In the novel The Lovely Bones by Alice Seboldt, main character, Susie Salmon was murdered by her neighbor Mr. Harvey. Before Susie was murdered it seemed she was a sort of shy, very smart, very nice girl. When Mr. Harvey kidnapped her she did struggle, don't get me wrong, but she didn't lose her shyness and she still was not very loud, or angry as it was going on, just... sad, and scared.
Soon after Susie enters the inbetween land between heaven and earth where she watches everyone in her life's daily lives going on without her, Susie realizes that she can communicate with her family, especially her father and her sister. First she shows her father her face in a reflection, which triggers him knowing of her watching over him. Then she leads him to Mr. Harvey's backyard, where he sees her face again and becomes quite suspicious of Mr. Harvey. Later she shows her sister that it was Mr. Harvey who had murdered her. And this causes Mr. Harvey to get caught red handed for the murder of Susie Salmon.
It seems to me that Susie became more straight-forward and began caring about things in general more when she was dead. This may sound awful, like "oh she needed to die so that she became a better person" or something, but that's not what I'm saying. I just think that dying made her realize that she had taken things for granted and made her really feel a purpose, getting the man who had done this to her.
Maybe if she hadn't died she would have "grown" in these ways anyway but maybe it takes one big thing to happen so that all the little things fall into place. Like for example, losing a best friend or someone really important to you could cause you to realize how you have been acting a certain way the entire time, and it will make you decide to work on changing that little thing about you that lost you your friendship.
If you have ever had something big happen in your life that sort of put other small pieces together...COMMENT!!!
I agree with you that dying did help her 'grow' as a person. I also think that its not technically dying, thats just what it was for Susie, its having an event occur that will change your life forever. It really, could be anything. For example, as you said if you lose something or someone that means a lot to you, you might realize it was something you took for granted and can only then make you see how lucky you were to have it. I think that its really the life changing (for better or worse) that can help us become better and bigger people in the word and Susie is realizing that.
ReplyDeleteI read this book too and I agree with you. After she dies, Susie becomes more conscientious and she becomes a better person. She realized that she was taking life for granted and and she shouldn't have. She began to change, and help out everyone and be less shy. This worked out well, as her sister and father found out that she was murdered in Mr. Harvey's underground hideout. Great post!
ReplyDeleteI agree with both Carmen and maddy because she died to grow, many people go through a hard phase in there life where they do need to find something out by there own way. Also I think that both you and Sophie had the same idea in taking things for granted. I likes how you made me think that she had to die to learn but she also could have grown up more in a different way but a great response Carmen :)
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