Our second book is entitled
The Lovely Bones
written by Alice Sebold
Summarizer: Jovie Ann Matanguihan
“My name is Salmon, like the fish, my first name’s Susie. I was 14 years old when I was murdered.” Susie just got her first kiss from an upper-class man named Ray Singh. She was just engaging herself from her first experience in romance but unexpectedly it was cut-off because of her tragic and unjust death. She was taking the shortcut on her way home when she was stopped by their neighbor, Mr. George Harvey, in the middle of the cornfield. He designed and built an underground basement, with a door that's covered with soil and wilted corn husks. He aroused Susie's curiosity and lures her into the basement. She quickly learns this is a mistake but she was too late to plan an escape, he immediately rapes her when she struggles to climb up the ladder and then kills her. She directly went to heaven -- which she soon learns is her personal heaven – everybody gets one when they die and they can decide what their heaven would be like. She chose her heaven to be like her life on earth. From her heaven, she watched closely the lives of the people she left: Her parents, her little sister Lindsey, her little brother Buckley, and her grandmother, Ruth, Ray Singh, Len Fennerman and even the person who killed her, Mr. George Harvey. For her, “heaven” isn't perfect. But she came to believe that if she watch closely and desired, she might change the lives of those she loved on earth. She meets Holly and Franny, her “counselor” in her heaven and relates to her the ways of the after-world.
She observes the lives of her family members falling apart. Susie’s father began suspecting their neighbor Mr. Harvey and even confronted him. One night, father got beaten up by the boyfriend of Susie’s friend when he followed Mr. Harvey to the cornfield in planning to beat him. Susie’s mom started to have an affair with Len Fennerman. Her friend Ruth has become devoted to writing poetry about her and Lindsey and Samuel begin a sexual relationship.
Lindsey learns the idea to from her dad that she should break into Mr. Harvey’s house to search for evidences that can be the cause of Susie’s death. Successfully, she found more evidences not just Susie’s but as well as his other victims. Meanwhile Lindsey finds the evidence she needs and escapes just before Harvey catches her.
Will Lindsey hand over her new found evidences to the police that would finally put Mr. Harvey behind bars? How would the Salmon’s life go on if this happens? What would happen to the people Susie has been constantly watching from her heaven? Will Susie finally move on and proceed to Heaven?
Luminary : Ara Nneka Dialawi
“If you stop asking why you were killed instead of someone else, stop investigating the vacuum left by your loss, stop wondering what everyone left on Earth is feeling,” she said, “you can be free. Simply put, you have to give up on Earth.”
This is Franny's line when Susie asked her how to make her heaven as perfect as she want it to be. I choose this line because it speaks not only for the dead but also for the living. There will come a time in our lives that we will have to say goodbye to people or even things that we are so used to having around, at first it would be devastating but in the end we have to move on and go on with our life and in doing that we are freeing ourselves from the pain and loss that haunted us which will in turn make us happy.
It is evident here that Susie still can't let go of her life on Earth but for her to be truly happy she must accept her faith and let go of her former life and this line is a proof for that.
"All you have to do is desire it, and if you desire it enough and understand why – really know – it will come.”
I choose this line for it shows how powerful our desires can be. Franny, in saying this line was referring to what heaven can give to Susie but in reality this is also true example of this is our goals in life. We desire it so much that we work hard to attain it and if we really understand what our goals in life are or what it truly means to us, no matter what happens it will come to us.
"Nothing is ever certain"
When it comes to investigation, suspect, evidence and murder this might be true in a negative way but this could be put in a positive way like in life. In life, nothing is really certain, we don't know what will happen in the future or what will be the outcome of what we do but that's the beauty of life we just trust God, that whatever will happen to us, it is his plan and everything that happens to us have a reason.
This line applies to everything that happened in the story, none of it was expected.
"People grow up by living"
This line was from Susie, when she's already in heaven and she wanted to grow up. The literal meaning of growing up is increasing the number of your age, however that is not really the case, growing up is when you are already matured enough to handle difficult situations on your own and understanding things in its deeper sense. It is also when you already learned a lot of things from the mistakes that you have committed. So basically by living we can achieve these factors that makes us grow, that shapes us to a better individual.
In the story, Susie wanted to go back because she wanted to grow up. So we can see that by saying this line, she really hadn't accepted her faith yet.
“Like snowflakes,” Franny said, “none of them the same and yet each one, from where we stand, exactly like the one before.”
In here, Franny is referring to the souls of humans. How unique and wonderful it is, that even if its the same in a sense that its a soul but each of these souls differ from each other. Every human soul are unique and it can't be the same as another soul because every soul is special, every human is special. I choose this line because the comparison of the human soul to snowflakes is so precise that you will clearly understand what she means.
