Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold - Research Paper Example

No: Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is a literary work thatcomes under the genre of young adult literature. The work as a whole is quite inspiring as it makes the reader to see the world through the eyes of a fourteen year old girl who has died at the start of the novel. The girl, Susie is the narrator as well as protagonist of the work. Lovely Bones circulates around the character of the young girl, her family and her friends who try to expose the reality of her death. In fact, Susie did not die because of some natural death but she was killed by the antagonist of the work named as Mr. Harvey. Mr. Harvey raped the young girl after which, he killed her. The girl was unable to gain maturity in life as she was not allowed to lead her normal life. It is through the eyes of the young girl that we see the life of her family for eight years that they lead after her death. In this paper, the book Lovely Bones will be thoroughly discussed with youth adult perspective. The main character of the book is Susie who is the narrator of the story or we can say the soul of Susie as Susie is shown dead at the very start of the novel. Another major character is George Harvey, who can be said the villain of the story as he is a serial murderer and is responsible for raping and murdering Susie. Jack Salmon, father of Susie is another major character of the work as he is shattered too much at the sudden death of his daughter and he feels it his carelessness that he was unable to protect his daughter. Abigail Salmon, mother of Susie is also one of the main characters and after the death of her daughter, she is unable to cope up with her life and the situations she faces. Sister of Susie, Lindsey Salmon is another major character and she is also depressed at the death of her sister but her grief is silent and deep while Buckley Salmon, the brother of Susie after her death talks of her and sees her and can also be regarded as one of the main characters. Susie’s family members form a major part of the story as Susie is highly concerned about their life and passing days. She narrates everything happening with her family through her own perspective and lets the readers see their life as well that is badly affected because of the death of their daughter. Ray Singh who is very close to Susie is a major character as he could be the would be soul mate of Susie but Susie’s death has separated them from one another. Ruth Connors is also one of the important characters of the work as she is the young lady through which, Susie sees life on earth and it is Ruth Connors whose help was required when Susie entered her body to make love to Ray Singh. All other characters except the described ones that appeared in the novel were also important but their part was somewhat restricted while the described characters revolved around the storyline and were mainly involved in the narration of Susie, the protagonist. The book is told with the point of the view of Susie Salmon who was journeying from youth to adulthood but her journey was hindered by George Harvey who not only raped her but also murdered her cruelly. Susie not only shows interest in exposing George Harvey but also wants to save other women and girls that can become a victim of the gruesome murderer. We can see all the characters and their doings with the eyes of Susie as she is the narrator and informer. The readers are seeing the story through the eyes of a fourteen year old girl who is not willing to let go earth as she wanted to live more and gain maturity like others but he right was snatched from her. While narrating the incidents, the condition and suffering of the family, exposition of the murder, seeing the world through Ruth’s eyes, Susie informs that she was not in charge of anything. She just reveals what she sees. While informing about her bondage with Ruth, she says, “I loved Ruth on those mornings . . . we were born to keep each other company. Odd girls who had found each other in the strangest way - in the shiver she had felt when I passed.” (p. 79) Susie was a victim but wanted to save other victims from George Harvey. The protagonist is a good character as she wants to safeguard others. In her whole story, nowhere one gets an idea that Susie was a bad character in any way. All the major characters love her and feel her absence such as Ray Singh, Jack Salmon, Abigail Salmon, Lindsey Salmon, Buckley Salmon and others. Her family takes eight years to accept that she is not going to come back to them, which shows that attachment the family feels with the girl. Susie is a heroic character as like other young adult heroes, she travels a journey of life, however, her journey is small and being alive, she is unable to gain maturity. Susie wanted to live and shows agony to leave earth. Susie feels that for her the earth was shortened and she was restricted to live and prosper as she says, “At fourteen, my sister sailed away from me into a place I’d never been. In the walls of my sex there was horror and blood, in the walls of hers there were windows.” (p. 