As time goes on, one grows more attached to the objects and people situated around them. They start to take these for granted, and one day, gradually can’t imagine life without them, leaving behind a gaping hole when they disappear. In the book The Lovely Bones, this hole is of Susie Salmon, a fourteen year-old who is raped and murdered. Her mother fills the hole with an affair and brittle smiles, her father with acts of vindication, her sister with Samuel and happiness, and her friends with one another. Despite all of the different character’s challenges, they each attempt to replace Susie, whether it is through physical or psychological means. Through its various characters, The Lovely Bones shows that a physical absence leaves behind the need to be replaced, and that what is chosen to replace the absence left behind grows to define the person.
In the case of Buckley, Susie’s younger brother, he is given a horse figurine as a way to keep Susie with him forever. Buckley, like most children, learns by looking around and basing his thoughts about what he sees around him. He looks up and sees his mother with her false laughter, his vindictive father, and his cautious sister; Buckley’s household is a mess of emotions. A horse can symbolize emotions running wild, those that are difficult to manage. Nevertheless, upon his awareness
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This leaves room for broad reader interpretation and demonstrates an overarching view of life that others will be able to relate to. Characters, such as Buckley, who at first seem wholly unaware of the situation, with a general naivete are shown at a different angle when one is exposed to how they deal with changes. The theme exposes the ever-changing variability of a character; for example, how an initial reaction (and its causations) can either stabilize or radically change given