"The lovely bones" by Alice Sebold personal study essay

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“The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold

An examination of the character Susie in “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold and how the author engages my sympathy for her and her family members.

The horrific tragedy described in “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold makes the novel fascinating. The book appealed to me because it was based on an experience the author had when she was in university. The book is Sebold expressing her feelings about what happened to her and expanding them. The story is detailed with interesting characterisation and themes. Sebold makes the story thought-provoking and engages my sympathy for Susie and also her family.

The story is based around fourteen year old Susie Salmon who was raped and brutally murdered one day by a man in her neighbourhood. Susie acts as narrator as she watches over her loved ones from her new seat in heaven. She looks on as her family falls apart and how each character deals with her death in their own way. As time goes on, Susie watches her younger sister Lindsey grow up and starts to feel jealous that she gets to act out the life Susie can never lead.

The use of first person narration is prominent throughout. Through the duration of the story, Susie expresses enormous pain and hurt about what has happened to her.

“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.”

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The “horror and blood” mentioned is Susie’s rape and murder. She is saying that this is her view of sex and what it was like for her. She then goes on and implies her feelings of jealousy towards Lindsey. What Susie is trying to tell the reader is that she is jealous Lindsey got to fall in love and have sex without being pressured into it or being scarred and not being able to make that decision on her own. The word “windows” indicated jealousy due to the link to Lindsey having new opportunities. This quote reflects one reason ...

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