The Lovely Bones and Beloved Essay - 1739 Words

A comparison of the ways that the dead affect the living in the novels Beloved by Toni Morrison and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. In the novels that I have chosen to study, several themes are prominent in both. Both novels deal with a brutal murder of a young female, and the impact surrounding her death. They also deal with the idea of the dead, directly or indirectly communicating with the living. The novels address the theory that ‘ghosts’ cannot move onto the next life until they have resolved unfinished business on Earth. The idea that the living are tied to those who die and untimely death is also present in both novels. As well as these themes which are present in both novels, the novels also share a similar non linear†¦show more content†¦Both books deal with the emotional affect that the dead have on the living. First, in The Lovely Bones, in the moments immediately after Susie’s death, her soul rushed towards Heaven and, as it did so; it touched a young girl called Ruth. Ruth was sensitive to this presence and despite not having known Susie well from that moment she became intrigued by her life and her death and began to form what would become a strong and eternal link between herself and the dead girl. As Ruth reaches adulthood she becomes sensitive to the dead and to the vibrations that exist in places where deaths had occurred. This affect is not only emotional but life changing; Ruth ultimately leads the police to seriously consider Mr. Harvey as the key suspect in Suzie’s murder. As Ruth is sensitive to those who have passed on, Susie is sensitive to those who remain living. She can read their thoughts, knows their motives, their emotions and their desires. She can remain close to those she loved, she watches over them and occasionally, when they are in a receptive mood, they can feel her presence. These episodes are explained in an extremely gentle manner by Sebold and in such a matter of fact way that it is impossible to doubt the veracity of what we are told. Sethe’s language is also used to express the emotional effects of her daughter’s death and troubled past. Instead of using the words remember and forget, Sethe uses the words rememory (both a noun and a verb here) andShow MoreRelatedThe Narrative Voice in the Lovely Bones 687 Words   |  3 Pages In the novel The Lovely Bones (TLB) by Alice Sebold, the narrative voice is the key technique that hooks the reader and compels him or her to turn over the page. While the author uses a number of other literary techniques to draw the reader in, it is the narrator’s voice that is this novel’s most interesting and appealing feature. The narrative voice in this novel is unique to other novels because the narrator is a girl named Susie Salmon who is speaking from heaven. 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