Justin Foley can also be compared in the way they both acted and reacted to the deaths of the girls that they shared an intimate moment with. Life in unfair, and the two poor girls who die at a young age in the two novels learned that the hardest way possible.
Works Cited
Asher, Jay. Thirteen Reasons Why. New York: Razorbill, 2007. Print.
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Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2002. Print.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Mr. Harvey in The Lovely Bones"Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc.,11 Dec. 2008. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.
Through the story the protagonist a young teenage boy who loses his mother after her suicide herself is then followed by the death of his father in a car crash. At such a young age this boy describes the pain he goes through by the way he responds with regard to how others treat him. He demonstrates how grief can alter a person
People one can never really tell how person is feeling or what their situation is behind closed doors or behind the façade of the life they lead. Two masterly crafted literary works present readers with characters that have two similar but very different stories that end in the same result. In Herman Melville’s story “Bartleby the Scrivener” readers are presented with Bartleby, an interesting and minimally deep character. In comparison to Gail Godwin’s work, “A Sorrowful Woman” we are presented with a nameless woman with a similar physiological state as Bartleby whom expresses her feelings of dissatisfaction of her life. Here, a deeper examination of these characters their situations and their ultimate fate will be pursued and delved into for a deeper understanding of the choice death for these characters.
In addition, Jack showed his inability to let go of Susie by keeping her physical belongings with him. From heaven, Susie is watching all of this happen, noting that “I knew then he would never give me up. He would never count me as one of the dead. I was his daughter, and he was my dad, and he had loved me as much as he could. I had to let him go” (...). The final sentence is very significant. It is the time when Susie recognizes the need for her to let go if she truly wishes to end her family’s suffering. As Susie is able to forget the past, so does Jack. He soon realizes that Susie lives in his past, memories, and not in objects. Specifically, it is not until Jack survives his heart attack that he fully accepts that his daughter has left. “Last night it had been [Susie’s] father who had finally said it, ‘[Susie’s]never coming home.’ A clear and easy piece of truth that everyone who had ever known me had accepted” (289). Upon realizing this truth, Jack is able to continue with his life, job, and most importantly, to refocus his attention to his two other
Throughout the novel, crucial family members and friends of the girl that died are meticulously reshaped by her absence. Lindsey, the sister, outgrows her timidity and develops a brave, fearless demeanor, while at the same time she glows with independence. Abigail, the mother, frees herself from the barbed wire that protected her loved ones yet caused her great pain, as well as learns that withdrawing oneself from their role in society may be the most favorable choice. Ruth, the remote friend from school, determines her career that will last a lifetime. and escapes from the dark place that she was drowning in before. Thus, next time one is overcome with grief, they must remember that constructive change is guaranteed to
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...
In many cases, the raw emotions felt by the characters as a result of Susie’s death help better their relationships. To begin with, Jack Salmon’s relationship with his youngest son Buckley is enhanced because of the cruel reminder of mortality that Susie’s death emphasizes. When Buckley attempts to comfort his heartbroken father, Jack clings to Buckley and says “‘you are so special to me, little man,’…Buckley drew back and stared at [his] father’s creased face, the fine bright spots of tears at the corners of his eyes” (Sebold 47). By expressing his affection for Buckley, Jack acknowledges the fact that Buckley is alive for him to cherish – something that he cannot possibly do with his deceased daughter. With his emotions array, Jack uses Buckley to steady himself and remind himself that he has two surviving children, and the depth of their relationship grows with their physical and emotional connection. Secondly, the impact of Susie’s death on her younger sister Lindsey brings her and Samuel, a boy she first met while in middle school, together with a tightknit bond. In reflecting on their relationship on the day of their college graduation, Susie notes that Samuel “had pressed himself into her need, and the cement between the two of them had begun to set immediately. They had gone to Temple together, side by side. He had hated it and she had pushed him through” (234). When Lindsey was in an emotional state as a result of her si...
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In “Whoever We Are, Loss Finds us and Defines Us”, by Anna Quindlen, she brings forth the discussion grief's grip on the lives of the living. Wounds of death can heal with the passing of time, but in this instance, the hurt lives on. Published in New York, New York on June 5, 1994, this is one of many Quindlen published in the New York Times, centered on death's aftermath. This article, written in response to the death of Quindlen’s sister-in-law, and is focused on an audience who has, currently is, or will experience death. Quindlen-a columnist for the New York Times and Newsweek, Pulitzer Prize winner and author-has written six bestselling novels (Every Last One, Rise and Shine, Object Lessons, One True Thing, and Black and Blue) and has been published in the New York Times and Newsweek.
Through an intimate maternal bond, Michaels mother experiences the consequences of Michaels decisions, weakening her to a debilitating state of grief. “Once he belonged to me”; “He was ours,” the repetition of these inclusive statements indicates her fulfilment from protecting her son and inability to find value in life without him. Through the cyclical narrative structure, it is evident that the loss and grief felt by the mother is continual and indeterminable. Dawson reveals death can bring out weakness and anger in self and with others. The use of words with negative connotations towards the end of the story, “Lonely,” “cold,” “dead,” enforce the mother’s grief and regressing nature. Thus, people who find contentment through others, cannot find fulfilment without the presence of that individual.
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