Flashback and the Lovely Bones

Alice Sebold’s novel, The Lovely Bones, is a story about a young girl named Susie Salmon. Susie was raped and murdered by her neighbor, Mr.Harvey at the age of 14. Her family and friends were made surprised and distraught by the event. Susie narrates the story from heaven, looking down on the little town she used to live in. Sebold uses flashbacks throughout the story to add details and information about the past that really shape the story into what it is. Flashbacks give the story more depth and dimension.

In the beginning of the story, you don’t know much about the characters in the story, not even the main character. Each chapter, a new emotion, action, or previous experience is unlocked and you start to know a little more about the characters. In the story, Susie talks about her younger brother, Buckley. Buckley is four when Susie dies. Buckley originally didn’t understand what his parents meant when they said Susie was dead but eventually he starts saying that Susie’s ghost is communicating with him and he is able to see her. This is important to the story but without background information on Buckley, these events aren't as impactful. A year before Susie’s death, Buckley and his friend Nate were playing in the backyard. Buckley saw a tiny stick so he put it in his mouth and acted like it was a cigarette. Buckley accidentally swallowed the stick. “Buckley was choking, his body bucking, and I carried him with Nate trailing into the garage, where my father’s precious Mustang sat. I had watched my parents drive, and my mother had shown me how a car went from park to reverse. I put Buckley in the back and grabbed the keys from the unused terra-cotta pots where my father hid them. I sped all the way to the hospital.” This quote is giving more detail to why him seeing Susie is so important. His near death experience makes him seeing Susie more realistic. Susie also validates him seeing her by asking, “Had my brother really seen me somehow?”

As stated before, the characters are revealed slowly in each chapter. Susie’s mother, Abigail, doesn’t take Susie’s death well. She has an affair with the main detective on Susie’s case, leaves her family, and makes you question if she really was ever ready to be a mother or is she loved the life she was living. Her eventually leaving her family would not make sense without flashbacks detailing her past life. A loving mother wouldn’t just leave her family after her daughter is murdered. Thankfully, the story gives some information on Abigail. From what we are told, Abigail and her mother, Grandma Lynn, don’t have the best relationship. The book refers to their relationship as “awkward.” Grandma Lynn came to the Salmon household for Susie’s funeral and while she was there, she sensed something wrong with her daughter, Abigail. Grandma Lynn decided to take a walk with her daughter around the block. While they were walking, Sebold explains their “awkward” experience from Susie’s point of view. “Now, never having tried before, having always let her daughter run as fast as she could in whatever direction she wished, . . . My mother could count on her fingertips how many times her tall father had leaned down and kissed her as a child. . . There had been no one else in the house with her but her mother and father, and then her father had gone.” All of these quotes kind of explain what Abigail did what she did. From the beginning, she hadn’t experienced much love at home. Her mother letting her “run as fast as she could in whatever direction she wished,” shows that leadership and guidance was absent. Her father not kissing her and the eventually leaving her shows that there was a lack of love and care for her and her mother. Abigail’s childhood validates her actions as an adult. That is why she left her family to be with Len. Len was showing her love and affection for the moment and her husband wasn’t at the time, even though the book tells us that Jack, her husband, loves her very much. Jack was depressed and sad that his daughter was murdered and because he wasn’t giving Abigail attention or saying “I love you”, she had an affair. All of this information from flashbacks helps us understand her actions.

The biggest person that everyone wanted to know information about was Mr. Harvey. The story starts off by telling you he killed Susie, but past information on him isn’t there. As you go further into the story, you start to learn about Mr. Harvey’s past. Jack has a strong feeling that Mr. Harvey killed Susie, but no one else believes him, except Lindsey. Lindsey wants to help her father and prove Mr. Harvey guilty so she sneaks into his house when he isn’t there. Lindsey breaks through the window. “Jackie Meyer. Delaware, 1967. Thirteen. . . Flora Hernandez. Delaware, 1963. Eight. . . Leah Fox. Delaware 1969. Tweleve. . . Sophie Cichetti, Pennsylvania, 1960. Forty-nine. . . Leidia Johnson. 1960. Six. . . Wendy Richter. Connecticut, 1971. Thirteen.” All of these names reveal a lot. This quote shows that Mr. Harvey has killed many more people than just Susie. This also shows that he is good at what he does and it will be hard to find him guilty. This also helps you understand that the women he tells people were his wives were his victims names. This quote changes your perspective on Mr. Harvey.

As stated before, the story uses flashback. A review from teenink.com says,”The Lovely Bones is written in chronological order with flashbacks in between. Yet the flashbacks do not give the reader headaches like most novels do. These trips back in time are insightful, necessary, and valuable to the reader. They help to keep Sebold’s organization in check. Ray Singh did not wake up one day and fall in love with the then alive Susie; a flashback explains it took months for his feelings to strengthen and for him to work up the courage to kiss her. Abigail did not have an affair with Detective Len Fenerman because she felt like it. A flashback shows that Jack and Abigail had once been in a thriving marriage. Flashbacks give information that would otherwise be lost and enable the reader to understand plot elements in the present.” The author of this review explains that flashbacks give information and “insight” that is necessary to the story. Flashbacks help validate why the characters do what they do.

The Lovely Bones is a mysterious and heart-warming story about fourteen year old Susie Salmon. The story is placed in chronological order but flashbacks are added to give depth to the characters and to the story. Without flashbacks, characters past lives wouldn’t be expressed and there would be a major disconnect with the entire story. Flashbacks give the story more depth and dimension.

"The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold." The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2015.

http://www.teenink.com/reviews/book_reviews/article/137221/The-Lovely-Bones-by-Alice-Sebold/

Miller, Laura. "“The Lovely Bones,” by Alice Sebold." Saloncom RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2015.

http://www.salon.com/2002/08/01/sebold_2/