Death, Grief, and Redemption in The Lovely Bones

The death of a loved one can result in a trauma where the painful experience causes a psychological scar. Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones explores the different ways in which people process grief when they lose a loved one. When young Susie Salmon is killed on her way home from school, the remaining four members of her family all deal differently with their grief. After Susie’s death, her mother, Abigail Salmon, endures the adversity of losing her daughter, her family collapsing, and accepting the loss of the life she never had the opportunity to live. Abigail uses Freud’s defence mechanisms to repress wounds, fears, her guilty desires, and to resolve conflicts, which results in her alienation and

Death is apart of our world, we have people being born, and dying each day. When we are personally affected by death this is the point in time where we start to question God an ask him why he has taken someone we loved so dearly way from us and this world. Everyone is affected by death at one point in their lives either it being by losing a grandparent, a mother or father or a sibling, to even a close friend. Death can either be expected or very unexpected. After losing someone if it was prepared or not; there are many emotions that one goes through, they also have to confront death and go through the healing process.

George Harvey is always depicted as the vile, relentless murderer behind the rape and death of Susie Salmon, the protagonist of the novel Lovely Bones. It is easy for the reader to show absolutely no pity for this character. However, in Chapter 15, the author Alice Sebold converts this heartless soul into an individual that urges the reader to offer him sympathy instead. Sebold begins the chapter by reflecting on the tremendous amount of hardships that George Harvey endures in his childhood. As a child, George and his mother depend on each other, as they struggle through life in poverty and dread the presence of his father. Alongside his mother as her accomplice, they turn to theft as a method to receive food and resources behind his

Loss of a loved one and the stages of mourning or grief manifest as overriding themes in The Lovely Bones. Through the voice of Susie Salmon, the fourteen-year-old narrator of the novel, readers get an in-depth look at the grieving process. Susie focuses more on the aftermath and effects of her murder and rape on her family rather than on the event itself. She watches her parents and sister move through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. However, Alice Sebold makes clear that these categories do not necessarily remain rigid and that individuals deal with grief in various ways. For example, Abigail, Susie's mother, withdraws from her living children,

In the short story “Sea Oak,” George Saunders presents a family that is struggling with life in the poor neighborhood of Sea Oak. The narrator works as a male stripper in Joysticks, run by Mr. Frendt. The story also revolves around Auntie Bernie, who dies, resurrects, and dies again after advising the narrator, his sister Min, and their cousin Jade to adopt unorthodox and immoral means of making it in life. Two main themes that emerge in Saunders’ work are grief and loss that people suffer in life, and how the society teaches to deal with them, including the loss of a fruitful life, lack of wealth and success, as well as death.

The Aftermath of Death Everyone will come face to face with death at some point in their lives: death is a part of the life cycle. After someone dies, their death affects many other people emotionally, and all the friends and family whom have been affected by begin to grieve, which is the grief or sorrow felt a tragedy or death. In Emily Dickinson's poem, “If I Should Die”, and Edgar Allen Poe’s short story, “Masque of Red Death”, the readers observe actions and thoughts of the characters in relation to death. Additionally, the aftermath of death is seen throughout the television series, Grey’s Anatomy, produced by Shonda Rhimes.

Losing someone close to you is tough, especially if it’s a family member. Abigail Salmon is the mother of Susie that she loses early in the novel, this has affected her actions and way of living her life and even pursuing teenage dreams. Since Susie didn't arrive for dinner Abigail still kept her hope up that nothing unusual had happened and that her daughter was in safe hands. Successively she started becoming worried and made phone calls to neighbors

Grief. There comes a time in everyone’s life that they find themselves grieving due to tragic events or losses. I personally am very fortunate and have not had to experience hardly any grief in my life. Everyone is different which results in everyone having their own way that they deal with grief. The way that Edgar Allan Poe describes grief and the way that Emily Dickinson describes grief is both different and similar.

I think grief manifest itself in weeping, anger, depression, fear and loneliness. In my experience people usually are anger at God or themselves for not being there for the person who has died. I have seen people angry at God for taking their loved ones. For example a person I know died of lung cancer, the family was very angry at God because he didn’t cure her or because He took her too soon. Weeping is the most common way we express our grief. I have

Death leaves a heartache that no one can fix. It has been like this pretty much since the beginning of time. There are obviously different types of dying, like suicide or murder for example, and also different deaths in general. Death of a friend, family member or a king or soldier as well. There are some similarities dealing with death in today’s world and earlier times.

In The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold the main character Susie Salmon is made memorable to us through the use of narrative point of view, symbolism, setting and her actions. The novel is based around the rape and murder of her and she narrates the process of grief and acceptance in a heart-warming, poignant yet beautiful way as she observes the effects of her death on earth from heaven. Sebold creates a full rounded impression of her – we see her triumphs and

It is easy to relate to the story and the reader is able to see the characters as reflections of themselves without difficulty. It discusses situations involving death and grieving while sending a positive message to children that is informative and comforting. It contains components of faith that offer hope. The subject of death brings about emotions in young readers, therefore utilizing the same sensitivity in discussions that the writer uses in her book is essential. The most difficult part of the book is when Leslie goes alone without Jess to Terabithia. Jess had been out of town that day. The rope they use to swing on to get to the other side of the gully breaks, and Leslie falls into the rushing water below, drowning. When Jess returns home, he says, “No. Leslie wouldn’t drown she could swim real good” (Paterson 103). Jess agonizes with immense grief over Leslie’s death. His father has become supportive after her death, and after the funeral Jess runs off, his father catches up to him, and finally shows compassion to his son holding him with pronounced gentleness. Through sobs, Jess said, “I hate her. I hate her and wish I’d never seen her in my whole life” (Paterson 147). The father’s behavior is essential to Jess’s ability in overcoming the

Death is just another state we encounter in the human life. Death is the state of being when the brain and brain stem stop working and the effects become irreversible. Once a person passes, his or her love ones go through many stages of grieving. The famous Kubler-Ross model, commonly referred to as the “five stages of grief,” is a great representation of the stages. These stages do not occur in any particular order, but it is predicted these stages do occur in most people. The grievers not only have to cope with the loss of their love ones, but they also have to deal with the new changes in their life (E., 2010). No matter the condition of death whether it be expected or unexpected, everyone has their own ways of dealing or coping with death. Different religions and cultures practice death and grieving very differently from one another. Buddhism is not necessary a religion but more of a philosophy that focuses on leading a moral life while being mindful of thoughts and actions.

The loss of a loved one will leave you feeling empty inside — as if the world will never be the same again and nothing will ever be able to heal your pain. Bereavement is something that we all experience at some stage of our lives, but not often, therefore we do not get much opportunity to learn how to deal with it. Everybody reacts differently to the loss of someone close. Grieving is a natural process which ever way it is manifested. The time that immediately follows the death can be filled with a stunned belief even if the death was not totally unexpected. The truth is that time heals all wounds and the world keeps on going as if nothing happened.

Death and dying are inescapable aspects of the human experience, and at some point in everyone’s life it is inevitable that they will have to face the death of a loved one, but how each person deals with that situation is different. For some it may be a relief