A Morbid Taste For Bones

How can you tell if a “bad guy”--the villain, the monster, the thief--is necessarily a bad guy? Is it by the images they choose to ink on their skin? Their crooked smile, or maybe perhaps the way they like to crack their knuckles? Maybe it’s just their attire: it’s too dark, too scary. And what of their eyes? There’s something there...something about the way they’re placed, something about how they flicker and gleam with every mention of what they desire. But what of their feelings? The ever-circling wheels of emotions from deep inside that manage to control the raging tides of life? Do they not care like we do?

In the novel “Crime and Punishment”, the author, Fyodor Dostoevsky gives the reader a glimpse into the mind of a tormented criminal, by his guilt of a murder. Dostoevsky’s main focal point of the novel doesn’t lie within the crime nor the punishment but within the self-conflicting battle of a man and his guilty conscience. The author portrays tone by mood manipulation and with the use of descriptive diction to better express his perspective in the story, bringing the reader into the mind of the murderer.

The crime is defined as the law-breaking cruel action committed by the criminals. These criminals usually have some deep trauma deep in their heart and the sudden bursting of all the negative sentiments will result in very devastating consequences of hurting other human beings. This essay will mainly compare Perry Smith in In Cold Blood and Misfit in A Good Man is hard to find, which is both the main character and the main criminal in the two crime stories. They have a lot of things in common as a criminal with minor differences. They a are both cynical to the society; They have both found themselves isolated from the society.

“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.” In the novel The Lovely Bones written by Alice Sebold it that takes you on an expedition that re-lives the heartbreaking moments of a life and formation of new connections between the ones that were affected by the tragedy.

In Alice Sebold’s novel, The Lovely Bones, the Salmon family learns that their fourteen year old daughter, Susie Salmon, has been raped and murdered. Because of this her father, Jack, sister, Lindsey, and mother, Abigail, all go through their own respective journeys in order to accept this ordeal. During this time of grievance for Susie’s family, her father, Jack, believes that the person responsible for the murder of his daughter is his neighbour, a man named George Harvey, and reports this to detective Len Fenerman. However, Len Fenerman becomes too preoccupied with his affair with Abigail to aid Jack with his suspicions. Meanwhile, Susie’s younger siblings Lindsey and Buckley, try to learn how to cope with the loss of one of their very own, without their parent’s attention to aid them. In The Lovely Bones, Susie’s father, mother, and sister, all explore the theme of grief by going on their own pathways through the five stages of grief; denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, in order to come to terms with the brutal murder of their beloved Susie.

“The third stage of narrative development was characterized by the appearance of rogues… relying on cleverness more than force, and motivated more by profits than by passion” (Williams 14). Rogues defied whatever came in between their pursuit, whether it be law or authority (Williams 14). In the third stage of criminal literature, the protagonists were all rogues despite of their unlawfully ways, they “aroused reader sympathy” (Williams 16). Williams described these rogues as “outsiders, existing apart from the social structure either by choice or by fate” (William 16). He also described these rogues as “individualistic, opportunistic, self-reliant” as well as “defiant of authority and entirely free” (Williams 16). William argues that the evolution of these narratives took place in three stages: the first being the “early execution sermons and final confessions”, the second being “the incomplete narratives of life and, finally the full length rogue narrative” (Williams 17). Williams’ article describes how criminal literature changed from “promoting obedience, [to] encouraged defiance” (Williams

Such characters are often portrayed in an exaggerated fashion and typically in the role of a villain or antihero, where the general characteristics and stereotypes associated with psychopathy are useful to facilitate conflict and danger. Because the definitions, criteria,

Often times in literature, we are presented with quintessential characters that are all placed into the conventional categories of either good or bad. In these pieces, we are usually able to differentiate the characters and discover their true intentions from reading only a few chapters. However, in some remarkable pieces of work, authors create characters that are so realistic and so complex that we are unable to distinguish them as purely good or evil. In the novel Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky develops the morally ambiguous characters of Raskolnikov and Svidrigailov to provide us with an interesting read and to give us a chance to evaluate each character.

Due to his hormonal deficiency, Leopold became socially reclusive, often not talking to anyone. His counterpart, Loeb, was handsome and societal person. However, he possessed a demonical side, the love for the life of crime. Although the Beadle and Loeb and Leopold lived in different eras, the attributes that define the murderers are still the same. Whereas Loeb and Leopold focus on a philosophical conundrum, Beadle is faced with a moral conundrum. However, these characters share a common dilemma, such as social repression, that emulates the personality of a murderer. It is these ideals and motivations that exemplify the motivation and belief system that drive a person to kill. As such, these stories are commendable examples that embody the true crime genre.

A comparison of the ways that the dead affect the living in the novels Beloved by Toni Morrison and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.

Dizzying suspense, thrilling plot twists, and perplexing puzzles, hurl you on a tumble-turning roller coaster. These types of mysteries always leave you anticipating the turning of a page. While the cold truths are what keep your feet pinned under the security of the bedsheets at night.

This theory mainly proclaims the idea of corrupted cops. "Rotten apples" are deviant individuals who continue their deviance in an environment because they are given higher authority and opportunity. The plot of “Bad Boys” was an ex-cop was considered a “rotten apple.” The ex cop was involved with the robbery of $100-million worth of heroin. Mike and Marcus show pride to their jobs as detectives and highly represent the police personality. The police personality is developed from two variables, authority and danger. Characteristics of the police personality include, authoritarian, above the law, and cynical. Mike and Marcus use their authority to heighten their ego, and use sarcasm throughout the movie to emphasize their status in society. “Bad Boys” displayed several crime causation theories even though the movie was somewhat distorted from reality.

After thoroughly examining the essay I have concluded that it is a moderately effective piece. The introduction was very well written and followed the guideline of general to a specific idea with a final thesis statement (TDSB e-Learning). The essayist initiates the writing with a question of “Who does not enjoy a good mystery story? “, in attempt to engage and capture the attention of readers. Continuing on, the essayist mentions his/her first general idea by talking about the mystery genre as a whole. He/she did this by naming authors from “Dan Brown to the horrific Stephen King” (TDSB e-Learning) to a more narrow thought by mentioning Agatha Christie and ending it off with why he/she thinks that Agatha Christie is a superior novelist or

My view on mystery is fairly similar to Abram’s and we can both agree on many things. As a hardcore TV and movie fanatic, I abhor spoilers. This is not specific to movies and television but it applies to my life as well; I enjoy the process as much as the result and the travel as much as the destination, actually that’s my favorite part. When I go on trips the first thing I think of is “I hope the plane doesn’t drop like in LOST,” but I also think “I hope I get the window seat so I can look outside,” the most exciting part of the trip is the process of getting there.

The characteristics of the genre the work does meet is provide the reader thought provoking questions over their morals of what is considered a crime and what punishment should be made by delving into the mind of a criminal tormented by the guilt of a murder which presented psychological aspects, and displaying a situation that involves a criminal with motive and events that led to his imprisonment.