The Lovely Hat Analysis

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Recommended: exploring the theme of grief

“The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold, is a novel about familial love and new relationships forming in the wake of tragedy. A fourteen year old girl, named Susie Salmon, was sexually assaulted and murdered by one of her of her neighbors. The Salmon family were living a quite ordinary life until Susie’s brutal death. Susie’s family had a lot of trouble coping with the fact that a little girl they loved was dead. As Susie watches her family fall apart from heaven, she tries her hardest to send her family and friends clues of who murdered her. Soon, her family learns to overcome their grief tragedies and come together once again to freshly start over, still with Susie watching over them. Many significant symbols take part in this book, Susie’s jingly hat being one of them. Susie’s hat is a homemade symbol, showing the love and care her mother has for her. This hat also symbolizes Susie losing her breath and voice when her neighbor, Mr. Harvey, gags her with the same hat. After Susie is murdered, Len Fenerman, the detective to Susie’s case, takes the found hat to her parents, which shows that great danger has reached Susie. Susie’s charm bracelet is another symbolizing object in the novel. Her charm bracelet was given to her by her parents and they …show more content…

After such a grief experience, unity is shown in many places in the book. Because of Susie’s death, the Salmon family drifted farther and farther apart from each other, but as they overcame their loss, they united as one loving family, once again. Ruth and Ray show unity as well. Susie’s death is what unites them in the first place, but when Susie travels into Ruth’s body and does what she has to do, Ruth and Ray felt worry free and sincerely united to one another. Along with many other characters uniting here and there, this novel shows how to unite with strangers or even with people we already

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