An alternative view of death in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones
投稿類別:英文寫作
篇名:
An alternative view of death in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones
作者：
林偉鈴。屏北高中。高二五班
楊淳瑄。屏北高中。高二五班
指導老師:李忠剛 老師
An alternative view of death in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones
I. Introduction
A. Abstract
This essay attempts to examine how the death of the protagonist, Susie Salmon,
is dealt with and finally accepted in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones. Criticisms
regarding Susie’s death are basically divided into two camps: affirmative and
condemning. The former affirms the author’s depiction of the heaven and the
afterlife, arguing that love will eventually conquer the mischief in life. In contrast,
the latter condemns the author’s deliberate avoidance of the cruel facts of rape and
murder. The beauty of heaven is undermined by the fact that the murderer is not
brought to justice. Between the opposition of these two views, we intend to present
an alternative perspective by analyzing Sebold’s narration, which seldom mentions
the details of rape and murder. Sebold’s calm narration, corresponding to Susie’s
role in heaven as a watcher, distances readers from the cruel and terrifying crime of
murder. Justice or revenge is never Sebold’s concern in writing this novel. Rather,
it is how the living get over the grief of losing their beloved family that Sebold’s
concern lies in. Accepting the death makes it possible to redeem the victim and
carry on the life of the living.
B. Motivation
We chose The Lovely Bones because both of us have read this novel. We are
interested in its theme, about how a girl faces the abrupt death that falls upon her.
We can’t help thinking that if such misfortune happened to us or our family, how
would we face it?
This novel pushes us to think about this issue of death and love.
C. Plot synopsis
"My name was Salmon like the fish; first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was
murdered on December 6,1973" ( Sebold 2002). The story begins with a calm
first-person narration. The narrator and also the main character, Susie, was brutally
raped and murdered. She was killed at a very young age. Susie couldn't accept her
death at first. Upon her death, she still had many things that she hadn’t finished yet;
however, she had no choice but to act as a “watcher,” looking down at her family
from the heaven.
Susie's father tried to track down the murderer.
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Yet he was badly hurt when
An alternative view of death in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones
he followed the murderer, who was their neighbor, Mr. Harvey. Susie's mother
couldn't accept her daughter's death, wither, and she chose to leave home. Susie's
younger sister, Lindsey, went to Mr. Harvey's house to search for the evidence of his
crime. As time went by, Susie as well as her family gradually accepted her death.
The life of the Salmon Family went back to normal, with Susie bidding farewell to the
her beloved family from the heaven.
II. Context
A. Literature review
Regarding Susie’s death, some critics argue that how death is accepted
through love, as Michiko Kakutani points out, “The novel is an elegy, much like
Alice McDermott's 'That Night,' about a vanished place and time and the loss of
childhood innocence. And it is also a deeply affecting meditation on the ways in
which terrible pain and loss can be redeemed -- slowly, grudgingly and in
fragments -- through love and acceptance” (Kakutani 2002). Though Susie is
brutally murdered, the focus of the novel is to elaborate how Susie and her family
come to accept her own death.
In contrast, other critics are reserved about Alice Sebold’s beautifying the
after life. Nicholas C comments, “I blame it completely on the fantasy world
sequence. It took me out of the really interesting parts of Lovely Bones just so that
it can show me some nice effects, which are great eye candy but completely
unnecessary. I thought they should have just stuck with the story of the family and
the murderer” (C 2010). Sebold describes the heaven as colorful and
wish-fulfilling; however, the fantasy world of heaven has no direct influence on the
real world. Therefore, the beauty of heaven is unable to ease the pain and agony
that the Salmons have to suffer. In this sense, the transcendence and beauty of
heaven are undermined by its inability to affect the world of the living.
