Blog Entry #4

Blog Entry #4

Last week i went to Kanatal, this pretty little place in the mountains. So i'm writing the last eight chapters right now. School's just around the corner and I'm hurrying to make sure my holiday homework is done soon.

The troubles of being a student.

Chapter sixteen is about a small memorial for Susie, in which the entire neighborhood and some other people light candles in the cornfield where she died. Lindsey, Buckley and their dad go to pay their respects, but Mrs.Salmon stays behind. People sing songs and Susie feels at peace, knowing that she will soon be 'a little girl lost..'  Ruth and Ray develop a stronger friendship, and they kiss sometimes, but both of them reveal that they don't feel anything. When they kiss before the small memorial, Ruth feels something after all.

Between chapter sixteen and seventeen, there is a small chapter telling how everyone's life is turning out. 

Susie remembers how much she loved photography, and Mrs.Salmon leaves for her father's cabin far, far away.She gets a job in the winery and sends postcards to Buckley and Lindsey form time to time.  In the fall, Grandma Lynn comes to take care of the family. Lindsey goes to Len's office to inquire about Mr.Harvey's whereabouts and finds her mothers scarf there. She realizes the truth and breaks down n front of Samuel.  Buckley turns seven and writes about a boy named Billy who goes into a hole and never comes back out. The adults fail to understand its significance and praise him. Len knows that Mr. Salmon was correct, finding proof that Mr.Harvey was the murderer, and blames himself for the fact that no one can find him. Ray and Ruth move on to different cities, going to college and getting jobs. Neither of them forget Susie. More leads are found, and Len is more determined than ever to find Mr.Harvey. Samuel's brother, Hal, gets a lead on Mr.Harvey as well. In the end, the family dog, Holiday, meets Susie and is so delighted to see her that he knocks her down. 

Chapter Seventeen is all about Lindsey. After her graduation from college, she and Samuel go for a long drive on his motorbike but get caught up in the rain. While looking for shelter, they stumble upon a Victorian house, and Samuel remarks that 'he wants the house, he needs it'. Then he proposes to her, and the two run home where they tell everyone of their engagement, with champagne and laughter. Susie feels very happy and proud that Lindsey is moving on. 

In the next chapter, Ruth and Ray head back to see the sinkhole one last time before it is filled up. Buckley shows in interest in gardening, and decides to use Susie's old clothes for his tomato stakes. His father stops him, and Buckley gets angry, saying that he loved Susie more than all his other children. Mr.Salmon gets a heart attack, and is rushed to the hospital. All of his children, living and dead, surround him and pray that he recovers. 

Chapter nineteen is about Mrs.Salmon coming back home to see her husband. She sees how much her children have grown, and is upset that she missed most of it. Lindsey refuses to talk, and Buckley talks rudely to her, releasing all the hate he had been harboring for all those years. When Mr.Salmon wakes up, he sees possibility of him and his wife getting close again. 

Chapter twenty starts with Mr.Harvey feeling empty, and threatened. He has nightmares about the number 5, and Lindsey breaking into his house. Len does his best to catch Mr.Harvey, and Mrs.Salmon realizes that she misses her husband and her family. The chapter ends with her sleeping next to Mr.Salmon on his hospital bed, both of them crying for Susie.

Blog Entry #3

Blog Entry #3

I've been really busy with my brothers, and we're planning on a vacation somewhere up north maybe. Nothings final yet so i'm just wasting time reading and writing. So this is about chapters eleven to fifteen.

Chapter Eleven is about Mr.Salmon obsessing over the fact that Mr.Harvey killed Susie. He stops by his house and keeps on calling the police to look into the matter until finally, Len comes over to his house and tells him to let it go. Mrs. Salmon agrees with Len, and Susie's father begins to see their relationship developing and he feels truly alone. We go to Mr. Harvey's house, where we see that he counts his victim's belongings and animal's bones to stop himself from killing children. 

Late one night he sees a flashlight in the cornfield, and hits whoever it was with a baseball bat. It turns out it is Clarisse, who is waiting for Brian, her boyfriend. Hearing his girlfriend's screams, he attacks Mr. Salmon with his flashlight. Susie watches sadly from Heaven, and is permitted to go down to earth for one task: She blows out the candle in her fathers study.

