Lovely Bones Summary

This story was written, charmingly, in an unorthodox, yet loving manner. Rich with reality, the novel, led me into the atrocious, but true, glimpse into the world at the time. The phrases and paragraphs, struck me, illustrating the spliced lives of the protagonists, through complex, evocative, at times ethereal, imagery. The plot, progressive, and compelling, is profoundly sad, touching and uplifting. Flowing at a fast-pace, the plot, is a genuine page-turner, of which brought sadness in me when a disaster stroke, or warmth, when the characters embraced their connections to each other. The story covering the effects of hunger, war, prejudice, love, hatred, friendship, deception and growth, through its character development, cleverly stayed faithful to the plot, throughout. The characters, executed flawlessly on the author’s part, though not superficial, were tragic, and believable. The interwoven lives of these characters are complex, inspiring and perturbing. Being memorable, the characters had great prose, and development in the story. In the Book Thief, the use of Death as the narrator, persistent use of unintentional humour, was quite unique. Personally, I enjoyed Death’s utilization of dark, unintentional humour, as it ironically, lightened the saddest of

The sudden disappearance of Susie Salmon, age 14, shocked the people of a small town in Pennsylvania. This distressing event happened on December 6, 1973 and it is now presumed that it was a murder. This crime was believed to take place in Stolfuz cornfield which is right behind the Junior High. Some horrific evidence has recently been discovered by a neighboring dog. No specific information has been released due to the investigation process that the police have to uphold. In a recent interview with head detective on the case, Len Fenerman, when asked if they have any leads at this point in the investigation, he answered, “As of right now we don’t have any specific leads but we are trying our hardest to find any piece of evidence that will

The death of a loved one can result in a trauma where the painful experience causes a psychological scar. Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones explores the different ways in which people process grief when they lose a loved one. When young Susie Salmon is killed on her way home from school, the remaining four members of her family all deal differently with their grief. After Susie’s death, her mother, Abigail Salmon, endures the adversity of losing her daughter, her family collapsing, and accepting the loss of the life she never had the opportunity to live. Abigail uses Freud’s defence mechanisms to repress wounds, fears, her guilty desires, and to resolve conflicts, which results in her alienation and

Loss of a loved one and the stages of mourning or grief manifest as overriding themes in The Lovely Bones. Through the voice of Susie Salmon, the fourteen-year-old narrator of the novel, readers get an in-depth look at the grieving process. Susie focuses more on the aftermath and effects of her murder and rape on her family rather than on the event itself. She watches her parents and sister move through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. However, Alice Sebold makes clear that these categories do not necessarily remain rigid and that individuals deal with grief in various ways. For example, Abigail, Susie's mother, withdraws from her living children,

Chapter three of Eyal Press’ Beautiful Souls follows Avner Wishnitzer, an Israeli combat soldier serving in the occupied territories during the Second Intifada. In the 6-Day War of 1967, Israel captured the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and has since kept the land under an Israeli military occupation. In 1987 to 1991, a Palestinian uprising involving resistance and civil disobedience, known as the First Intifada, occurred in the occupied territories. Consequently, Israel deployed many soldiers into the occupied territories, and an estimated 1,674 people were killed in total. The Second Intifada, a much more violent Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories, transpired from 2000 until 2005. In response, Israel enacted Operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale military operation, in 2002 to stop the terrorist attacks and suicide bombings of the Second Intifada. An approximate 4,426 people were killed in the Second Intifada. Avner Wishnitzer’s public refusal to serve in the occupied territories was worth getting kicked out of Sayeret Matkal and being disgraced by Israeli society because it made people question the occupation and the treatment towards Palestinians. Even if Avner had been my father, I would have condoned his choices because I could create my own reputation in the military. Additionally, the current controversy over the Israeli occupation legitimizes his stance and actions for many Israeli citizens.

Losing someone close to you is tough, especially if it’s a family member. Abigail Salmon is the mother of Susie that she loses early in the novel. This has affected her actions and way of living her life and even pursuing teenage dreams. Since Susie got late for dinner Abigail still kept her hope up that nothing unusual had happened and that her daughter was in safe hands. Later on she started becoming worried and made phone calls to neighbors …”as my mother made phone calls..” (p 55) which shows us that she is disconcerted. The hope of Susie one day arriving back home started fading away as the days went past and more evidence came through the police indicating Susie being dead.

