Grief
– The theme of grief is the most obvious message Alice Sebold uses in her novel. People react differently when the tragedy of death strikes especially when the death is a gruesome one like murder. The author wants us to know that facing this overwhelming sense of loss is a long process for most and even longer for others. In the end her family experiences the final stage of the grieving process: acceptance and a stabilized, new lifestyle.
Love and Acceptance
-Both are prevalent. It isn’t just love for the dead person and acceptance of her death. It is also love and acceptance of the way those around her react to the tragedy. The Salmon family allows ties that bind them to morph into chains that they each want to break in some way, so they can run away. The truth is the realization that only with the ties, not the chains, can they begin again, renewed and ready to face life.
Good vs. Evil
The theme of good vs. evil is also an obvious lesson of “The Lovely Bones”. This theme, of course is one of the most prevalent in all literature, but the author presents it in such an interesting way. We see the serial killer as he evolved into the monster he became and at the same time, we almost sympathize with him for having been a victim of an environment that might have made monsters of any of us.
However Susie, who respects good, wants his death for the most serious reason possible. – She wants to protect all women and girls from him. In the end she has to release her desire for revenge and concentrate on what is good for everyone – both living and death. So, she releases it by contributing to his death and walking away emotionally from him. Mr. Harvey has no chains to hold her anymore; he will never hurt any other girl or women and good triumphs over evil.
The Feminist View:
(Rape and murder of innocent girls and women) The subtle implication here suggests that the law enforcement and those outside the family soon shrug off the violence they have shared and forgotten the victim, especially if she lives. The impact is devastating to the victims and her family but especially during this time of American History, rape was not viewed as the violent crime it is today. Sebold seems to be emphasizing that we must be more vigilant for the monsters like George Harvey, but we must also be ever supportive of the women these monsters destroy.
Mood
-Very poignant and sad – We mourn for Susie right along with her family and friends. We grieve as well for the unfulfilled desire she feels in heaven and her inability to let her go of earth. At times, the mood is also suspenseful as we watch Mr. Harvey stalk his victims. In the end however, it is also about happiness and the quiet satisfaction of the acceptance life brings.
- When Susie is killed her body is almost completely disposed of, saved one elbow
Her family feels the physical loss of her body and the uncertainty of her death, making it difficult to mourn her loss. Her Family members try to hold on to Susie’s belongings to keep her physically with them, but in the end they realize that Susie lives in the memories rather than in objects.
Other Losses:
- George Harvey’s mother leaves his family when he is very young and this has a lasting effect on him. Len Fenerman feels the absence of his wife, who committed suicide soon after they were married. As a counter to the absence felt throughout the novel, Ruth feels the presence of the deal all around her and seeks places where women and girls have been murdered – she feels a spiritual presence in the absence.
Isolation:
-Many of the Characters in the Novel are isolated from the rest of society. Susie is trapped in the “perfect world” of her heaven and thus isolated from her living family and friends. Because she has the desire to watch over her loved ones they change and grow, she also is not able to be with her dead grandfather who was moved on from watching the living.
-Susie tries to escape her isolation from earth by continuously pushing on what she calls the “in between” so she can still influence the world of the living. Susie’s immediate family members all isolate themselves in their grieving instead of discussing the loss of there one and only, Susie Salmon)
-Ex. Each surviving family member goes into Susie’s room alone to grieve her absence. Abigail in particular is portrayed as being alone because she buried the true Abigail underneath the façade of motherhood.
-George Harvey is so peculiar that he purposely isolates himself from society, people find him so strange that they usually do not take time to associate with him; this allows him to lead a reclusive and secretive lifestyle.
-Ruth is also isolated and is described as “Haunted” because of her experience, with -Susie’s soul as she left earth. For many of the characters, this isolation does not allow them room to grow or to recover from their grief. Ruth is haunted not by choice, so she moves to New York where she spends her free time seeking out places in the city where violence was committed against girls and women. Ruth is unable to grow out of her isolation as well, but unlike Ruth he is in a more stagnant place: He is stuck in a traumatic period in his childhood and does not take responsibility for the crimes he committed.
Guilt and Responsibility:
- When Susie goes missing, her parents face tremendous guilt. Susie’s father bares the brunt of his guilt, because he is feeling that he was not able to be there for his daughter when she needed him. Thus he feels responsible for finding her killer and avenging her death.
-Len Fenerman also feels guilty over the unsolved cases, including Susie’s case and his wife’s suicide. Len’s guilt escalates when he finds out he let Susie’s killer escape because he was preoccupied with Abigail.
-Susie’s mother feels a different soft of guilt – she feels guilty for not wanting to be a mother and for waiting to forget about the murder rather than face it.
-Because Lindsey’s parents are locked into their own private grief and guilt, Lindsey feels she must take on the responsibility of parenting. She plays the roll of parent to both Buckley and to her Father who she treats as fragile.
-Ruth also feels the need to know about Susie’s life and death. Responsibility then extends to other victims of violence; Ruth feels she has the responsibility to acknowledge the places in NY where violence has been committed. In heaven, Susie also feels the responsibility to take care of her family by pushing past the in-between and giving them signs that she is watching them.
-When Susie sleeps with Ray (via Ruth’s body) she passes on an awareness of the dead to Ray; She instills in him the belief that the dead are all around him and not everything can be explained by science.
