Lovely Bones- Themes and Symbols by Neil Hussey https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/lbthemessymbols Symbols and themes en-us 2022-05-08 11:03:18 UTC 2026-01-04 08:34:09 UTC hello@padlet.com nhussey1973 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/lbthemessymbols/wish/2174340081 2022-05-08 11:04:27 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/lbthemessymbols/wish/2174340081 Susie's photographs https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/lbthemessymbols/wish/2175639112 - Susie is able to watch people grow up and remember who they were in the snapshot of memories she takes 
- her omniscient nature highlights how in heaven she resembles an observer and embodies the nature of voyeurism, however even with all of the spectating, humans are too complex to condense and that will remain an elusive component to the living - Susie also cannot reach this in her hyper-reality because she's not allowed to grow up physically but through a bildungsroman perspective she can grow up metaphorically/spiritually

- links to the idea of her being a dead, homodiegetic narrator due to the fact that she is omniscient, but also highlights elements of mundane realism in fantasy because she is a dead character who is able to use her powers to traverse through time to see snapshots of people's lives in order to preserve and reflect on them]]> 2022-05-09 12:53:50 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/lbthemessymbols/wish/2175639112 the snow globe https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/lbthemessymbols/wish/2175646946 - Jack reassures Susie that the penguin is not lonely, but instead 'trapped in a perfect world'
- Susie lives in her own hyper-reality which is a version of her own heaven tailored to her needs and filtered from things she likes and dislikes --> she is 'trapped' and alone in a 'perfect' world, although this is her idealistic scenario of dreams, she doesn't commit to making her world perfect but instead she spends time looking down onto the world of the living full of imperfections
- snow globe = susie's alienation and isolation from the world and the living which she has been torn apart from too early 
- trapped = dynamic verb and it places Susie as the object due to the fact that to be in heaven was a passive decision and one made by Mr. Harvey
- links to consumerist America, everyone wanted an individual gain/world]]> 2022-05-09 12:58:46 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/lbthemessymbols/wish/2175646946 Injustice https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/lbthemessymbols/wish/2175647979 Harvey doesn’t get brought to legal justice, but a natural one- police are incompetent and ‘legal procedures provide a false comfort’ for people/the Salmons- Harvey’s victims never get proper official justice 

Natural justice- Susie doesn’t linger on Harvey’s death so doesn’t give him the satisfaction of being remembered or thought of ]]> 2022-05-09 12:59:24 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/lbthemessymbols/wish/2175647979 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/lbthemessymbols/wish/2175648346 - depict a graphic and despicable act of violence. Mr. George Harvey, who lives across the street from the Salmon family, is a killer of girls and women.  
- Mr. Harvey lures Susie into an underground structure he has built, describing it to her in alluring terms as a kind of hiding place or clubhouse for neighborhood kids. He rapes and murders her, and then dismembers her and locks the pieces of her body in a safe. He deposits the safe into a sinkhole on the edge of town, commonly used by the residents of Norristown.
- The injustice of this crime begins to seem impossible to solvw, it appears as if Susie’s murder will never be solved, and justice will never be served. 
- Susie—narrating from beyond the grave—learns that she is not George Harvey’s only victim. He has killed many girls and women, and their murders too have gone unsolved for years. In the end,  Lindsey, Jack, and the police force discover George Harvey’s guilt, Harvey evades capture by fleeing Norristown.
-   cosmic justice is indeed served when Harvey is killed by a falling icicle, but Susie’s family remains unaware of Harvey’s death, and is left to find a sense of closure in the absence of legal justice. - Sebold—a victim of sexual violence herself—suggests that perhaps legal, procedural justice provides a false comfort, and that the only fight against the humiliating injustice of such violent crimes is the healing that comes from within. 

- Jack Salmon is distraught after his daughter’s death, and is initially unable to uncover anything that might help the investigation bring her killer to justice. - - Jack’s desire to bring Harvey to justice begins to overwhelm and consume him. One night, while watching the street from his window, Jack sees a light moving towards the cornfield and believes it is Harvey. Jack takes a baseball bat and, follows the light out to the cornfield. When he encounters the person he believes to be Harvey, he threatens to “finish” him—only to realize that the person he has followed is Susie’s friend from school, Clarissa, who has come to the cornfield to meet her boyfriend, Brian Nelson. 
- Believing that Clarissa is actually Susie, Jack runs toward her, prompting Brian to tackle and beat Jack. Susie, watching the scene from heaven, turns away from the violence, wishing that her poor father would “go away and leave [her] be.” 
- Sebold fuels her argument by coming at it from the other side—suggesting that sometimes the search for justice is both violent and futile, and only ends up creating more pain for those who seek relief.
]]> 2022-05-09 12:59:34 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/lbthemessymbols/wish/2175648346 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/lbthemessymbols/wish/2175648559 Susie is isolated in the perfect world of heaven. It is a metaphor for the emotional isolation and alienation caused by George Harvey’s horrific rape. The death causes Susie to have a lonely imperfect heaven whilst watching her family suffer with effects of grief. ]]> 2022-05-09 12:59:42 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/lbthemessymbols/wish/2175648559 desire and longing https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/lbthemessymbols/wish/2175653120 - portrayed as destructive forces, they are disruptive serving to lead characters who allow themselves to be controlled by their own desire down unlikely, unpredictable paths 
- characters are defined by their desires
Susie - in heaven longs for her family and friends
Abigail - longs for Len
Jack - longs for Abigail
Mr Harvey - longs for dominance and destruction]]> 2022-05-09 13:02:24 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/lbthemessymbols/wish/2175653120 https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/lbthemessymbols/wish/2175657974 Justice is ultimately achieved but it’s referenced passively almost as a footnote to the novel. Seabold presses the idea of acceptance and personal growth over justice and revenge. He died alone, the finale to his lifelong internalised isolation. There’s an allusion to the fact that Susie was responsible - reference to the icicle previously in the novel, as well as the idea that she could exert some force in the real world outside her heaven but there’s a lack of an emotional engagement. Whether or not it was Susie, it must be seen as cosmic justice whereby nature finally manages to prevent him. The novel comes full circle in that both Harvey and Susie are killed in a winter month in an isolated area. ]]> 2022-05-09 13:05:14 UTC https://padlet.com/nhussey1973/lbthemessymbols/wish/2175657974