The Lovely Bones Research Paper

¨The Lovely Bones¨ novel, which was also made into a movie, was written by Alice Sebold and published in 2002. The novel became a bestseller immediately and definitely sold a million copies. Sebold was inspired to write this because of her own dreadful experience in which she was brutally raped, much like the main character, Susie Salmon. The author used elements of her own situation to help develop the subject of rape, in this case about 14 year old Susie Salmon´s murder. While writing her novel, Sebold also took the opportunity to speak on behalf of these young women who don´t know how to deal with it, and address the fact that society isn't taking the topic of rape as serious as it should be taken. I think in a way, she used this novel …show more content…
While up in her own little personal heaven, where she learns more about herself, she also looks down on her grief-stricken family and friends and how they're dealing with her being gone. It all begins on December 6, the day Susie was raped and murdered by her neighbor, Mr. Harvey, who everyone viewed as a sweet old innocent man, or just a widower. As her family went through the horror of not knowing what happened to their Susie, they were able to get some details with the help of Detective Len Fenerman. Throughout the novel Susie goes back and forth, recalling certain details about her life and going into her killer's mind to try to understand his ways. Although Mr. Harvey is a huge part of the novel, not all of the attention is directly on him, the author focuses a lot on the girls and women he hurts, as well as the Salmon family mourning their …show more content…
In the first couple pages of the novel, Sebold reveals the person responsible for Susie's death, which kind of gives this novel the sense of dramatic irony. Although the killer was revealed, she still gives the readers this suspenseful tone as we wait for Mr. Harvey´s guilt to be shown. All through this story the author uses symbolism to give us a perception of Susie's life. One thing used to represent Susie´s mother´s love for her was this jingly cap she made for Susie, the whole meaning of this cap was destroyed when learned that Mr. Harvey used that to keep Susie quite when he was killing her. It gives the readers an idea of how certain things were viewed when susie died. Another sign of symbolism was the monopoly shoe, which belonged to Susie when her and her family would play the board game. Her father, Jack Salmon, used that monopoly shoe to show his youngest son that although Susie was not physically there, she was always with them, even if it was as a piece of a board game. The author also uses metaphors to usually describe how someone was feeling. For example, ¨ ….he wore his innocence like a coat.¨, is what Susie said to describe how Mr. Harvey felt as if he had done nothing wrong and everything in the world was okay. Another example is, ¨I watched my beautiful sister