Susie's Afterlife Essay - The Lovely Bones How does Sebold use representations of speech and other literary techniques to portray Susies feelings about her afterlife in the following extract (Chapter 2, Pages 19-20) and in one other extract in the nov
Amy Ainsworth
How does Sebold use representations of speech and other literary techniques to portray Susie’s feelings about her afterlife in the following extract (Chapter 2, Pages 19-20) and in one other extract in the novel?
For most of the novel, Susie’s heaven is, for her, simply a place from which she can observe her family on Earth. The casual tone Sebold uses as Susie describes the contents of her heaven and the simple dreams she has (“an ice cream shop…a newspaper where our pictures appeared a lot”) show the reader that however miraculous this image of heaven is, Susie still has a strong link binding her to her “split-level on Earth” – “an echo of sameness riding up over the hill”. Her strongest desire is one of the only things her heaven cannot provide, as shown by the simple declarative “I wanted to be allowed to grow up”, although the use of the past tense foreshadows a change in Susie’s attitude towards her afterlife later in the novel. While in the first extract Susie’s heaven appears mundane, even boring, in my chosen extract (Susie’s meeting with her grandfather) Sebold shows a more spiritual, paranormal element of heaven – the typical idea of heaven that most readers imagine.
In Chapter 2 there is a clear sense of Susie’s immaturity and innocence, highlighting the tragedy of her death and suggesting that Susie does not belong in heaven and should be on Earth with her family – this reflects Susie’s desire to cling onto her life on Earth. The verb “pretend” in the simple declarative “Then we can pretend better” is associated with childhood games and imaginary worlds, showing us that Susie is still a child and the idea of heaven is a game to her. This is also reflected in the abstract noun “secrets” in the simple declarative “To know the secrets” – this lexical choice suggests that, for Susie, the idea of adulthood is as much an extraordinary other world as heaven is, but one she can never experience. The irony here is that for many people on Earth who have reached adulthood, the idea of heaven or an afterlife is ridiculous, whereas for Susie the opposite is true. Sebold widens the gap between Susie and the people on Earth and thereby encourages the reader to open their minds to other possibilities. The use of the verb “allowed” in the simple declarative “I wanted to be allowed to grow up” also highlights Susie’s innocence as it encourages the reader to think that she needs permission, a childlike idea. That someone could give their permission to allow such a simple desire is a childish idea, and therefore also highlights the tragedy of the circumstances.