The Lovely Bones

The following questions on each chapter will help guide you in analysing the writer’s craft. First, consider how the writer begins to create a fictitious world in the opening of the novel:

  1. Even before the first chapter begins, the novel opens with a short text about the snow globe on Susie’s father’s desk. What does this extract reveal about the relationship between Susie and her father? How is the snowglobe symbolic?
  2. The reader is informed in the opening sentence of Chapter One, by Susie herself, that she has been killed. How might the creation of a ghost narrator help the author tell their story?
  3. What genre do you think this story will be and what are you expectations?

Chapter One

  1. What do you learn about the principal characters from the first few pages of Chapter One? Give examples and explain your interpretation. Consider Susie’s interpretation and portrayal of Mr. Botte and the Susie-peed-on-Lindsey story.
  2. Consider how the writer orders information in the first chapter. When does the reader become aware that Mr. Harvey is dangerous and what are the clues? What is the effect of revealing that the crime happened before we see it take place?
  3. How does Sebold show the power imbalance between Susie and Mr. Harvey?
  4. When Susie is physically attacked and loses the struggle, the writer uses analepsis to show Susie thinking about her mother. Why? What is the impact on the reader?
  5. How do you feel at the end of the chapter? What had the greatest impact on you?

Chapter Two

  1. The start of Chapter Two throws the reader from the crime scene into the fantastical world of Susie’s heaven. As a result, the realism of the storyline is interrupted at a climactic moment by anti-realism. Why do you think the writer decided to do this?
  2. What does Susie’s heaven reveal about her?
  3. Read the middle section of Chapter 2 from, “For three nights he hadn’t known how to touch my mother…” to an entire family of rabbits would curl into themselves and die”. How could the poisoned rabbits be metaphorical?
  4. What evidence of racism is there Chapter Two toward the Singh family as Ray becomes a suspect?
  5. Read the pages in Chapter Two when Len Fenerman brings the Salmon family Susie’s hat. Why do you think that the police finding Susie’s hat made a greater impact on her mother than the more grisly find of her daughter’s elbow?
  6. What is Holiday’s role in the family? Compare this to the ending of the second chapter. What role do dogs play in Susie’s heaven? (see pages 23, 27, 29, 34-5)
  7. In Chapter Two, Sebold develops Lindsey’s character through her interaction with Mr. Caden. What do you learn about Lindsey? How does she cope with grief? (see pages 30-34).
  8. On page 18, Susie tells us that Holly “picked her name from a movie” and “because she wanted no trace of an accent, she had none”. Why do you think this is?

Chapter Three

  1. In the opening pages (36 to 40) of Chapter three, what do you learn about Ruth and the relationships she has with her parents and peers?
  2. Chapter three raises the question of identity and how it can become blurred and lost in every day family roles. Explain how Sebold shows this with reference to page 43 about Abigail and on page 48 when Jack asks “Who are you?” to his little boy.
  3. Describe how Sebold shows Jack and Susie’s father/daughter relationship on pages 45-6.

Chapter Four

  1. The narration is not chronological in the first paragraph of Chapter Four. How does this affect the story?
  2. Find quotes that suggest that Susie identifies with the body parts in Mr. Harvey’s bag. How could this make the novel more typical of a gothic horror story?
  3. Some sections are lexically intense, page 50 is one of them. Find examples, such as repetition, alliteration, ambiguity etc. and explain how they add meaning to this scene.
  1. There is parallelism in the two journeys Susie makes to the sinkhole. How do they contrast?
  2. Find an example of suspended narration on page 53. What is the effect?
  3. Comment on the physical form and body language (using terminology: kinesics, proxemics, haptics) of Jack Salmon and Mr. Harvey as they build the tent together (pages 55-57).
  4. Consider pathetic fallacy and how colour might be metaphorical in this tent-building scene? Explain your interpretation.

Chapter Five

  1. In the first paragraph, what do, “you see in movies” and what “happens in the books people read”? Why is this ironic?
  2. Why and what is Jack Salmon writing? Consider how the “The Lovely Bones” is a self-conscious story.
  3. Explain the onomatopoeia used to describe Lindsey’s entrance on page 60.
  4. What is “the code” on page 61?
  5. How does Detective Fenerman receive the news about Jack Salmon’s suspicions?
  6. How is direct speech used to show problems in the family relationships (page 62-3)?
  7. How does Mr. Harvey manipulate the interview with Fenerman?
  8. How are the lights symbolic? Consider the Christmas lights and the candle in the den.
  9. What makes does Susie cry and why?
  10. How does Sebold show Susie’s excitement over Lindsey’s romance? What does this suggest about Susie and Lindsey’s relationship?

Chapter Six

  1. We learn more about Susie’s life through analepsis in Chapter Six. What is the relevance of the scene described?
  2. Sebold is writing about a taboo subject. How does she expose the hypocrisy of keeping things taboo through Ruth’s exchange with her teachers?
  3. Describe the interactions between Susie and Ruth in Chapter Six. How does Sebold show connections between them?
  4. What effect does Mrs. Singh have on Susie’s father?
  5. How does Ruana Singh resist other people’s interpretations and expectations of her?
  6. How and why does Len Fenerman confide in Abigail?

Chapter Seven

  1. How did Susie save Buckley’s life? Compare Lindsey and Susie’s sibling love; how Lindsey wants to fight for Susie (or in place of Susie on page 60).
  2. How does Sebold make the reader question reliability of interpretation in the short final section of Chapter Seven?

Chapter Eight

  1. Why is Chapter Eight so short?
  2. What was Mr. Harvey’s father’s job and why did Mr. Harvey lie about it?
  3. Which of George Harvey’s parents does Sebold create sympathy for and how?
  4. What words does Sebold use to suggest that George Harvey was a traumatised child?

Chapter Nine

  1. How is Grandma Lynn, “in all her obnoxious finery, dragging the light back in”?
  2. What politeness strategies does Grandma Lynn use in her discourse?
  3. How is make up symbolic? Why is Grandma Lynn not wearing make up at the memorial(page 108)? Why is Ruth horrified by Lindsey’s new look (page 110)?
  4. Why does Sebold have Susie tell the story of Mrs. Bethel Utemeyer(page103-5)?
  5. Why is a compliment from Grandma Lynn “unexpected gold” (page 107)?
  6. Compare how Len Fenerman and Jack look at Abigail and what it suggests about them (pages 109-10).

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven