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.
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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.
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
The characters in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones are faced with the difficult task of overcoming the loss of Susie, their daughter and sister. Jack, Abigail, Buckley, and Lindsey each deal with the loss differently. However, it is Susie who has the most difficulty accepting the loss of her own life. Several psychologists separate the grieving process into two main categories: intuitive and instrumental grievers. Intuitive grievers communicate their emotional distress and “experience, express, and adapt to grief on a very affective level” (Doka, par. 27). Instrumental grievers focus their attention towards an activity, whether it is into work or into a hobby, usually relating to the loss (Doka par. 28). Although each character deals with their grief differently, there is one common denominator: the reaction of one affects all.
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.
The Lovely Bones tells the story of Susie Salmon, a 14 year old who was murdered. After her death, Susie watches everyone she left behind from up in heaven. Susie struggled with being unable to help her family with their grief and being able to tell them who her killer was.
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The narrator, or sometimes narrators, plays a crucial role in telling the story that is presented on the pages of the novel. In Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Virgin Suicides, the young teenage boys in a small community experiences the loss of the Lisbons sisters’ – Therese, Mary, Bonnie, Lux, and Cecilia – and investigates (and becomes obsessed with) the sisters’ suicides. In Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine, the death of June Morrissey, a young Chippewa woman, causes the members of the Kashpaw and the Lamartine families to reflect on their past experiences. While each novel has similarities and differences in their styles of narration, each narrator has one main purpose: to make the readers feel connected and present in the events in which the
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She continues in this sequel to talk about the abuse she faced and the dysfunction that surrounded her life as a child and as a teen, and the ‘empty space’ in which she lived in as a result. She talks about the multiple personalities she was exhibiting, the rebellious “Willie” and the kind “Carol”; as well as hearing noises and her sensory problems. In this book, the author puts more emphasis on the “consciousness” and “awareness” and how important that was for her therapeutic process. She could not just be on “auto-pilot” and act normal; the road to recovery was filled with self-awareness and the need to process all the pieces of the puzzle—often with the guidance and assistance of her therapist. She had a need to analyze the abstract concept of emotions as well as feelings and thoughts. Connecting with others who go through what she did was also integral to her
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