The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold is the story of a young girl watching her family grieve her death from Heaven. Suzie Salmon tells the story of her brutal death and the journey her family takes to move through their grief. While they all felt the pain of their sudden loss, Suzie’s mother, Abagail; father, Jack; younger sister, Lindsay; and younger brother, Buckley all dealt with the trauma in different ways. Over the course of this paper, the various reactions and processes experienced by each family member will be examined while following the timeline that is described over the progression of the book.
To begin, Suzie’s mother, Abagail went through the mourning process and experienced her grief in a way that is consistent with that which
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First, they had always had communication issues. Abagail was referred to as slightly resentful of being a mother, even more so after Buckley was born. It is alluded to that Jack was unaware of her feelings about her position in life. Beyond prior communication issues, not a single member of the family truly communicated their needs or feelings until the end of the book. Any expression that was made seemed to be minimized or disregarded, especially between the parents. In addition to communication issues, each member struggled to find their new place in the family. Jack and Abagail had to get used to being parents of two children instead of three. Additionally, Jack eventually had to adjust to his new role as a single father and then back to a husband and father. Abagail’s family role eventually became that which I would call the “prodigal mother and wife” in that she simply left for years only to return and find the desire to re-join her family. As far as the children go, Lindsay had to move past her role as middle child and her self-perception as the sister of the dead girl and embrace her role as the older sister. She may have even played a minor role as caretaker and support for her brother and father. In contrast, Buckley remained the little brother and due to his age at the time of the tragedy, had no noticeable familial role adjustments. While each family member grieved very differently, they were eventually able to find their own peace and come back together as a whole, functional
“Well, Alice, my father said, if it had to happen to one of you, I’m glad it was you and not your sister” (57). Even though Alice was the victim of the horrid crime, she had to stabilize her own emotions, so that she could help her sister cope with this tragedy. Throughout Alice’s childhood, Jane struggled with alcoholism and panic attacks. “I wished my mother were normal, like other moms, smiling and caring, seemingly, only for her family” (37).
Death: the action or fact of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person or organism. It is scientific. Straight down to the facts. Something is born, it lives, and it dies. The cycle never stops. But what toll does death take on those around it? The literary world constantly attempts to answer this vital question. Characters from a wide realm of novels experience the loss of a loved one, and as they move on, grief affects their every step. In The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, the roles of Lindsey, Abigail, and Ruth all exhibit the effect of dealing with death over time; the result is a sizable amount of change which benefits a person’s spirit.
Throughout the novels we have read this semesters, one can makes observation that many of the characters from each novel have gone through fear whether it was due to racial strife or threat to life. We then see the characters go out and find their salvation or in some cases leave their homes before being faced with the consequences they have brought upon themselves.. Finally, most character are then faced with their fate in life where in most situation it is death or freedom. We see these variations first develop by author Richard Wright 's in his novel and movie Native Son. Each variations can been seen within different characters from both Cane and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. The variations are shape within
Photographs capture the essence of a moment because the truth shown in an image cannot be questioned. In her novel, The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold uses the language of rhetoric to liberate Abigail from the façade of being a mother and spouse in a picture taken by her daughter, Susie. On the morning of her eleventh birthday, Susie, awake before the rest of the family, discovers her unwrapped birthday present, an instamatic camera, and finds her mother alone in the backyard. The significance of this scene is that it starts the author’s challenge of the false utopia of suburbia in the novel, particularly, the role of women in it.
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.
Over the summer, after taking a break from reading a novel just for entertainment, I sat down to read How to Read Literature like a Professor and it was the exact novel to refresh and supplement my dusty analysis skills. After reading and applying Foster’s novel, How to Read Literature like a Professor, towards The Bonesetter’s Daughter I found a previously elusive and individualized insight towards literature. Although, The Bonesetter’s Daughter is full of cryptic messages and a theme that is universal, I was able to implement an individual perspective on comprehending the novel’s universal literary devices, and coming upon the unique inference that Precious Auntie is the main protagonist of the novel.