In the next chapter, Mr.Salmon is in the hospital with surgery in his knee. When his family discovers he is not at home, Mrs.Salmon makes no move to go out and find him and instead she waits. When the hospital calls, she drives off, telling Lindsey and Buckley to stay at home. Lindsey drops Buckley off at his friends house and asks Hal to drive her to the hospital. She reaches before her mother and sings to her father.

Meanwhile, Mrs.Salmon meets up with Len in the hospital and he tells her that his wife committed suicide. They kiss, and Susie sees that her mother was never the person she wanted to be. Over the years, her father had grown closer to the kids, and her mother further away.

When she finally goes to see her husband, she is grateful to see that Lindsey and Buckley have each other.

Chapter thirteen starts with Lindsey returning to school as the sister of the dead girl, and the daughter of the psycho man. Buckley starts kindergarten as well, getting special treatment because of Susie. Susie starts to feel upset that everyone except her is growing up.

Mrs.Salmon drifts aimlessly through life, knowing that the first anniversary of Susie's death is coming up. Jack goes to his office work for comfort, and decides to work when the anniversary approaches. He also wants to be away from his wife, knowing that the two of them are drifting further apart.

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, Mr.Salmon plays with Buckley in the backyard. Susie is thankful that their relationship is growing stronger,and afterwards, Mr.Salmon sees Lindsey trying to shave. He gives her some tips and helps her, all while thinking that this is his wife's job. He tells Lindsey about Mr.Harvey, and how he thinks that he has murdered Susie. Lindsey doesn't say much, but she knows that she has to get inside Mr.Harvey's house and look for proof.

Thanksgiving arrives, and so does Grandma Lynn. She notices something wrong with her daughter,and when they go for a walk, her suspicions turn out to be correct- Mrs.Salmon is cheating on her husband. She tells her daughter to stop the affair immediately, and the two bond a little bit, with 'nuggets of truth' coming out. Mrs.Salmon goes off to Ray's mothers house to smoke some foreign cigarettes, and Grandma Lynn heads back home. Ray, upstairs in his room, wonders what would have happened if he had kissed Susie.

In the next chapter, Lindsey starts planning. She starts thinking about how she will break into Mr.Harvey's house and look for clues. Meanwhile, Mr.Harvey knows that the whole Salmon family suspects him and starts to feel a familiar itch. When Lindsey sees Mr.Harvey leave his house, she pretends to have a stitch in her side, and lags behind the other runners. She slips inside the house and looks for some clues.

She stumbles upon his sketchbook and while she's going through the pages, she hears a car come up the driveway. But she goes to the very last page, which is titled 'Stofluz Cornfield' which is where Susie was killed. She tears the page but Mr.Harvey hears her upstairs and runs to catch her. In a moment of panic, she jumps out the window, but Mr.Harvey sees her jersey number, 5.

Back at home she shows everyone what she found and tells her father that she believes him. Susie, meanwhile, meets with all of the girls who were murdered by Mr.Harvey and they share their stories. Susie feels like she is ready to move on to heaven, and feels her pain going away.

In chapter fifteen, we start off with Mr.Harvey's childhood. His mother used to make him shoplift, and when they were sleeping in the car one day, some drunk men tried to harass his mother, and she cleverly fooled them long enough to drive them over with her truck.

At the Salmon residence, they give the sketch to the police but Mr.Harvey makes excuses and when the police leaves, he starts packing up.

Len is not able to go and interrogate Mr.Harvey, as he is busy with Mrs.Salmon. Both of them spend time together at the mall, while the rest of the family waits for news about Susie's murder.

Blog Entry #2

                               

Blog Entry #2This has been a really busy week.  I went to my grandparents house, met up with my cousins and I managed to find enough time to re-read chapters six to ten of The Lovely Bones so i could write this.

