The Lovely Bones Character Analysis

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1.When she was 18, Alice Sebold was raped by a stranger. Though this was not her reason for writing The Lovely Bones, her experiences did contribute to Susie Salmon’s character. “Each time I told my story, I lost a bit, the smallest drop of pain. It was that day that I knew I wanted to tell the story of my family. Because horror on Earth is real and it is every day. It is like a flower or like the sun; it cannot be contained.” (Sebold 186). Through Susie sharing her story with Mr. Harvey’s other victims, it helped her heal. Similarly, Sebold knew she had to share her story in Lucky before she could continue to write The Lovely Bones.

2.Alice Sebold lived her early life in a Pennsylvania suburb and was brutally
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Watching her struggle to accept and move on from it was hard for me - and I can’t imagine how hard it was hard. I do enjoy reading about serial killers and their train of thought as well as actions, so the story was not as devastating to me as other readers claim it is. I don’t feel that I relate to any character, but I find both Lindsey and Abigail Salmon intriguing …show more content…
In The Lovely Bones, Seybold uses Susie to explore topics like life, death, and how fragile and precious life is, but Susie is also used to discuss topics such as isolation, sex, construction and destruction, as well as the small moments of life. We are introduced to the idea of isolation as Lindsey uses it in particular to cope with the loss of her sister. “Lindsey’s body began to knot. She was working hard keeping everyone out, everyone, but she found Samuel Heckler cute.” (Sebold 45). Other examples of isolation in the book are: Susie in her heaven, Mr Harvey in his life and Abigail after Susie 's death. As we go through the story Susie continually goes back to thinking of sexual topics. Being only 14 when she is killed, Susie never experience is consensual sex. As she watches her sister and Samuel in their first sexual endeavor, she reflects back on her own experiences. “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.” (Sebold 83) Referring to her own experiences as horror and blood shows us how she feels about being raped and her regret of not being able to have consensual sex. Though not explicitly stated, a main point is made about Susie 's pictures. The stories refers many times to Susie and her dream to be a photographer. “When the roll came back from the Kodak plant in a special heavy envelope, I could see the difference immediately. There was only

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