14 year old Susie Salmon has gone missing on December 6th 1973. Her description is; White with mousy brown hair. Is a daughter to Jack and Abigail Salmon, Sister to Lindsey(13) and Buckley Salmon(4). Police have reported to have found a body part that may belong to Susie Salmon; her elbow. Though things are not certain with Susie’s disappearance, nothing is every certain. The detective on the case Len Fernerman has accept an interview with NN (Norristown News). NN: We have heard that you had found Susie Salmons elbow in a cornfield near the soccer field correct? LF: Yes, in fact the Gilbert’s dog had actually found it, an elbow. NN: Susie Salmon is dead, correct? LF: We don’t know yet, we are trying to get on any lead we can get, although

In order to overcome the grief of someone is dead that is truly dear to them they generally replace lost ones with new relationships with others. Susie’s loved ones replace her with others such as Abigail, whom had an affair with the detective Len Fenerman, “she needed to drive the daughter out”(Sebold 152). When Susie was alive Abigail and Susie would always be together, but afterwards Susie’s death Abigail is getting distant from the family. When Abigail is with the family it reminds her of Susie and the whole surviving grief and the whole coping with grief continues. When Abigail is with Len she forgets that she has to grief, and forgets everything that is going on.

Susies’ dad Jack Salmon is not doing well. Abigail Susie's’ mom leaves. She wants to escape she can’t deal with pain anymore. Her solution is to leave everything and start over. Susie is in heaven and she is trying to learn how to let go ofThe Earth.

Reading How to Read Literature like a Professor and The Bonesetter’s Daughter is an enlightening experience. The reader becomes aware of a literary world full of unusual symbolisms and connections. An unskilled reader would assume that Amy Tan’s novel: The Bonesetter’s Daughter, is just another novel written solely for entertainment purposes. Once a reader learns to use the skills, and employs How to Read Literature like a Professor as a guide and form of measurement of a novels value. Amy Tan’s novel is elevated to a higher literary level that is beyond merely a story and instead skillfully passes on history and wisdom that only a professor, or someone that reads literature like a professor, would detect.

Missing girl, Susie Salmon was reported missing on December 7 at 6:40P.M. “In newspaper photos of missing girls from the seventies, most looked like me; white girls with mousy brown hair.” (Sebold, 5) She was 14 years old and was last seen wearing elephant bell bottoms and a coat. She was last seen after school by Mr. Botte, he was her science teacher and they were very close. They have been told that some days after school she would cut through the corn field on her way home from school. The police have found an elbow that they have suspected is Susie’s. They have been looking in the corn field for clues and found her hat that her mother had made; they also found a coke bottle with George Harvey’s fingerprints on them. They have had many

Both books deal with the emotional affect that the dead have on the living. First, in The Lovely Bones, in the moments immediately after Susie’s death, her soul rushed towards Heaven and, as it did so; it touched a young girl called Ruth. Ruth was sensitive to this presence and despite not having known Susie well from that moment she became intrigued by her life and her death and began to form what would become a strong and eternal link between herself and the dead girl. As Ruth reaches adulthood she becomes sensitive to the dead and to the vibrations that exist in places where deaths had occurred. This affect is not only emotional but life changing; Ruth ultimately leads the police to seriously consider Mr. Harvey as the key suspect in Suzie’s murder. As Ruth is sensitive to those who have passed on, Susie is sensitive to those who remain living. She can read their thoughts, knows their motives, their emotions and their desires. She can remain close to those she loved, she watches over them and occasionally, when they are in a receptive mood, they can feel her presence. These episodes are explained in an extremely gentle manner by Sebold and in such a matter of fact way that it is impossible to doubt the veracity of what we are told.

In Alice Sebold’s novel The Lovely Bones, Sebold constructs a story that readers are instantly drawn into with the different elements of raw emotion that follows with it. The novel follows Susie Salmon, the narrator of the novel, who is coming her way home from school when she comes across her neighbor Mr.Harvey. Mr. Harvey convinces Susie into letting him show her an underground dugout he made but while in the hole Susie realizes going down alone was a mistake and when she tries to leave Mr.Harvey rapes and murders her. This act sets the tone and the storyline for the rest of the book. After Susie dies she moves to a place where she is trapped between earth and heaven.

Deceiving people helps carry out crimes just like it helps George Harvey in the novel, the The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. He goes day by day showing no remorse, as said in the book “He wore his innocence like a comfortable old coat.” He even goes to Susie’s parents and sympathizes with them, telling them that he laments there unpredictable loss. Deceiving Susie parents, makes Harvey look less of a suspect. Not stopping there, Harvey also deceives the police by showing helpfulness and then changing the subject to make him look like a pathetic, depressing man still trying to cope with the loss of his wife. In this part of the book not only does Harvey deceive the policeman from believing he is a suspect for the murder of Susie, but also from

“Susie Salmon is one of the more captivating creations of recent fiction. Sebold has crafted a gripping tale of tragedy and grief…” -Elaina Richardson