Chpater six starts with Susie and Ray’s little romance. The two of them were good friends, and Ray was an indian smart boy who Susie thought was cooler than all the other boys in her class. When Susie was sneaking into the school because she was late she heard a voice say 'You are Beautiful, Susie Salmon.' She sees Ray and the two of them sit on the scaffold above the stage and talk. Then they hear a few teachers coming, and realize that Ruth is getting scolded for her drawings.  Ruth was in trouble, because she had drawn an actual female nude in art class, instead of the anatomy model. When the teachers finish scolding her, she sits there crying and Susie goes and asks to see her drawing.  Susie realizes Ruth is very talented, and says that 'Ruth went from weird to special for me then'.

After Susie's death, Ruth often spends her mornings in the cornfield and starts to feel a connection with Susie. Meanwhile, Ray is the prime suspect and he spends less time at school and is very reserved. One day he sees Ruth in the field and stops to talk with her, starting a new friendship.

Mr.Salmon talks with Ruana, Ray's mother about the murder, and who he thinks killed Susie. Detective Len Fenerman comes to the Salmon household and is alone with Mrs.Salmon. They talk about Len's missing wife and this is the start of their growing friendship.

                       Chapter Seven is mainly about Buckley, Susie's younger brother. He sees Susie kissing him goodnight and tells his friend Nate about it.They go through Susie's room and a find a small, blood covered twig. Buckley remembers how one day he choked on it and almost died, but Susie drove him to the hospital depsite being only 13, and saved his life. He remembers his sister and misses her.

The next chapter is about Mr.Harvey. For three months, he dreams of buildings, from all over the world. Eventually, dreams of children and women come back to him. Susie sees his childhood, his mother hlding him in her arms, his eyes focusing on her amber necklace. Mr.Harvey looks at his fathers sketchbook and gets nightmares about the time his father forced his mother out of the car, making her run away across the desert.  Harvey never sees her again. This gives us an insight into Mr.Harvey's life, who grew up in a terribly dysfunctional family. Chapter nine introduces Grandma Lynn, who does everything bad. She drinks, urges her granddaughters to use drugs to stay thin, wears a lot of make up, and is overbearing, but she brings a certain light into the house. She gives Mrs.Salmon and Lindsey a makeover and she and Mr. Salmon get drunk. Suddenly, Susie likes her grandmother a lot. Lindsey, after getting her make up done, realizes she looks very grown up now. The next day, for Susie's memorial she looks in Susie's wardrobe for something to wear and grandma Lynn is helping her. She decides on a dark blue minidress to look good for Samuel. At the memorial Samuel and his brother Hal wait for Lindsey, and detective Len lets his eyes wander on Mrs. Salmon. Mr. Salmon reflects on how after Susie's death, his wife is a different person. Mrs.Salmon is hostile to Clarissa, Susie's friend, and Clarissa realizes that things are now different.                                                                    

Ray has his own prive memorial for Susie, keeping her photo in his poetry book so it can be preserved forever. Back at the church, Mr. Harvey makes eye contact with Lindsey, and while she faints he slips away. As the next chapter opens, Lindsey, Samuel and Ruth are attending the Statewide Gifted Symposium. Lindsey and Samuel easily adust but Ruth constantly feels like she doesn't belong. The last week of the symposium is ddevoted to a mousetrap designing competition. Lindsey instead designs a small house for the mice, not wanting to kill them. Samuel doesnt say anything, since he knows that the sudject of death is still sore for Lindsey. Ruth and Lindsey talk about their dreams and how much they miss Susie. The symposium ends with a new project: How to get away with the perfect murder. Everyone is excited and thinking of ways, but Lindsey gets a bit of a shock. She tries to stay in control, like she always has. But she almost cracks because of the competiton, and Samuel, the only one who knows her pain, gives her the one thing only he can give her and she will accept only from him: his love.

                     

Blog Entry #1

Blog entry #1

I first read Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold sometime during my winter vacations. I was bored, and when I found the e-book online, I thought of it as an ordinary novel and started reading it. When I finished reading it, however, I fell in love with it almost immediately.

Now, I have lots of favourite authors, but then you have authors whom I love for their writing style, and authors whom I respect for their writing style.

I would say that Alice Sebold is somewhere in between the two categories.

Her book, Lovely Bones, set in a small town near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1973 to 1981, describes how the murder of Susie Salmon affects the rest of her family. The family goes through the five stages of grief, as mentioned below in detail, and in the end, comes to terms with her death.

