The Lovely Bones Susie Ross Model Of Grief

The Lovely Bones is the story of a young girl named Susie Salmon who is raped and murdered by her neighbor, she describes the repercussions in post mortem as she looks down from heaven. From her point of view we see her family grieve and then eventually come to terms with her absence. Susie’s mysterious murder has a vast effect on her entire town. From her friends, to her family, even the girl Ruth with whom she only has short, limited engagements. As Morrie Schwartz said: “Maybe death is the great equalizer, the one big thing that can finally make strangers shed a tear for one another”. Susie unintentionally creates a chain of events when she leaves. She leaves her parents and siblings in a wake of devastation, not knowing where to turn without their third daughter. When a loved one dies, many people experience at least one of the stages of grief. Also known as the the Kübler-Ross model, the five stages of grief is a sequence of emotional stages experienced by people who have lost someone. The five stages include denial,

She first experiences denial when she her sisters death is confirmed she is in a state of denial. She deals with her grief by feigning apathy about the entire event. She believes that if she can ignore her emotions then the pain of Susie's death won't get the best of her. Lindsey keeps her feelings to herself and watches her parents painstakingly search for evidence and hide the event from the youngest Salmon child, Buckley who is too innocent and young to understand what has happened. She refuses to accept Susie’s untimely death. For example, One of her teachers, Mr. Caden calls her into his office to discuss the event. Instead of crying or getting upset, she simply sits there, motionless and expressionless. It appears as if Lindsey is suffering in silence so that she can be the strong one in her family for everyone else during this painful