Themes
Mortality becomes ever-present in the Salmon family ever since Susie’s elbow was found, and she was declared dead. It is because now they can see how ephemeral life is that they start making choices for themselves and their own lives individually, and no longer for the family. Dad engages in a battle for justice, while the mother goes away and tries to get to know herself again. Susie's death gave them all a key to look deeper into their lives. Still, the murder has touched them in such a way that they can appreciate how finite life is. In The Lovely Bones, Susie Salmon recounts, from the afterlife, her grim and violent death at the hands of her rapist and neighbor, George Harvey. Susie says that the way we die, and the needs, desires, and qualities we possess at the time of death, impact our experiences in the afterworld. This is the story of Susie's experience in the afterworld, where she watches her family on Earth break down and rebuild. She also stalks her killer and tries to engineer his capture, while learning about his previous crimes and communing with his other dead victims. Eventually, Susie comes to terms with her existence in the new realm. The novel contrasts a hideous death with a lovely and compelling vision of the afterlife.
Even the man who committed the crime continues to lead a normal life without remorse. Yet, he too meets his end. He too is mortal and he too will get to pay for his sins. A moment later, the icicle fell. The heavy coldness of it threw him off balance just enough for him to stumble and pitch forward. It would be weeks before the snow in the ravine melted enough to uncover him. In other words, mortality makes everyone, friend or foe, just as small and helpless in the big scheme of things.
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Another reason why mortality ranks as the most influential theme of the novel is because the entire story is told from the perspective of a dead woman looking into the world of the living. The way that she sees the daily dynamics of the living, their reactions, and their struggles contrast greatly with her reality as someone who exists in a realm that nobody knows and most fears for whatever reason. The theme of mortality and death is prevalent in the plot and helps it move forward, and it is when Susie accepts her mortality and the fact that she will remain in the afterlife that the story of Susie finally comes to a cathartic and satisfying (while still very sad) ending.
Susie exemplifies good and innocence. With the act of Susie’s rape and murder committed by Mr. Harvey, it seems as if evil overpowered the force of good. In reality, good remained strong throughout the book because love kept Susie’s spirit alive and well. Susie’s family suffered a terrible loss when Susie died. Their ability to persevere in life and have the ability to move on after experiencing a tragedy, like losing a family member, emphasizes the strength of good can overcome even the obstacles of evil. “I watched my beautiful sister running and I knew she was not running away from me or toward me.”
Like someone who has survived a gut shot, the wound had been closing, closing, braiding into a scar for eight long years. ” (p. 242) This quote describes the battle Susie’s sister has been struggling with for a long period, but it also demonstrates Lindsey as a representation of good conquering the horrific aftermath of a tragedy. In the end, Mr. Harvey is ironically killed by an icicle, which concludes a sad ending for his symbolism of evil. “How to commit the perfect murder was an old game in heaven. I always chose the icicle because the weapon melts away. ” (p. 25) Therefore with the death of George Harvey and the perseverance of the Salmon family, evil most definitely did not conquer. It merely triumphed briefly. “These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections – sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent – that happened after I was gone. 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. The price of what I came to see as this miraculous body had been my life. (P. 320)
The ending is about as happy as a book about a murdered girl can get. It features the fulfillment of one of Susie's utmost desires, articulated in Chapter 2 “I could not have what I wanted most. Mr. Harvey dead and me living. Heaven wasn't perfect. (2.39)”. Mr. Harvey is interrupted from pursuing his latest teen victim and gets plummeted to his death by the most ironic of deaths; death by an icicle. Said icicle might or might not have been dislodged by Susie's ghostly interference. We like to think she had a hand in things. Notice also that Harvey's death by icicle is cleverly foreshadowed at a midpoint in the novel. Susie says: “In heaven, 'How to Commit the Perfect Murder' was an old game. I always chose the icicle: the weapon melts away. (10.139)” Yes, revenge is sweet, but Susie's desire for Mr. Harvey's death is based more on preventing him from hurting others than revenge for her own sake. Even though she's already in 'wide wide Heaven' she can only truly stop her Earth-angst if she doesn't have to worry about this creep hurting people. Mr. Harvey's death begs a question: Where does he go when he dies? What do you think?
Creepy thoughts aside, this tragical happy aspect of the ending is followed by the next best thing to the restoration of Susie's life on Earth: the birth of her niece and namesake, baby Abigail Suzanne, the baby of super-couple Lindsey and Samuel. The birth gives the novel a sense of formal unity. A novel that begins with the death of a young girl, and ends with the birth of another. She won't replace Susie, of course, but she can help Susie's loved ones heal.
Literary Lenses
Psychological lense
After Susie is murdered her body is almost completely disposed of, except for that one elbow. The one that led her family to believe that something had happened to her. Her family feels the physical loss of her body and the uncertainty of her death, making it extremely difficult for them to grieve over her loss. Her family members try to hold on to Susie's belongings as long as possible to physically keep her with them, but towards the end, they realize that Susie will live on in their memories longer than these materialistic objects. During Susie’s wake death, her mother distances herself farther away from the family and is also psychologically distant from her husband and children. She then chooses to eventually physically remove herself from the home altogether. She now becomes the absent mother and the absent wife, and both Buckley and Jack feel the lack of the presence of their mother very strongly. While Buckley stops himself from missing his mother, Jack begins to fall in love with his wife again while she is away.