The five stages of grief are:

1. Shock or denial- The first reaction is denying the reality. You cannot believe your loved one is dead, and believe it to be a mistake. 

2. Anger- As the denial begins to wear off, you start to feel angry. You feel angry towards objects, strangers, and even the deceased person.

3. Bargaining- This is when you start to think 'If only we sought medical attention earlier', 'If only i was a better person' and other 'If only's. 

4.Depression- The sadness you feel when you are preparing to let go of the person. Sometimes, all you really need is a hug. 

5.Acceptance- You finally accept the fact that yoru loved one is gone, and are finally moving on. 

The first chapter starts with ‘My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie.’

This sentence has a lot of power and importance in the sotry as it is used by Susie to identify herself, and because even after she goes to heaven, she is still Salmon, like the fish, with the first name susie. Its one thing that doesn’t change, its who she is, and is used by her to identify herself.

The chapter describes how George Harvey, a young bachelor who lives in the same neghburhood as Susie lures her into his hiding place, which he claims is a clubhouse for the kids. Susie tries to leave, but instead he violates her body, stuffs her hat into her mouth to keep her quiet and stabs her with his knife, hacking her body into separate parts.  We must remember that in 1973, people refused to believe that girls could get raped and murdered. Also, a fourteen year old girl back in those days had the maturity of an eleven year old girl nowadays. Susie noticed the warning signs but naively followed him into his underground hiding place.

The second chapter deals with Susie reflecting on her dreams for her life- visiting high school, setting an example, having a boyfriend- all the things she would never get a chance to do. She goes to heaven, and makes friends with a girl named Holly. Heaven is said to be a place where you get whatever you want, whenever you want. When the girls meet their mentor, Fanny, they realize they have unconsciously been wishing for a mother.

Meanwhile, back on earth, her family refuses to accept the loss of their daughter, saying ‘Nothing is ever certain.’  (This is the first step in the five stages of grief- shock and denial) Susie’s elbow is found by a dog, but even then her mother remains optimistic, saying that her daughter can survive without an arm. Soon, her school books and notebooks are found as well. When her hat is found, her family enters the second stage of grief- anger. Her mother wails and her father cries, while her sister Lindsey builds up walls around her to portect herself. She starts distracting herself by studying and working out, pushing everyone away from her.

In chapter three, she recalls the night she died. That night, she ran into Ruth, a girl from her school. Ruth wasn’t very popular in school, preffering art over sports. Ruth sees Susie's soul going to heaven, and while her mother blames her imagination, Ruth starts writing poems to help her cope. She starts investigating Susie’s death.

At the Salmon household, Lindsey, while going through Susies room, finds a few photographs. We learn that Susie was an avid photographer, and one of the best photos she had taken was of her mother. Her mother was without any make-up, any jewellary, she wasn’t the well presented woman everyone else saw. That was a new, mysterious side to their mother that neither Susie nor Lindsey have ever seen.

Her dad gets the courage to visit the upstairs room that is full of ships in bottles. He and Susie used to spend hours working on those bottles, and in a fit of rage, he breaks all of them. Susie accidently reveals herself in the glass pieces but her father believes he is going crazy and laughs. He reflects on how much he loves Buckley, his son, and that Susie lives on in him, and how he must stay strong for his children.

The next chapter describes how Mr.Harvey disposed of Susie’s body, by throwing it in the sinkhole. Her father starts to suspect Mr.Harvey, saying that he is wary of the man and is sure that he has something to do with Susie’s murder.

Chapter five deals with her father asking the detective assigned to Susie’s case, Len Fenerman to question Mr. Harvey. He does so, and finds nothing suspicious about him. However, Mr.Harvey slips up, calling his late wife ‘Leah’, which puzzles Susie’s dad as he thought his wife’s name was ‘Sophia’. It is revealed that both of these names belonged to girls who were killed by George Harvey.

It is Christmas day, and the Salmon family gets a surprise from Samuel, a boy form Lindsey’s grade. He gives Lindsey a gift, and Mr.Salmon finally tells Buckley that his sister is dead. Samuel and Lindsey kiss, and Susie says she feels ‘alive’, watching her sister move on and be happy.