Literary Analysis #1

The Lovely Bones
By: Alice Sebold

1. The book starts off with Susie Salmon, the main protagonist of the story, walking home from school. On her way home, she is stopped by her neighbor, Mr. Harvey, who wants to show her something in the cornfield. Susie trusts this man because her parents know him, but unfortunately, she's wrong. When he finally shows her what it was he wanted to show her, Mr. Harvey murders and rapes Susie. After being killed, Susie is immediately sent to heaven where she meets Franny, her guide in the afterlife. Everyday, Susie looks upon her gazebo and down at her old high school. There she witnesses old friends creating relationships with boys, including her sister, Lindsey, who becomes indistinctly depressed after her sister's death. Susie also watches her parents drift apart. Her mother, Abigail, wants to run away from her feelings, whereas her father, Jack wishes to confront them. Not only is her family affected, but some classmates are as well. Ruth and her old crush, Ray Singh are impacted by Susie's death. Ruth claims that she has felt Susie's presence and has dreamed about her numerous times. Susie watches as her sister lives some of her biggest milestones in life, wishing she could actually be there to live them with her. Lindsey shares her first kiss with a boy named Samuel Heckler whom she marries after college. Susie's father, Jack, is more than positive that Mr. Harvey is the one who killed Susie, but has no evidence to prove his assumptions. To help prove her dad's suspicion, Lindsey breaks into Mr. Harvey's house and finds a diagram of the underground. However, she is forced to leave when Mr. Harvey arrives back at his house. Thinking that Mr. Harvey is out in the cornfield destroying more evidence, Jack goes out to the cornfield armed with a baseball bat, but then finds out that it is Clarissa, Susie's old best friend. Jack also finds out that she's not alone when Brian, her boyfriend, starts beating him which leaves Jack with a broken knee that can only be recovered through surgery. While he's recovering, Abigail cheats on Jack with the detective of the case and abandons the family. Years later, Jack suffers from a heart attack and Abigail decides to visit him. She feels guilty after having an argument with her younger son, Buckley for not being there through most of his childhood. Susie's charm bracelet is found at the end of the story but nothing is done with it because the people who found it don't know of its significance.

2. Themes:
-You don't know what you have until it's gone: Many characters, especially Susie's father, wish they would've told Susie they loved her before her death or they had wished they had lived another unforgettable moment like she and Ray shared.
-Isolation: All of Susie's family isolate themselves in their grieving instead of talking about Susie's death openly.

3. Tone:
In my opinion, the underlying tone is serious and poignant. Alice Sebold makes us mourn for Susie through the characters. For example, when Ruth asks Lindsey if she misses Susie she replies, "More than anyone will ever know." When I read that, my heart wretched a bit because everyone in the family hasn't expressed their feelings toward Susie's death and Lindsey finally opens up about how she feels.
Another example would be when Susie's father went into the basement and started smashing bottles that he and Susie would put ships in. He began breaking them out of anger and as a way to express his despair. He says, "Susie, my baby, my little sailor girl, you always liked these smaller ones." He's reminiscing the moments he shared with Susie making those ships.

4. Literary Techniques and Devices:
-"The hallway was tiny, my door like all others, hollow enough to easily punch a fist through." This quote shows how the author uses imagery to give readers a better understanding of how the hallway and the doors looked.
-"...the lights from the nearby houses spotted the hills." Sebold uses personification to give us a better understanding of how the hills looked.
-"Her brain was a storm." This quote shows how the author used a metaphor to compare Ruth's brain to a storm. A storm is going in different directions and they're usually really fast. Ruth's mind was racing because she was confused about Ray holding her hand.