separated and far apart even when living in one house. Furthermore, Connie wishes that her mother had died and she wants her own death, so that all ended as soon as possible, because mother disparaging a girl all the time as if she was a fault in something. Connie believes that mother loves her eldest daughter more than
He learns what it means to be a friend, to have a friend, to be alienated and in pain. All of these integral pieces help Oskar find out who he really is: a little boy who is misunderstood because people cannot fathom his curiosity, his intelligence, and the love for his dad. Another novel related to Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. This is the story of a teenage girl, who, after being raped and murdered, watches from her personal Heaven as her family and friends struggle to move on with their lives while she comes to terms with her own death. These two books relate because both of the families lost someone who was very close to them. They are grieving and having a hard time facing the fact that their loved one is not coming back. The two authors beautifully executed the novels with their point-of-views, imagery, and tone, making the story hard to
One world up above where they can watch over the ones below. Susie in The Lovely Bones she has restricted use and effects on earth, because she is in heaven up above. Alice Sebold portrays these events through the view of Susie Salmon, Susie have the ability to know what everyone is thinking. Sebold shows that young love have many differences to those that are also in love, but mature. Susie the narrator, attitude toward the lover of young and old also is different. There is also a unique character in the novel, his name is George Harvey, and his view on love is extremely different.
First of all, ‘The Lovely Bones’ is about a girl named Susie Salmon and tells a story of how she died and how people get along together and live without her. She was a normal fourteen-year-old girl when she was murdered in the novel 's opening pages. She narrates the rest of her story from heaven, often returning to Earth to watch over her loved ones; mostly family, some friends and Mr. Harvey and the other people he kills. ‘Lovely Bones’ is represents Susie’s body the connection of heaven to earth, earth to heaven. This is main symbolism of this book as Susie. ‘She began to see things without her and the events that her death will influence her in heaven and her family and friends in earth.’ In this passage, the author talks about her life
Looking back on the death of Larissa’s son, Zebedee Breeze, Lorraine examines Larissa’s response to the passing of her child. Lorraine says, “I never saw her cry that day or any other. She never mentioned her sons.” (Senior 311). This statement from Lorraine shows how even though Larissa was devastated by the news of her son’s passing, she had to keep going. Women in Larissa’s position did not have the luxury of stopping everything to grieve. While someone in Lorraine’s position could take time to grieve and recover from the loss of a loved one, Larissa was expected to keep working despite the grief she felt. One of the saddest things about Zebedee’s passing, was that Larissa had to leave him and was not able to stay with her family because she had to take care of other families. Not only did Larissa have the strength to move on and keep working after her son’s passing, Larissa and other women like her also had no choice but to leave their families in order to find a way to support them. As a child, Lorraine did not understand the strength Larissa must have had to leave her family to take care of someone else’s
In the film Suzon, a college girl home from winter break, is reunited with her family. She is reunited with her mother Gaby, her little sister Catherine, and her wheel chaired bound grandmother Mamy. Everyone is talking, and singing until Augustine, the aunt of Suzon and her sister; comes down and complains about the family and the two female mai...
The genre is “fiction, a supernatural thriller, and a bildungsroman” (Key Facts, 1). The Lovely Bones is written in first person. The novel is said to be complex, a distant place, and then a time of grieving from a loss of an innocent child who was murdered (Guardian, 1). The view of Heaven presented in The Lovely Bones is where you do not have to worry about anything, you get what you want, and understand why you want it. In this novel, Suzie teaches her family what she had learned from her life. The climax of the novel is when Suzie is able to achieve her dream to grow up when Heaven allows her to inhabit Ruth’s body and then make love Ray (Key Facts, 1). One fact about the novel The Lovely Bones is that the beginning of the book is famous for its intense descriptions on Suzie Salmon’s rape that she had to endure. It has been said from many people that The Lovely Bones is the most successful novel since Gone with the Wind (Spring, 1). The Lovely Bones was on the best-seller lists for several months in 2002 (Alice,
“It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things” (Theodore Roosevelt). Everything that occurs in your life before death is inevitable. Whether it is the loss of innocence, a loved one, or a possession, there is nothing that can be done to change the past. Thus, it makes little sense to dwell negatively on those past events. This proves true in Alice Sebold’s novel The Lovely Bones, a novel based on a true story. The protagonist and narrator is Susie Salmon, a curious and loving fourteen year old girl. The novel starts with Susie retelling her dreadful? encounter that happened on December 6, 1973. With vivid and horrifying descriptions, she explains events leading up to her
In The Lovely Bones, Mr./Mrs. Salmon are another instance where relationships fail and reform. They handle their daughters’ death differently, such that it separates them from each other. Len Fenerman, Mrs. Salmon’s lover can’t deny the attraction he feels for her. “ He was inside the capsule of his car, thinking of my mother, of how wrong it all was and then of how he could not say no to her for reasons he couldn’t hold on to long enough to analyze or disclaim” (Sebold 220).