The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

In the novel, the murder and rape of Susie Salmon is intensively described, “…cut into pieces… blood soaked into the soft, wet earth…” leaving no question in the reader’s mind as to what was happening or might have happened (Novel, Chapters 2-3). While in the movie version of the book, the murder and rape scene is not showed at all, only having to be assumed by showing Mr. Harvey, the murderer, bathing with his entire bathroom covered in blood. Also, the movie doesn’t mention rape at all, only that Susie was murdered, while the book is specific in saying that she was first raped, and then murdered (Movie). Towards the end of the movie, Susie enters the body of Ruth Connors, Ray’s best girl friend and a “medium” to the spirit world, while her and Ray are visiting the sink hole in their neighborhood, and kisses Ray (Movie). In the novel, Susie actually has sex with Ray when she enters the body of Ruth, with all details being explained explicitly.

Suppressing negative emotions and unresolved conflicts can eventually have an impact on different aspects of one’s life. Abigail has restrained her grief for so long, and as her husband’s pursuit to find Susie’s murderer tests her patience, she uses Freud’s displacement defence mechanism “as a means by which the impulse can be expressed-allowing a catharsis of the original emotion-but toward a safer target (GALE ENCYCLOPEDIA). Len Fenerman, the local detective, becomes Abigail’s doorway out of her pent up emotions. She indulges in an affair with him as he offers her security and an escape from reality. In heaven, Susie deliberates upon this action:

In the Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, the main character, Lauren Olamina, leaves behind Christianity, a religion that she identified with her whole life and creates a new religion known as Earthseed. Earthseed is a naturalistic way of faith, based on the idea that God is changeable, therefore life, too, could change. Lauren Olamina creates Earthseed because she believes that it is what her people need in order to not only alter their chaotic and misguided ways, but to live a pro-active and positive life.

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

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.

Another main influence in Hinton’s passion for writing was her father’s death. During Hinton’s sophomore year in high school, as she began to write The Outsiders, meanwhile her father was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and later died in her junior year, around the time she was finishing the book. Hinton turned to writing her novels as a way of coping with her father’s death. During an interview, Hinton’s mother said: “Susie was very close to her father, and I noticed that the sicker he became, the harder she worked”(Wilson, 16). Her father’s death is also portrayed in The Outsiders

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

Susie, watching this from afar, begins to understand that she was not Mr. Harvey's first victim (something she has already explained to the reader) and that he is a serial killer who has killed women young and old going as far back as 1959. As Lindsey explores Mr. Harvey's basement, the names and deaths of his other victims become known to Susie.

For example, each family member goes into Susie’s old room alone to grieve her death .They finally seem to realize that they need each other to get through this terrible time and accept that even though they will never have Susie back but can hope and try together to figure out what happened to Susie and who did it. Throughout the book they must learn to love each other again.The theme of grief is the most important theme in the novel. The Salmon family must learn to overcome the loss of Susie. Everyone grieves in their own way and finds a way to blame themselves or feel like its their own fault that the situation happened. Susie's family feels a sense of guilt for not being there for her. For example, Susie's father, Jack grieves for Susie.He feels like he wasn't there when his daughter needed him most which leads him to becomes obsessed with feeling responsible for finding the killer. Lindsey, Susie’s sister grieves over her sister by becoming a stronger person and not to talking about it. Susie’s also mourns her own death and the missed opportunity of getting to grow up, but more significantly, Susie grieves over the loss of living people. This theme allows us to understand the characters better.

Lastly, her family betrayed her by not listening to her side of the story after her sister told lies about her, and they betrayed her when they acted as if they did not care if she moved out of the house. In all of these actions, the family itself and certain members of the family are portrayed as uncaring, unsupportive, disrespectful, conniving, deceitful, and hateful to Sister. Through every action of the family, Sister is treated harshly, and she tries to not let this bother her. Yet, anger and bitterness build up inside of her until she cannot take it anymore. Consequently, it built up so much inside of her that it severely affected Sister so profoundly that she moved away from her home to get away from her family.

n the novel Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward presents a heartfelt story behind the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina through the perspective of the character Esch. From a depressed and drunken father to her three brothers, Esch lives in a world of men. While Esch’s father is busy preparing for the hurricane, her two older brothers, Skeetah and Randall, are often occupied fulfilling their own dreams and desires, leaving Esch in charge of their younger brother. Esch’s mother died giving birth to the youngest child, Junior, which forced Esch into the role of a motherly figure. At the mere age fifteen years old, Esch battles the realization that her life is falling apart.

The current paper tends to explore the conceptual literature illustrated in two different novels entitled as Outside the Bones and Delirium. Moreover, the presented paper will highlight the role of female protagonist and their mystical, ghostly, and paranormal influence in the narrations.

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

In the novels Oryx and Crake and Frankenstein, mental health impacts the main characters and their everyday lives. Each character has been through different life changes that influence their state of mind. To more thoroughly comprehend what each character is going through, this paper analyzes the life changes that occur due to each characters’ mental state.

A place where anything can happen, waiting for you, ready to attack without making a sound and kill you. This will be the stomping grounds of the twenty-four tributes, which will battle to the end, until one tribute is alone standing to become the victor. In the novel The Hunger Games, written by Suzanne Collins. Panem is described as having a cruel government. The Capital uses children from the ages of twelve through eighteen to battle to death. Katniss Everdeen is a sixteen year old. She took the place of her sister Primrose as tribute to fight the bloody battle in hopes of winning and becoming the victor so she may return home to protect Prim from unseen mishaps. Katniss will have many challenges in her way, if she wants to win and come home to protect her family from starvation. She will have to work through her impulsive, mistrust, and self-doubt to stay alive and make victor.