125) She compares herself to her sister and The novel Lovely Bones has many themes that can be noticed while reading the novel. Themes such as theme of grief, theme of love, theme of acceptance, theme of suffering and victimization and theme of feminism are some of the prominent themes of the work. These themes can be discussed under young adult literature. The characters of Susie, Ray Singh, Ruth Connors and Lindsey Salmon represent the young adult and the story circulates around these characters and witnesses their growth with the passage of time. All the stated characters go through the feeling of grief, love, acceptance and suffering while Susie is victimized along with passing through other situations. Theme of grief can be noticed with the start of the story where Susie narrates that she has been murdered ruthlessly at the age of fourteen after being raped. Susie explains about her own grief along with her family. As a representative of a young adult group, she narrates about the loss she faced by being dead as she wanted to live like other characters of the play. She goes through grief of loss of her life. Her sister Lindsey Salmon shares the loss of Susie with her parents. She is also grieved as she in unable to share her experiences with her sister and also she feels the pain that her sister suffers by being murdered cruelly. Ruth Connors also shows her grief as she is nearly a reclusive character and her classmates are not her friends. She becomes a partner of Susie and keeps the aim of saving any innocent girls and women who had a chance of being raped. Ruth does not pass a normal life because she shares grief with Susie. Ray Singh is also becomes depressed after knowing that Susie has been murdered and tries to find the reason of her death and the guilty as he was in love with the girl. Ray Singh being an Indian boy was also an outcast and unpopular figure in the class but being associated to Susie, he feels her loss to a great extent. The grief faced by the teenagers inform about their feelings and perceptions regarding life and death. The characters grow by tackling the grief of their lives. The young adult characters of the novel through their lives in the work show the importance of love in their lives. Theme of love is quite prominent as Susie is in love with Ray Singh and is unable to complete her desire while being alive but after her death by entering the body of Ruth Connors, she makes love with Ray Singh. Both the characters of Ray Singh and Susie show that love forms a major part of their lives and without love, their happy survival is not possible. Lindsey Salmon also falls in love with Samuel Heckler who becomes a support for the family after Susie’s death. He shows a lot of care and concern towards Lindsey and proposes her after seven years of Susie’s death. Again the theme of love shown by the love of Lindsey Salmon and Samuel Heckler is representative of the fact that love heals many wounds. Theme of acceptance and suffering are also connected with the themes of love and grief. The characters of the novel, Susie, her whole family including her sister and brother show acceptance of the fact that Susie will not come back after eight years. Susie tell about her father saying, “Last night it had been my father who had finally said it, ‘She’s never coming home.’ A clear and easy piece of truth that everyone who had ever known me had accepted. But he needed to say it, and she needed to hear him say it.” (p. 289) After a long suffering period in which, the family goes through the pain of loss of their beloved one, at last, they accept the fact that she was not going to come back. Susie also accepts that her place is in Heaven and not on earth as she is no more a part of earth as she says, “And I began to see things in a way that let me hold the world without me in it. The events that my death wrought were merely the bones of a body that would become whole at some unpredictable time in the future.” (p. 320) She accepts the fact that the world can exist without her and in the future, people related to her will have their own lives without any thought about her. Ray Singh also comes to accept that Susie will remain in Heaven and cannot come back. Suffering is also noticeable as it is attached to the theme of grief. Susie suffers as she loses her life, her existence, her coming maturity, her family, her love and everything that life offers. Her family also suffers her loss. The family is aware of the loss but keeps a mantra to sooth them and keep their sanity. They believe that Susie will come back and keep on telling themselves, “Nothing is ever certain.” (p.21) Susie becomes a victim and the theme of victimization of young girls and women is predominant in the novel. Feminists also show a concern towards victimization of innocent girls and women. The adolescence of girls is shattered and ruined by raping them. The murderer George Harvey makes teenage girls his victims, rapes them ruthlessly and finally murders them by thinking that he has made them free from their troubles. Young women and girls being oppressed become a victim of male dominant society such