Feminist Lens
While reading this novel, it is easy for the reader to make connections while looking through the ‘Feminist Lens’. Throughout the novel, it is evident that women are oppressed. Rape and gender-based violence are seemingly accepted by society and excuses are made for the men who do it. Susie- in a way was forced into doing something she doesn’t like by society more than by Mr. Harvey. He kept on telling her to be polite and follow his orders because he was an authority figure that she should look up to and follow his orders because this is how society taught her to be. If this were to happen in today’s society, women would be more alert and have more knowledge of how this society twists rules to the advantage of certain individuals.
Conflicts
Susie felt like she was obligated to come down to the underground hut because Mr. Harvey is older and he is a man and she should respect his wishes even if she knew it would upset her parents.
The conflict of the novel is between Susie and the obstacles that are thrown in her way. It seems that Susie is conflicted about living in the heaven she was forced to be in or the wonderful life she lived on earth with her family and friends and Ray. But the problem is much deeper, as the main antagonist that harms Susie is grief and the harsh acceptance that is forced along with it. The author is trying to point out that losing somebody becomes very crucial for one’s life. In her characters’ examples, she shows how the grieving process affects all members of the victim’s family. The Salmon family finds themselves in very dubious conflict: the battle against the murderer of their daughter, on the one hand, and on the other hand, there are constant misunderstandings between the members of the family who are constantly trying to come to terms with the tragedy. , Still, at the end of her novel, the author speaks of the acceptance and a new lifestyle that is stabilized so that the family starts to live, giving hope for the better to the reader.
Throughout the investigation of his eldest daughter’s death, Jack Salmon had many conflicts, some were person vs person (his wife, Mr. Harvey, and detective Len Fenerman) a while after the case of Susie Salmon’s disappearance was closed, Mr. Salmon was still in conflict, but with himself now, he thought that we should have been there for her- his daughter, he could have saved her and went out to look for her earlier rather than eating dinner without her. He should have had the parental intuition. His guilt was eating him up and he couldn’t do anything about it
Secondary Sources
De Lint, Charles. “The Lovely Bones (Book).” Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol. 104, no. 2, Feb. 2003, p. 29. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=lkh&AN=8788644&site=lrc-plus
After reading the book review of The Lovely Bones I came to realize that when Susie is stuck in that in-between place in her heaven, she is still there because she is trying to protect her family from Mr. Harvey and any other dangers that could come to pass them; but she was still there protecting them specifically form the murderer. As well as the fact that this book was helpful for many women who have suffered the same or a similar misfortune and this helped many of them process and evolve and grow around the world that injured them. This book made many women realize that they are not the only ones who have experienced rape. It is a bittersweet feeling knowing that you’re not alone but also knowing that other women were hurt and felt similar pain and equivalent wounds. The author of the review said “I pretty much fell in love with the book. And then I started to notice all the mainstream interest in her and the novel and realized that I wasn't alone--not by a long shot. The positive praise lavished on The Lovely Bones is strong and well-deserved. But what I found the most interesting is that this book has about as fantastical a basis as anything in our genre, but that's...not exactly ignored in the mainstream reviews, but it isn't dwelled upon either.
They don't ignore the fact that the book is narrated by a dead girl. Instead, they simply accept it and move on to discussing the characters and story. As do the novel's growing legion of readers.” this shows that the author of this review is a little upset that the book is narrated by a dead girl. He seems to think that this is important because it reflects on the content and the quality of the writing.
Literary devices
Susie's jingly hat is a symbol of her mother's love and care. The fact that the hat is homemade demonstrates the love her mother has for her. Then Mr. Harvey perverts this by using it to gag/ choke Susie while he rapes her. It becomes a symbol of her loss of breath and voice, and most importantly, her innocence. When Len Fenerman finds her hat and shows it to Mr. and Mrs. Salmon, it becomes a symbol that Susie has been greatly harmed.
Lisdnsey recognizes the bright red scarf on the detective lens desk right away she knows that it is her mother's When Lindsey sees it, and then proceeds to ask Len about it, she realizes that they are having an affair. Although Lindsey and Buckley become jealous of Abigail's life outside of them, jealousy isn't a quality that is demonstrated by Jack, and he never finds out about the affair. So, the scarf is transformed in this novel. It becomes a symbol of the fact that Abigail made her own choices about whom to have sex with. This also results in sharp contrast to the fate of her daughter, who didn't have a choice of who to have sex with. This results in her death because of Mr. Harvey's jealousy and desire to destroy her and the perfect world.
[Buckley to Jack:] 'I saved the Monopoly shoe and then it was gone. You took it. You act like she was only yours!' (18.60)
When Susie dies, Buckley is about four, and, while he never completely understands what happened to her, he has a fair idea. When it seems clear to the family that she's met an unfortunate end, Jack tries to explain the absence of the beloved sister to Buckley over a game of Monopoly. The Monopoly shoe was always Susie's piece. When he removes her piece from the game, Mr. Salmon uses the shoe to explain to Buckley how her removal from the game of life is, and he gives it to Buckley as a little souvenir to keep his sister.
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