Introduction
“The Lovely Bones” written by Alice Sebold, released and published as one of her second books in 2002 was available to the readers as one of her first ever published novels. The book received an immediate response from the readers and sold over three million copies. It was rated as one of the best sellers of its time and nominated to appear in the bestseller list for New York Times. Due to its immense fame, the book was later translated into forty languages and made available to readers all over the world.
The story in “The Lovely Bones” starts with the story of Susie Salmon who is murdered on December 6th, 1973. Her neighbor, George Harvey” lures Susie into a hole that he had recently dug in his cornfield. Growing suspicious of Mr. Harvey’s intentions Susie tries to break free and run away but her attempts are to no avail as her neighbor grabs and tears her clothes, gagging and raping her. Eventually it leads up to Mr. Harvey killing off Susie after he’s done, to hide all of the evidence and attempts to dump off her body.
Discussion
Life and death are topics that quite complex and their enumeration here relate to the circumstances faced by the ghost of Susie as she refuses to move on to afterlife. Her refusal to move on is largely based on the fact that she’s more interested in knowing what impact her death has brought on to her loved ones and to see the fate of his killer. Readers are left horrified knowing that her ghost still watches over the living, mortified that a helpless child has been physically abused for the killer’s sexual desires and then brutally murdered. The true horror arouses in the reader’s mind as they learn of the killer’s method to dispose the body.
The contents of the book leaves the reader truly horrified, as it discusses the murder of a fourteen year old Susie Salmon and the events that follow after, inclusive of the tragedy that befalls the family after they come to the realization that their young daughter has been missing. Sebold walks the readers through everything from Susie’s perspective when she is murdered and the events that unfold after. In the story Susie narrates her story, from Heaven.
Thematic Study
After an analysis of the book “The Lovely Bones” brings a reader to the questions who is haunted? Who are they haunted by? How do they find this out? Did they find relief? What lesson does the reader incur from this? Numerous enumerations throughout horror plots brings the reader to these questions but in the context of this book, the answers present themselves on a closer analysis. Susie, being a ghost, provides the element of haunt as she is found lingering about the living. The people she loves can be related to the explanation of being haunted. However, relief in this context will refer to Susie’s ghost ever finding comfort after leading the investigation to her neighbor, who had previously murdered other innocent girls like her as well. Lastly, getting to the point of the lesson learnt, one can present the conclusive judgment based on the dark elements of society, obscured by ignorance yet very much effective on those targeted by it. Susie is one such example, an entity of innocence that was subjected to cruelty. Her death brings forth an understanding on how vicious these elements in a society can be and to what extent can they affect people (Susie’s family in this context). According to Aristotle’s opinion on tragedy based plots, tragic heroes are people that enjoy fortune and all things good in life till misfortune crosses their path and leads them to their eventual downfall. In this case, Susie’s downfall is her kindness (Rietveld 2016, 105-117). At the time when her neighbor told her to stay in the hideout, she was quite uncomfortable but the kindness within told her to respect him (Mr. Harvey) and obediently stayed. This decision quickly turned out to be her one and only misfortune, capable of ending of her life.
Comparison Study
The story of Susie comparatively has a striking resemblance to Babadook too. Babadook, a monstrous figure, enters the house of widow living with her son. He gains passage through a children’s storybook and despite the warnings of the child, the mother is hesitant in believing it till she experiences his presence. The true comparison of Babadook with The Lovely Bones resides in the fact of Susie dying and being able to re-enter the lives of her family. She attempts to assist the investigation and lead the police to her killer. Suffering through the inability of being physically present, Susie experience is similar to Babadook as he lingers among the living while not owning a physical form. However, Susie’s character contradicts that of Babadook in terms of her intentions. Susie merely wanted the killer to face judgment for his actions and to suffer the same way she had.
The comparative analysis provides a descriptive meaning to the realm of the living. Susie’s wish to be among the living, to assist her murder case, to be able to touch and hold her dog, to be with her family and to be able to walk among the living describes her longing for a world she can no longer be a part of. Although Susie is able to acquire everything in heaven, she describes it the way her grandfather mentioned it, to be a place of comfort. However in comparison to a horror based genre, the book suffices the needs of a well fabricated plot based on tragedy, fear and pity but despite keeping the reader traumatized with a well weaved visual representation of a horrific theme till the end (as most horror genre based books aim to serve), The Lovely Bones is focused more towards the concept of presenting the perspective of a child. Susie facing a horrible demise at the hands of a sexually frustrated predator, was left with the only choice of struggling towards a predestined end. The element of haunt presents the notion of a ghost narrating her story to the readers, walking them through her story of life after death, the experiences she gained and describing her emotional state (Rajagopalan 2013 ,175-179). She narrates it further with the story of her family, the tragedy that befell on them after they find out about their daughter’s murder, the events leading up to the boy “Ray Singh” being considered a suspect but later on released on the basis of an alibi to prove his innocence, the unread note left in her book, the life she wanted to live.
Hamlet’s tragedy vs. The Lovely Bones
Shakespeare’s Hamlet presents a remarkable resemblance to The Lovely Bones and the similarities out outstanding as well. Both plots are centered on teenagers who are sexually frustrated, quite smart but vengeful. In case of Hamlet after his death, he only desired to get revenge for his father’s death and sought to see it till the end, but Susie after her death only sought to revenge for her own death rather than anything else. Hamlet’s employs the use of cunning means and his witty skills to achieve his revenge, whereas Susie is stuck with the role of an observer. In terms of sexuality perspective, Hamlet appears to be confused for his sexual preference since in Shakespeare’s writing Hamlet regards women to be disloyal and untruthful but acts normally around Horatio. This is a possible sign of homosexuality being aroused in him but there are evident signs that Hamlet shared a perfectly healthy sexual relationship with his female companion, Ophelia. In Susie’s case, she is found to be frustrated because she dies before any hopes of having a healthy sexual relationship with the boy she loved. The thought of everything coming to an end before things even began between her and her lover, frustrated her at the thought of it.
Conclusions
In the book “The Lovely Bones”, Alice Sebold presents the concept of life after death from Susie’s point of view and presents the suggestion for the dead and the living sharing complex relationship. This concept contradicts the general idea that the living share a one way relationship with the dead, requiring to undergo a similar experience of grief to better understand it. Based on the setting of a tragic plot, the element of fear makes the novel a worthwhile read and discusses the story of Susie and her beyond the grave experience. The narration of the book provided the readers with the notion of their loved ones, although dead, having the ability to still be with them.
Considering the setting for the plot, the character and the pattern that unfolds as the story progress, it can be said that the movie is in a close comparison to that of “To Kill a Mocking Bird.” The Lovely Bones exhibits several elements in the plot that depict a similarity to Harper Lee “To Kill a Mocking Bird” regarding the way that they both are centered around the narrator being a small girl. The police also find a book by the murder scene and evidently it is “To Kill a Mocking Bird” as well since it was being taught in her class. The mention of this book conveys the meaning that the writer was heavily inspired by the book and wanted to relate and credit it in some manner.
Works Cited
PREDINA DINI, E. M. Y. “Book Review of Alice Sevold’s “the Lovely Bones”.” Lantern 4.2.
Rajagopalan, Raghav. “Death and the Cybernetic Mind A review of the novel The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.” Cybernetics & Human Knowing 20.1-2 (2013): 175-179.
Rietveld, H. C. “Lovely Bones: Ambient Music and the Uncanny in Leitmotiv and Underscore.” (2016): 105-117.
