The Lovely Bones Research Paper

“The Lovely Bones,” written and published in 2002 by Alice Sebold, is a novel following the unfortunate rape and murder of a young girl as she narrates her story from the heavens. What most people don't know about the author of this book, is that her inspiration for such controversial work stemmed from her own traumatic experiences. Alice Sebold was born on September 6, 1963, in Madison, Wisconsin. She was the daughter of two ¨academic parents,¨ and notably grew up in a ¨household dominated by dysfunction¨ (Biography). Her mother was a weak woman who reportedly suffered from both panic attacks and anxiety. These two unfortunate disabilities only served to fuel the woman's alcoholic tendencies, which left both Sebold and her older sister Mary

With other undisclosed issues at home between the family, Sebold was said to take on the role of the ¨family moron¨ (Biography). As life passed by, Sebold graduated from high school and attempted to put some distance between herself and her family as she enrolled at Syracuse University in the fall of 1980; however, tragedy struck within the first year of attending college. It was reported that as she walking back to her dorm, she was suddenly attacked and raped in the cover of a street tunnel. She made it back to her friends in time to be taken to the hospital, and the attacker was eventually apprehended and dealt with. Unfortunately though, with Sebold, it seemed that the universe was out to get her. She later wrote about the incident saying, "In my world, I saw violence everywhere," she continued, "It was not a song or a dream or a plot point," (Biography). Even after the fact, she was met with little support from her parents, and had fallen so far that she even experimented with heroin for a short

Katherine Bouton from the New York Times states, ¨It takes a certain audacity to write an uplifting book about the abduction and murder of a young girl,¨ (Bouton). She goes on to say Sebold is able to take the metaphor of ¨bones¨ and flip such clichés upside down by offering her own abstract opinion; bones should be seen as the structure on which living things are built rather than the remains of a victim (Bouton). I believe that Bouton makes a solid point; after learning about Sebold's own experiences, I found it empowering that she was determined to make good out of the bad that happened to her. If that does not show strength, then I don't know what does. Becky Ohlsen from the BookPage Review states, ¨When you kill off your narrator in the first 10 pages of a novel and tell readers who the killer is you'd better have one compelling story up your sleeve. Alice Sebold does¨ (Ohlsen). Compelling doesn't even begin to describe the raw emotion that was put into the creation of this story, however, I agree with Ohlsen´s statement. The novel, right from the start, catches the reader's attention and doesn't let go. With such a huge reveal in only the beginning, much is to be expected for the rest that is yet to come, and Sebold does more than provide for her readers. Lastly, although several reviews were positive, Sebold was faced with a large amount of negative backlash not only because the controversy