Furthermore, some critics notice that Sebold deliberately avoids discussing
why the murderer is not punished legally. The murderer, Mr. Harvey, died from
falling off a cliff accidentally. Xan Brooks contends, “Gone is the dismembered
body part that alerts the family to Susie's fate. Gone is her anguished mother's
adulterous affair with the detective who leads the case. Gone is all mention of what
really transpired in that lonely 1970s cornfield. Is this really the best way to secure
a crime scene and retrieve the victim” (Brooks 2009)? Brooks suggests that if the
murderer is not brought to justice, the crime cannot be easily forgiven.
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An alternative view of death in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones
B. Interpretation to Susie’s death
1. Narration
Sebold’s narration unravels how she attempts to convey about Susie’s
death. Susie’s first-person narration is generally calm and restrained from
being overly emotional. Even when Susie described in detail how she was
murdered by Mr. Harvey, the tone of her narration is calm rather than resentful
and agonizing. In the end of the novel, there is only one page describing Mr.
Harvey’s accidental death, told with the none-emotional tone as if Susie were
describing a person unrelated to her. Moreover, the description of Mr.
Harvey’s death was soon followed by Susie’s joyful mention of the birth of her
cousin. Sebold’s narration shows that the birth of a baby is more important
than the death of the murderer. This suggests that Sebold does not intend to
make her novel a detective or crime-solving novel in which the murderer will be
tracked down and punished by law. Rather, Sebold wants to present how to get
over the sudden mischief such as death. The following is our analysis of the
characters in the novel, with the attempt to clarify how Susie and her family
gradually accepted her death.
2. Character analysis
(1)Susie
Susie was very sad and outrages about her death at first. She wished
the murderer could die. What she couldn't accept was that she was already
separated from her family. She began to be a "watcher" in heaven. She
thought if she kept watching her family, she would not lose them. However,
she felt helpless because she was unable to affect their life. After having sex
with Ray, the boy she liked, she was willing to leave the human world. Susie
understood some parts of life were helpless and fragile. She had to accept the
fact that she was already dead. Although her death was shocking to her
family, their life would still carry on.
(2)Susie’s father
Susie's father, Jack, couldn't accept her death in the very beginning.
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An alternative view of death in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones
He was angry and sorrowful about Susie's death. Why his daughter? He
cried when he was alone. Susie and her father used to collect bottles and
squeeze model ships into them together. After Susie was missing, he broke
the bottles one by one. At that moment, he seemed to see Susie's face in
the broken pieces of the bottle glass. For more than once, he couldn’t help
crying in Susie's room. He was desperate to find the murderer who had
killed his daughter. One night, he saw a light in the corn field where Susie
was murdered. He thought the murderer was hiding there. He rushed
there, taking a baseball bat with him. There he saw a crying girl, Clarissa,
a friend of Susie. She was expecting her boyfriend. The murderer, Mr.
Harvey, was also hiding in the bushes. Clarissa's boyfriend, Brian, thought
Susie's father did something bad to Clarissa. Hence, he was very angry and
he took away the baseball bat from Susie's father and beat him hard. Jack
was heavily injured. A few years passed, but Jack still couldn’t get over
Susie’s death. He loved his daughter very much. As time went by, he
understood that he eventually had to let go and go back to normal life with
his family. Thus, he accepted Susie's death gradually.
(3)Susie’s Mother
Susie's mother was very sorrowful about her daughter's death.
She
couldn't accept her death, and neither dare she touch the scar left by it. She
even couldn’t enter Susie's room. At this troubled time, she had an affair
with a police detective who was investigating Susie's case. She even left
home, choosing to escape. After a period of time, she went back home,
since she still loved her husband and children. She wanted to begin a new
life again, with her family. Finally, she was able to enter Susie's room.
Stroking Susie’s clothes and quilt, she whispered, “I love you, Susie." She
put daffodils in her room, flowers that Susie loved. It shows that she
needed time to get over Susie’s death. Her love and missing of Susie did
not change at all.
(4)Susie’s younger sister
Lindsey, Susie’s younger sister, was also very sad and confused about
Susie’s death. She didn't want anyone to mention Susie in school.
