The Lovely Bones can be hard for me to relate to because I have never lost someone so close to me before. Susie’s family has to go through life, never truly understanding the reason for her death. They are always wondering if they could have done something to change Susie’s sad outcome. I never have had to deal with that kind of wondering.
The thing that keeps me reading and turning the pages is the author’s descriptions of the characters’ emotions—you can begin to comprehend and feel the pain and sorrow Susie’s family feels after her unexpected and unsolved murder. By the 100th page I could really see the differences in reactions from each character when it came to Susie’s death. Each family member has their own way of dealing with her death.
The author’s explanation on how Susie’s peers reacted to the news of her death, I thought, was interesting;
“…The story of my death began to travel through the halls of the school, receiving add-on nuances as all good horror stories do. They were hard-pressed to make the horror any more horrible than it was. But the details were still missing, the what and where and who became hollow bowls to fill with their conjectures. Devil. Worship. Midnight…” (38)
I thought the reaction from Susie’s classmates about her death was an interesting interpretation to the reactions many people have after they hear someone has died. They don’t know what the right thing to do is, so instead they do the wrong thing. In The Lovely Bones, the ‘right’ thing would be to comfort Susie’s family in their time of loss. But instead the young students do the ‘wrong’ thing; spread lies about Susie’s murder. In their attempts of grieving they ultimately end up blaming someone that isn’t to blame, Ray Singh. Ray Singh may be able to avoid the police’s questioning because of his air tight alibi. But he would never be able to avoid the accusing glances from his classmates no matter how innocent he may be. In real life people do the same thing. They, because of their bad judgment, end up making false stories to please themselves; not even thinking about who they may be hurting in the process.
2 comments:
Kyra, although I haven't read The Lovely Bones I loved your passage from the book, it really captured how an innocent story can get blown up easily with a few colorful additions. I also enjoyed your commentary on people's inability to do the "right" thing in difficult situations. Too many times in life, a person will find a scapegoat to give themselves an easy solution instead of simply owning up to the fact that they were uninformed of the action in the first place. Your post made me want to learn more about Susie's tragic death and the reactions of her peers!
I would definitely recommend The Lovely Bones to you Daria. Although I have only read the first 100 pages it is a good book, so far. The author, Alice Sebold, has this way of writing that makes you really feel for Susie and her family. The plot of the story sounded stupid to me at first, but after I thought about it harder I was curious. Now that I have started the book I am very glad I chose it for my outside reading book.
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