The Lovely Bones

By: Alice Sebold

(Picture: Symbol of Heaven)

Question: The author includes details about Mr. Harvey's childhood and his memories of his mother. By giving him a human side, does Sebold get us closer to understanding his motivation? Sebold explained in an interview about the novel that murderers "are not animals but men," and that is what makes them so frightening. Do you agree?

               After the fourteen-year-old, Susie Salmon is vulgarly raped, abused and murdered by Mr. Harvey, an aged neighbour, she finds herself in a personal heaven where she is able to examine life on Earth beneath her. Susie studies many aspects of Mr. Harvey's past life from heaven, including his childhood, which she determines as dysfunctional. His mother was a kleptomaniac who allied with other thieves. When Mr. Harvey was only five years old, several thieves attempted to rape his mother, his father expelled her from the family and shortly after he developed a violent hatred towards all women.

               By experiencing Mr. Harvey's past through Susie's eyes, I was able to establish that he was an innocent boy who by-stood a tormenting childhood. Although he changed from hating women to being a filthy serial killer,  he is still considered a human being. Because his humanity is portrayed through his youth, Sebold does indeed force the readers closer to understanding his motivation. Because his mother committed her crimes at a reasonably young age, Mr. Harvey chose to become an ephebophile, which is the reason Susie was chosen as one of his victims. I can understand Mr. Harvey's motivation to murder only because of his mother's terrifying influence.

               I do agree with the statement that murderers are so frightening because they "are not animals but men". For a fourteen-year-old girl who has never been raped, such as me, it is haunting to read this novel and to comprehend that rape exists out of this book, in everyday life. Similar, if not identical situations to Susie's have been performed realistically by people to other people. In history, mankind has fought against mankind and will continue to.