The Lovely Bones Essay

735 Words2 Pages

The Lovely bones written by Alice sebold is narrated by Susie Salmon, a fourteen year old girl who was raped and murdered by her neighbor Mr. Harvey on December 6, 1973. After Susie’s death, the family members first go into denials and refused to acknowledge the truth. Lindsey internally secludes herself from others and has difficulty finding her own image in Susie’s shadow; Jack’s attempt to find Susie’s murderer is his way of coping with his emotions after the loss of his daughter and avoid the reality; and Abigail turns her world into a protective bubble and refusing to believe that Susie is permanently absent from her life. After the denial stage comes anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. After Susie’s death, Lindsey internally secludes herself from the society and has difficulty finding her own image in Susie’s shadow. When Principal Caden offers to help Lindsey with her loss, Lindsey replies, “I wasn’t aware I had lost anything (Sebold 31)”. …show more content…

When the police showed Jack the Othello book, Jack replied, “But it could be anyone’s or she might have dropped it on her way (Sebold 25)”. However, when the police showed Jack the elbow part and the blood, Jack is forced to believe the fact that Susie is dead and he quickly enters the anger stage. He begins to smash the bottled ships that he made with Susie, destroying the memories of them. “Then there was the one that had burst into flames in the week before my death. He smashed that one first (Sebold 46)”. Later, he enters the bargaining stage by desperately pleading the police to find more evidence to get the leading suspect, Mr. Harvey arrested. “My father told him about the tent, about how Mr, Harvey had told him to go home, about saying my name (Sebold 62)”. He finally enters the acceptance state in the end when he said, “She’s never coming home (Sebold 289)”. He is able to get over his grief and is pay more attention to his other

Open Document