The Lovely Bones Essay

'The Lovely Bones' by Alice Sebold
“My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.”
These opening lines in Susie Salmon's engaging voice are the start of the novel, "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold.
Susie speaks to us from her own personal heaven as she watches the people who touched her in life and death. Susie witnesses the growth within her family and a small circle of friends. Her story is not one about death, but about loss and confirming life in its face, about moving on not only for those she left behind but for herself.
As the story progresses the readers witness the family and friends of Susie investigating, pondering, and even moving on from what had happened to her. Susie, however, is caught between heaven and earth and the only way to ascend into heaven is to move on and leave her family and friends

As well as gaining sentimental feedback from readers, Sebold also makes the characters come to life.
The first character introduced in the story is Susie Salmon, a fourteen year old girl who was raped and murdered. Sebold's emotion is displayed in her writing as a result of a previous, personal incident. While Sebold was a freshman at Syracuse University, she was beaten, raped, and urinated on by her attacker whom was never identified. Readers can tell that Sebold's emotions spill out on the pages as they interpret the novel. In turn, readers feel empathy and experience a vast array of emotions as the characters grow throughout the book.
There are many different characters in the novel with whom readers can relate: Mr. Salmon, the hardworking dad who truly shows us how much a father can "love his child", Lindsey Salmon, the "Brainiac" of the family, who cannot help but wander what went on in Susie's life, and Buckley Salmon, the youngest child, who doesn't understand what has happened to