99 pages • 3 hours read
Alice SeboldThe Lovely Bones
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Coming of Age and Sexuality
A primary theme of the novel is coming-of-age, particularly as it pertains to sex and sexuality. Susie’s death occurs shortly after her first kiss, and she loses her virginity when Harvey rapes her. Susie’s sudden death denies her the experience of many coming-of-age moments, and her only sexual encounter is colored with pain, violence, and death. Susie can only vicariously enjoy crucial cornerstones as she watches her sister Lindsey grow up while Susie herself remains stuck in time. Susie watches Lindsey have her first kiss, lose her virginity, graduate high school and university, become married, and finally become a mother herself. At the climax of the novel, Susie is finally able to experience sex with Ray Singh, which she has always desired during her time in heaven. In contrast to her violent rape, her experience with Ray is tender and loving. Susie is then able to accept her death and move on to the true Heaven.
The novel also contrasts sexual experiences between the adult and youth generations. Jack and Abigail become estranged after Susie’s death, as do Ruana Singh and her husband. Similarly, Abigail stops sleeping with Jack and begins an affair with Fenerman. Abigail uses sex with Fenerman as an escape and as a willful forgetting of Susie, rather than the cultivation of a loving relationship. In contrast, Lindsey and Samuel’s experience is one of idealized true love. They are each other’s first crush, first kiss, and first sexual experience, and in contrast with the adults, we see no strife in their relationship, only love and understanding.
Grieving Traumatic Loss
The second major theme of the novel is how people process grief and loss, and the necessity of moving on from traumatic experiences. The novel defines the characters by how they process their own grief and loss, whether in productive or unproductive ways. Jack and Abigail process their grief in unhealthy ways, with Jack fixating on his investigation of Harvey and Abigail eventually leaving the family to live on her own in California. Fenerman loses his wife shortly after their marriage and fixates on his job, which leads him to feel intense guilt over cases he cannot solve. George Harvey also loses his mother when he is young, and his reaction is the most toxic of all, as he kills young women to achieve temporary spiritual peace.
The younger characters process their grief in healthier ways. Lindsey and Buckley both keep Susie in their hearts as they grow older. Although they never forget her, they move on with their lives and draw on her memory to give themselves strength. Ruth uses her connection with Susie to develop her second sight, which she utilizes to document the forgotten, murdered women and children of NYC. Ray becomes a doctor, yet he opens himself up to the possibility of life after death due to his experiences with Susie. Eventually, the characters are all forced to come to terms with and accept Susie’s death and absence (including Susie herself), which finally allows them to move on with their lives.
Isolation and Interconnectivity
Isolation serves as a major theme of the novel, related to the characters’ experience of grief and loss. Many of the major characters are outsiders: Susie watches life from heaven as a literal outsider; Ruth is a social outcast; the Singhs are the only family of color in Norristown; and the Salmons are treated differently because of Susie’s death.
Several characters also choose to isolate themselves, which the novel portrays as a particularly toxic and destructive response to grief. Abigail isolates herself, first mentally and then physically, after Susie’s death, and Harvey chooses to isolate himself so that he can stalk and kill his victims while diverting police suspicion. By the novel’s close, many characters end their isolation. As Abigail reconciles with her family and returns home, Susie sees “the lovely bones” of connections that have formed between her friends and family in her absence. Although Ruth chooses to maintain her isolation, she takes solace in it by documenting forgotten NYC victims. Harvey chooses to maintain his isolation, but unlike Ruth, he never experiences any growth. While the other characters form lasting and strong bonds with each other, Harvey’s fleeting connection with others is driven only by violence.
The Cycle of Construction and Destruction
The cycle of construction and destruction is another major theme of the novel. Harvey learns construction from his father, and he later builds dollhouses for a living as well as unique structures to kill his victims in. However, Harvey’s murders destroy not just one life, but entire families due to the grief they experience at the loss of a child.
Although Susie’s murder tears the Salmon family members apart, they eventually come back together to construct an even stronger family unit. This is most notable in the case of Lindsey and Samuel, who purchase and restore an old house that was slated for destruction. They also construct a new family with the birth of their daughter, Abigail Suzanne.