as Susie in which, males think that they are the decision makers of the futures of girls such as Mr. Harvey. There are number of symbols used in Lovely Bones and they are representative of certain things. Lovely bones are symbolic of Susie’s body which loses its existence after being murdered. Strings and cords are symbolic of the bondage between Susie and her family and the Inbetween is the place between Heaven and Earth in which, Susie and her family, all are trapped. Susie does not want to leave earth and cannot exist on earth while her family being alive cannot leave earth and even cannot move forward in their lives as they feel themselves captured by Susie’s memories. For Susie’s family, Susie’s room is symbolic of the belief that she is still alive. Snow globe is symbolic of Susie for Susie’s father and Susie has also fascination with the globe. The porch light is also symbolic as it is never turned down as the family believes that Susie will return sometime, however, one this light was switched off when Jack tries to trap Harvey but he is unable to do so. The porch light, Susie’s room and Inbetween are such symbolic representations that inform about the theme of grief, suffering and acceptance. Susie’s family is not ready to accept that she has gone forever but they accept with the passage of time. The structure of the novel is very simple. Susie narrates the story as flashback scenes. The whole story is extended over eight years of time in which, Susie’s family accept the change that is caused by the gap created because of Susie’s absence. The setting of the novel is Heaven and Earth, Susie is in Heaven but narrates about her bonding with earth and her family and friends at earth and her connection with earth and is unable to break the chains between Heaven and Earth. Susie, the narrator is shown dead at the very start of the novel and it is the dead telling the story of the living and life. The story has a proper start and an end. The story starts after eight years of Susie’s death, she then starts telling the story of eight years and her acceptance of being in Heaven. At reading initially, the book looks a plain tragedy of a criminal happening but when we read between the lines, we notice that the story is a tragedy along with acceptance of reality. We also notice that the book comes under the category of development of a character or characters. This novel should be taught at different educational levels but for young adults, this is quite informative and should be kept in course outline. However, the teachers responsible for teaching of the work should take care that the students at teenage may take some wrong impression about rape or sexual love. The students should be taught by the help of this novel as how they can gain awareness about a bad character such as George Harvey. This novel should be taught to teenagers and above. Also it is quite instructive so this cannot be said that it is purely entertaining so it can be taught at different instructional levels. The story is more about victimization of females but it is equally important for males as they also must be aware of the aftereffects and breakage of any incident as described in the story. Overall, the story of Susie, her rape and murder, her family’s suffering at the loss of their daughter and sister and finally their acceptance after eight years, everything is quite inspirational and informs as to what happens in reality when a family faces such an accident originally. It is through Susie that the feminists express their views that rapists and murderers of innocent girls and women should not be left unbarred. In addition, the story is rich with sensitive characters who suffer the loss of a friend, daughter, sister and beloved. The story is also rich in symbols such as the porch light, lovely bones, strings and cords, snow globe and many others. The story can be taught at the academic level at which, the students can understand the story in its true light. Works Cited Alber, Jan. "Impossible Storyworlds-- and What to Do with Them." Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies 1 (2009): 79-96. Project Muse. Web. 20 August 2010. "Alice Sebold." Contemporary Authors Online. Gale Literary Databases, 2010. Web. 20 August, 2010. Bliss, Ann. Studies, “'Share Moments, Share Life': The Domestic Photograph as a Symbol of Disruption and Trauma in The Lovely Bones." Womens' Studies 37.7 (2008): 1–30. ProQuest. Web. 20 August 2010. Bennett, Alice. "Unquiet Spirits: Death Writing in Contemporary Fiction." Textual Practice 23.3 (2009): 463-479. ProQuest. Web. 20 August 2010. Mandel, Naomi. "The Contours of Loss." Criticism 50.4 (2008): 663-673. Project Muse. Web. 20 August 2010. Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2002. Tidy, Samantha. "Vol. II: Heaven as it is on Earth: Representations of Literary Heavens in Contemporary Literature, with a Focus on Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones." Diss. RMIT University, 2009. ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Web. 20 August 2010. Viner, Katharine. "Above and Beyond." guardian.co.uk. 2002-08-24. 2010-08-19. . Read More