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Themes In The Lovely Bones By Alice Sebold

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Is the thought of grievance or loss dawning on you? In "The Lovely Bones," by Alice Sebold, tells the story of a, 14 year old, teenage girl, Susie Salmon, who was raped and murdered by her neighbor, Mr. Harvey. Susie watches from heaven as the Salmon family mourns her death. The Salmon family has a difficult time dealing with Susie's disappearance. However, Susie tries to help her family to move on, but unfortunately, things begin falling apart and Susie's family undergoes different stages of grief. I the novel The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold shows the toll grief can take on people through the use of mood. One of the stages of grief is anger. Many times, the pain of losing a loved one is often redirected and expressed as anger. The anger that …show more content…

Although this is the final stage, not everyone who loses a loved one reaches this stage. Some people may not be able to move past the anger and denial that they experience. The people who reach this stage of grief are not in a state of depression, but they are also not in a state of happiness. In the novel, Susie’s father, Jack Salmon, says, “Last night it had been my father who had finally said it, ‘She’s never coming home.’ A clear and easy piece of truth that everyone who had ever known me had accepted. But he needed to say it, and she needed to hear him say it.” (p. 289). The loss that people experience will forever be a part of their lives. Just because they have accepted the fact that their loved one is no longer with them does not mean that they no longer feel the pain of the loss. Acceptance of the loss of a loved one simply means that those who are affected by this loss are ready to try to move on, to try to carry on life without the person that they have lost. In “The Lovely Bones”, Alice Sebold describes three stages of grief; anger, depression and acceptance. Some people may or may not go through every stage of grief but accepting the loss of a loved one, is probably the most detrimental things to go through on Earth. By the end of this novel the Salmon family finally comes to the realization that Susie will never come home and her disappearance is going to be something that they will have to live

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