Essay about The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold

To further illustrate the appeal to a reader’s pathos Miller writes, “I have been near to murdered everyday because I done my duty pointing out the Devil's people-and this is my reward? To be mistrusted, denied, questioned like a-“ (108). When Abigail mentions she has suffered tremendously for her statements, even Mr. Danforth (a judge in the play) experiences sorrow for Abigail. Considering that a court official felt sympathetic towards Abigail, further elaborates on the fact that she uses her misleading appearance to exploit the hysterical town of Salem. With the assistance of her past experiences, and current ones, Abigail Williams is able to distress the other villagers and intensify their hysteric views.

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,

To follow, one can choose to resort to another lover or to isolate themselves from their family. Susie’s mother, Abigail may have been the one who took Susie’s death with greatest impact.

The characters in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones are faced with the difficult task of overcoming the loss of Susie, their daughter and sister. Jack, Abigail, Buckley, and Lindsey each deal with the loss differently. However, it is Susie who has the most difficulty accepting the loss of her own life. Several psychologists separate the grieving process into two main categories: intuitive and instrumental grievers. Intuitive grievers communicate their emotional distress and “experience, express, and adapt to grief on a very affective level” (Doka, par. 27). Instrumental grievers focus their attention towards an activity, whether it is into work or into a hobby, usually relating to the loss (Doka par. 28). Although each character deals with

Abigail was being accused repeatedly of lying and making up all of the accusations which were of false nature. The many people who were hung because of her testimony was what would now hang over her head. When she was brought before Mary Warren her false tears and outcries of pain were all an act, but in her mind she was the only one who was correct in her dealings. Abigail was for unfathomable reasons a port of knowledge through which the judges and lawyers convicted and sent to death those who were accused. The awful girl was but of one mind. She wanted revenge and to be back to her “love”, John Proctor. Abigail tried and tried repeatedly to get her hands on John, she tried to get his wife hanged, and when she couldn’t have him she decided that no one else could. Abigail soon began to accuse John Proctor of the precise thing she was known for, witchcraft. Abigail had been in the woods when the young Mary Warren went mute from the shock of seeing Abigail drink chickens blood and curse Goody Proctor, all of these happenings had to do with Abigail Williams, and now she would have to suffer through her own crucible, to figure out how she was going to get out. And though Abigail did narrowly escape the major shackles of her crimes, the guilt and foreboding of being a treacherous liar found her rumored to be a young prostitute in Boston. Forever to be alone and used. That was Abigail’s crucible and punishment for all the problems and

Abigail is a victim of society because the court gave her power which influenced her to continue in her games instead of the court questioning and looking into her theories. The fact that she had an awful uncle who “may [not] pray to God without [his] golden candlesticks upon the altar” (Miller 62) and would only care about himself especially when people start questioning witchcraft because “for surely [his] enemies will, and they will ruin [him] with it” (10). Her actions were also influenced because of the lack of authority from parents because “[she] saw Indians smash [her] dear parents heads on the pillow next to [hers]” (19) and has had to live with her selfish uncle. Along having no guidance from parents and especially not from her self-absorbed uncle, Abigail was heartbroken because the love of

During this essay I will introduce the main points involved in answering the proposed question. I will explore the certain aspects of Abigail’s personality and how it is an important role in portraying her reasons for her actions. I will also analyse the ways in which Abigail’s personality changes through the progression of the play. I will sum up which points have a bigger effect on her intentions and motivations and the effect she has on the characters of the play. I will support my reasons with quotations to justify its relevance.

     Abigail William’s aggressive personality easily persuades the other girls to follow her footsteps, and back up anything and everything she says. This personality also frightens people in the courtroom to question her truthfulness, or her relation with John Proctor. Due to her forceful behavior, the girls support Abigail, and therefore become entangled in her web of lies, sins, and murders.

Her mother chooses to ignore the abuse because she knows she will have to decide between her husband and daughter. Anney’s distance causes Bone to endure this evil on her own. Initially, Bone cannot share her experience because Anney was dealing with enough of her own problems with the miscarriage. As time passed, she lost further faith with her mother’s trust of Daddy Glen’s distorted versions of the truth, she has no one to reaffirm how special she is, so she starts thinking things like “I was evil” (Allison 110).

"Emotions are like waves. You cannot stop them from coming but you can decide which ones to surf". As described in this quote, we cannot delete our emotions but if we learn to surf the waves of our emotions and manage our thoughts and feel our feelings, we will be able to deal better with the difficult situations in life. Grief is the conflicting and strong emotion caused by the end of or change in a familiar pattern of behaviour. Each individual deals with grief in very different ways. In Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones" and William Shakespeare's "Hamlet", the main theme and emotion portrayed throughout the two works is grief with the intent of revenge. In Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones", the Salmon family find it difficult to grieve

So, after the news that Abigail and the other girls’ outlandish actions begins to spread like a wildfire, the hysteria in the community take over. Abigail only contributes to the hysteria by telling lie after lie just to cover up her wrongdoings. Abigail is dreading telling the truth, which has triggered hysteria to a dangerous level that otherwise, would not have been achieved.

Abigail started to tear up in the end cause she had realized what she had done. She wanted to imagine herself as the wife, and seeing her husband die, but that was not the case. Abigail jeopardized what she had thought was going on, but wasn’t. What I’ve learned about Abigail, and her lying ways is that they haven’t gotten her

soon starts to think that it is the work of the devil. Abigail is soon faced with the decision to act

The morning was cold and dark when Abigail lie awake in her bed, dark circles plastered under her eyes, like they had been for days. She had not slept for when she did horrible night terrors came to her; sequences of her being the next to hang while people cheered or the hanged coming out of the earth to get revenge on her for falsely accusing them of witchcraft. Abigail would wake with screams and tears, but no one would come to see if she was alright. She gave the girls enough motivation to obey her command but they all feared her to the point where no amount of motivation would make them be friends with her. Abigail was now completely alone in the world.

Abigail’s presence in the play is seen by the reader as dominant by the end of Act 1. She went through the play and constantly got better at lying and becoming more dominant in her role. By the end of the act, it was clear to see that Abigail was the protagonist in the story. Her actions of her lying in the play foreshadowed how she would be in the rest of the play. Abigail’s character in the book became a character that was hard for some readers to like by the end of