Simultaneously, she started to suspect their neighbor, Mr. Harvey, who might
have killed Susie. She sneaked into Mr. Harvey's house while he was away.
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An alternative view of death in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones
Lindsey found s notebook, and on one of the pages there was a drawing of a
corn field where Susie was murdered. Lindsey tore the page off. At the
same time, Mr. Harvey arrived home. He sensed something strange in his
house. He ran to his room, and before he could grab her, Lindsey
successfully escaped through the window. However, this evidence was not
strong enough to accuse Mr. Harvey.
Lindsey had a boyfriend, Samuel. They loved each other very much.
Lindsey and Samuel got married after they graduated from college.
Lindsey wished Susie could live a happy life in heaven. At another end of
the world, Susie was also glad that Lindsey was blessed to have a man who
loved her so much. Lindsey missed her sister, and kept her in mind. She
knew that if she found happiness in her life, her sister would be happy for
her. As a result, pursuing happiness in her marriage is one of the ways
Lindsey accept Susie’s death and express her missing for Susie.
(4)Susie’s younger brother
Buckley Salmon is the youngest child in the Salmon family. When
Susie died﹐Buckley was at such a young age that he thought his sister just
did not come home rather than die.
At that time﹐he did not understand
what death means. Sometimes, he saw Susie at home. He was so happy
that she was back, but he knew she would no longer play and talk to him
again. He missed her so much that he kept in mind the past precious
moment with Susie. Since then, he knew he had to be strong, not childish,
and be a solid support for his parents.
(5)Grandma Lynn
Compared to other family members’ shock and grief, Granma Lynn
was calm in face of Susie’s death. Though She felt sad and regretful﹐she
was not trapped in depression but instead tried hard to help her daughter﹐
Abigail Salmon, to face Susie’s death instead of escaping from it. By
drinking, smoking and making a mess of the housework, Grandma Lynn
relieves her grief of Susie’s death. The character Grandma Lynn shows a
practical attitude toward death. To a certain extent, Grandma’s practical
attitude supports the Samson Family to go through difficulty, especially
when Abigail was absent from the role as a mother.
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An alternative view of death in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones
(6)Holly
Holly is Susie’s friend in heaven. She told Susie that she should
keep going on, not to look back and accept the truth that she was already
dead. However﹐she knew it was not easy for anyone to everyone to
accept one’s death in the very beginning. Gradually, Holly convinced
Susie to abandon the past and initiated a new life in heaven.
III. Conclusion
When faced with one’s death﹐what would a person do?
In The Lovely Bones,
Alice Sebold probes this issue by granting her protagonist a standpoint from the
heaven to observe and contemplate on her death. Also, the fact that Susie’s family
have to struggle for a way in face of Susie’s death shows death is an ultimate issue
everyone of us has to face one day. We like a sentence in the novel: “When the dead
are done with the living, the living can go on other things” (Sebold 145). The dead
would wish their beloved family to carry on with their life. After reading the novel,
we have a broader view of death, thinking that there might be someone protecting us
all the time. It may be our ancestor or someone who used to be close to us. In this
sense, there is a connection between the living and the dead. So, death becomes less
terrifying since it is less nothingness than a boundary. With love and missing toward
the dead, we may be able to cross that boundary. This is our view of death.
IV. References
1. Sebold, Alice. (2002). The lovely bones. New York: Back Bay Books.
2. C, Nicholas. (2010). The Lovely Bones: Review. Retrieved Nov 10, 2012, from
http://voices.yahoo.com/the-lovely-bones-review-3179037.html?cat=38
3. Kakutani, Michiko. (2002, June 18). BOOKS OF THE TIMES; The Power of Love
Leaps The Great Divide of Death. New York Times. Retrieved Nov 10, 2012, from
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/18/books/books-of-the-times-the-power-of-loveleaps-the-great-divide-of-death.html
4. Brooks, Xan. (2009, Nov 24). The Lovely Bones. The Guardian. Retrieved Nov 10,
2012, from
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/nov/24/the-lovely-bones-film-review
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