Lovely Bones embarks people on an emotional journey of dealing with loss through the lens of the dead, willing for their loved ones to get over the grief and emptiness. I was satisfied with this novel because of the reunion that is shown later in the story. The author shows how Susie reached out to her family to save them from death. The novel leaves the issue of death unsolved because one cannot know where the other family members will go when they die. Will they join Susie, or will they have their heaven? I would have changed the ending to give Susie the ability to be reborn, fulfill her life just like her sister, and help her mourning family members.
The theme of this novel, running as a thread through every sentence, is the notion of loss, tragedy, and grief. More precisely, Lovely Bones is a book that explores the journey of contemplating and accepting death through grief and genuine interest in the fate of the deceased. At the beginning of the third chapter of the novel, Susie ponders the feelings of people who live through the loss, assuming that “the dead are never exactly seen by the living, but many people seem acutely aware of something changed around them” (Sebold 36). Indeed, one of the most challenging things about losing someone is the ignorance in terms of how the void of loss could be fulfilled and whether it would heal itself sooner or later.
In the pursuit of dealing with loss, people tend to seek answers and comfort in thinking that death might have been destiny’s manifestation for what was best at the time. For example, one of Susie’s closest friends on Earth, Ruth, tends to believe that living in heaven is even better for Susie than rotting on Earth and seeing the struggles of human life (Sebold 82). Finally, the new perception of the theme of death and loss presented by the author is that it is considered from the perspective of a dead person. In such a way, she emphasizes the mystery of life and death and what happens to people in the afterlife.
When talking about the significance of human death in order for the living to be passed on to other things after one’s death, Susie cannot help but question where the dead go (Sebold 145). In such a way, Susie contemplates her worthlessness in a world full of cruelty she can no longer confront. Hence, it may be concluded that the primary message of Lovely Bones is that allowing oneself to live through the grief does mean abandoning the memories of a loved one, as they will always be watching over them from the above.
The possible research question is how grief affects immediate family members after a murder. After the brutal murder of Susie, her family members grieved for a long time. They found it hard to forget her existence in the family. The family members knew their loved one had gone forever, and there was no way she would come back. It is evident from the novel that Susie would notice the unending grief and pain her family members were going through. She felt so remorseful about it and wished she would not pass away so early. However, it would also be beneficial to look into the process of accepting and letting go of guilt for the death of their loved one going on in her family.
Work Cited
Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones. Little, Brown, and Company, 2002.