Themes
Grief
– The theme of grief is the most obvious message Alice Sebold uses in her novel. People react differently when the tragedy of death strikes especially when the death is a gruesome one like murder. The author wants us to know that facing this overwhelming sense of loss is a long process for most and even longer for others. In the end her family experiences the final stage of the grieving process: acceptance and a stabilized, new lifestyle.
Love and Acceptance
-Both are prevalent. It isn’t just love for the dead person and acceptance of her death. It is also love and acceptance of the way those around her react to the tragedy. The Salmon family allows ties that bind them to morph into chains that they each want to break in some way, so they can run away. The truth is the realization that only with the ties, not the chains, can they begin again, renewed and ready to face life.
Good vs. Evil
The theme of good vs. evil is also an obvious lesson of “The Lovely Bones”. This theme, of course is one of the most prevalent in all literature, but the author presents it in such an interesting way. We see the serial killer as he evolved into the monster he became and at the same time, we almost sympathize with him for having been a victim of an environment that might have made monsters of any of us.
However Susie, who respects good, wants his death for the most serious reason possible. – She wants to protect all women and girls from him. In the end she has to release her desire for revenge and concentrate on what is good for everyone – both living and death. So, she releases it by contributing to his death and walking away emotionally from him. Mr. Harvey has no chains to hold her anymore; he will never hurt any other girl or women and good triumphs over evil.
The Feminist View:
(Rape and murder of innocent girls and women) The subtle implication here suggests that the law enforcement and those outside the family soon shrug off the violence they have shared and forgotten the victim, especially if she lives. The impact is devastating to the victims and her family but especially during this time of American History, rape was not viewed as the violent crime it is today. Sebold seems to be emphasizing that we must be more vigilant for the monsters like George Harvey, but we must also be ever supportive of the women these monsters destroy.
Mood
-Very poignant and sad – We mourn for Susie right along with her family and friends. We grieve as well for the unfulfilled desire she feels in heaven and her inability to let her go of earth. At times, the mood is also suspenseful as we watch Mr. Harvey stalk his victims. In the end however, it is also about happiness and the quiet satisfaction of the acceptance life brings.
Themes
Loss/Physical and Psychological Absence:
- When Susie is killed her body is almost completely disposed of, saved one elbow
Her family feels the physical loss of her body and the uncertainty of her death, making it difficult to mourn her loss. Her Family members try to hold on to Susie’s belongings to keep her physically with them, but in the end they realize that Susie lives in the memories rather than in objects.
Other Losses:
- George Harvey’s mother leaves his family when he is very young and this has a lasting effect on him. Len Fenerman feels the absence of his wife, who committed suicide soon after they were married. As a counter to the absence felt throughout the novel, Ruth feels the presence of the deal all around her and seeks places where women and girls have been murdered – she feels a spiritual presence in the absence.
Isolation:
-Many of the Characters in the Novel are isolated from the rest of society. Susie is trapped in the “perfect world” of her heaven and thus isolated from her living family and friends. Because she has the desire to watch over her loved ones they change and grow, she also is not able to be with her dead grandfather who was moved on from watching the living.
-Susie tries to escape her isolation from earth by continuously pushing on what she calls the “in between” so she can still influence the world of the living. Susie’s immediate family members all isolate themselves in their grieving instead of discussing the loss of there one and only, Susie Salmon)
-Ex. Each surviving family member goes into Susie’s room alone to grieve her absence. Abigail in particular is portrayed as being alone because she buried the true Abigail underneath the façade of motherhood.
-George Harvey is so peculiar that he purposely isolates himself from society, people find him so strange that they usually do not take time to associate with him; this allows him to lead a reclusive and secretive lifestyle.
-Ruth is also isolated and is described as “Haunted” because of her experience, with -Susie’s soul as she left earth. For many of the characters, this isolation does not allow them room to grow or to recover from their grief. Ruth is haunted not by choice, so she moves to New York where she spends her free time seeking out places in the city where violence was committed against girls and women. Ruth is unable to grow out of her isolation as well, but unlike Ruth he is in a more stagnant place: He is stuck in a traumatic period in his childhood and does not take responsibility for the crimes he committed.
Guilt and Responsibility:
- When Susie goes missing, her parents face tremendous guilt. Susie’s father bares the brunt of his guilt, because he is feeling that he was not able to be there for his daughter when she needed him. Thus he feels responsible for finding her killer and avenging her death.
-Len Fenerman also feels guilty over the unsolved cases, including Susie’s case and his wife’s suicide. Len’s guilt escalates when he finds out he let Susie’s killer escape because he was preoccupied with Abigail.
-Susie’s mother feels a different soft of guilt – she feels guilty for not wanting to be a mother and for waiting to forget about the murder rather than face it.
-Because Lindsey’s parents are locked into their own private grief and guilt, Lindsey feels she must take on the responsibility of parenting. She plays the roll of parent to both Buckley and to her Father who she treats as fragile.
-Ruth also feels the need to know about Susie’s life and death. Responsibility then extends to other victims of violence; Ruth feels she has the responsibility to acknowledge the places in NY where violence has been committed. In heaven, Susie also feels the responsibility to take care of her family by pushing past the in-between and giving them signs that she is watching them.
-When Susie sleeps with Ray (via Ruth’s body) she passes on an awareness of the dead to Ray; She instills in him the belief that the dead are all around him and not everything can be explained by science.