Lovely Bones Research Paper

One book I have read recently was Lovely Bones written by Alice Sebold which revolves around the murder of 14 year old Susie Salmon. On December 6th 1973 Susie was walking home from school, going her usual route home through the cornfields when she was brutally raped and murdered by her neighbour George Harvey. The novel is narrated by Susie who watches from heaven as her family attempts to move on, and her friends try and prove the guilt of Harvey.

One theme I found to be effective in drawing me in when reading this novel was isolation. Throughout the book many of the characters isolated themselves from the rest of society after Susie’s death. Susie was isolated because she was trapped in her own heaven as she watched her family and friends,

her own choice as she could’ve moved on to be with her grandfather.

I think Alice Sebold emphasised Susie’s loneliness because it is something that many people can relate to in the fact that even though someone might seemingly be in a perfect world (heaven), they can still be extremely lonely. One quote which shows Susie’s loneliness is “The penguin is alone in there, I thought, and worried for him. When I told my father this, he said, don’t worry, Susie; he has a good life. He’s just trapped in a perfect world.” There is emphasis placed on the word “trapped” which foreshadows the isolation that Susie would feel as the novel progresses. This gives us a slight insight into the book and helped my understanding of the Lovely Bones because it was as if we were Susie’s confidants, willing on the other characters who came close to figuring out who killed Susie.. Another character who experiences isolation is George Harvey. George Harvey had a traumatic period during his childhood where he stole items off roadside victims which led to him feeling isolated at the time and also at the time in the book where he murders Susie.

His tough childhood I think led to him showing little remorse when murdering and raping Susie, just as he showed little remorse when robbing people. This is supported by the quote “ horror on Earth is real and it happens every single day. It is like a flower or like the sun; it can’t be contained,” which shows how ever since George Harvey’s isolation during his childhood full of crime, it has only led to more and more horrific actions, like killing Susie.

However I sometimes found various parts of the book difficult to understand and some parts of the plot progressed very slowly which annoyed me at times.

In particular it was sometimes hard to distinguish whether or not Susie was talking in past or present tense. An example of this was when Susie was telling us the happiness that her mother and father shared when they were together, but then it would turn back to the split between the two which confused me at times. This is supported by the quote “everything in her wanted to run-fly back to California, back to her quiet existence among strangers,” which shows that Susie’s mother was not happy in Norristown with her father. Alice Sebold used the switch between tenses to remind us that Susie was only 14 years old when she was killed, which was important because it reminded me of Susie’s young age, something I think could have been forgotten. I found the second part of the novel to progress especially slowly which did make me lose interest at times. I thought that some parts of the plot dragged on, in particular the last few chapters, which weren’t as gripping as the first part of the book. This could’ve maybe been because Susie was finally finding peace, and by Alice Sebold slowing down the ending of the book, that was her way of telling

us.

I think that the Lovely Bones is a good book despite some of the negatives that it had. It is an important book because it really made me think about life which was a main theme that the book discussed. The Lovely Bones brings attention to the issue of rape and sexual violence which is an issue in the world today and it could possibly prompt some people who have experienced violence to discuss it. I would recommend this book to anybody my age because I think it will teach people not to be so ignorant of the world around us and how sometimes the world is not a happy place.