Discussion Director: Kate Diosomito
1.) Do you think Susie’s parents did a good job helping Buckley and Lindsey comprehend the loss of their sister? Why do you think so?
For the first question Ara, Mae, Nadzla, Jovie and I have the same answer that no, the parents of Susie didn’t manage to do a great job helping their children comprehend from the loss of their sister Susie. Susie’s parents were in the state of grief in the whole duration of the story, and were even breaking apart. While the other two members, Abbygayle and Rica Ann, think that Susie’s parents did a good job helping Lindsey and Buckley comprehend with their sister’s death because their parents was honest to Buckley and Lindsey about the death of their sister. They even sited the part where Susie’s father explained the death of Susie to Buckley, who’s still 6 years old; Susie’s father tried his best, he even chose the right words so that Buckley can understand why his sister is not home anymore.
2.) Can Abigail’s choice to leave her family be reasonable? How?
Still for question number two we have split opinions and decision, four of us answered no, who are Ara, Mae, Abbygayle, Nadzla and I because we believe that even though Abigail cannot deal with the loss of her daughter Susie, her choice to leave her family cannot be reasonable even though she left to resolve her own grief. In the very first place, she is a mother of two kids, who are very much alive and struggling with the loss of Susie. Leaving them in this very difficult time where everyone in her family are hopeless, depress, and tired we believe that was so unacceptable. They’re a family and it’s better if she stayed with her family and helped each other to move on. Rica and Jovie on the other hand answered yes because for them there’s a good side of Abigail leaving her family. She took a time off. She was regenerating, preparing herself to live again with her family, accepting the undeniable fact that she’ll continue her life without the presence of her daughter. At the same time, Abigail is a mother but still a human, she gets tired, gets hopeless and tried to escape problems. There’s always a reason why people leave. She then realized when she returned, how much she loved her family.
3.) If you’ll be in Lindsey’s shoes, can you forgive Mr. Harvey for killing your sister? Why?
Rica, Jovie, Abby, Nadzla, Ara and I answered that Mr. Harvey is unforgivable, knowing that he didn’t just do that to Susie but also to other innocent girls and women. He was like a fox having a killing spree of poor helpless chickens. Losing a sister, no matter how much you’ve fought and had misunderstandings, is just unacceptable and unbearable. Moreover, her death left an agony and uncertainty to her family, leaving them hoping and praying that she’d come back and that’s the worst feeling ever, trying to keep your hopes up, expecting for a miracle to win but you just lost and then your system just shuts down and leaves you dumbfounded, unable to process what had just happened. Maybe forgiving him would mean finally accepting Susie’s death but how can you just let a disaster walk down the streets and just let him wait for the perfect timing again to catch his next prey. What he did was just unforgivable. While Mae said that she can forgive him but it will take time. She can forgive Mr. Harvey with the reason that she’s always reminded of what God said, “If you forgive others, God will also forgive you.
4.) Jack and Abigail Salmon are allowing themselves to be swallowed up by their grief. When do you think is the right time to let go? Is there something admirable about holding on so tightly to Susie’s memory?
We all agree that there is no certain year, month, date, or time when you can proclaim that you have completely moved on. As what they’ve said, blood is thicker than water, losing a family member is like losing a part of yourself and you’ll never be whole again. Susie was not just a daughter and a sister but she was admired and loved by her family. She was not just someone who you could easily forget and gotten over with. Life goes on and they have to carry on but memories of her just keep coming back to them. Maybe there’s also a good thing about her family members holding on to Susie’s memory, they can use it as a vessel for their strength and happiness at the same time it was a way of showing how they really have cherished their daughter and sister, that love can last even afterlife.
5.) In Susie’s heaven, she is surrounded by things that bring her peace. What would your heaven be like?
In Mae’s heaven, it would be like full of joy and happiness, no more problems only blessings and a heaven full of loving people.
In Abbygayle’s heaven, it would be like a playground because she wants to be young again, she wants in her heaven to have a swimming class, ballet class, gymnastics class because she still wants to pursue the things she haven’t done on earth. In Nadzla’s heaven it would be like full of love in every corner. She wanted to be surrounded by people’s love because she knows that love can bring her happiness forever. And the love she means is the true love from her family and her friends.
In Rica’s heaven, it would be surrounded by things that would bring her happiness. She wanted her heaven to have zip lines, roller coasters, and the Eiffel tower. She also wants to learn how to swim in her heaven. In short, Rica wanted to experience the extreme things on earth that she can’t do while staying on earth. Rica also wanted a new family, and a place where she can witness her living loved ones on earth.
Jovie wants her heaven to be a place where she is not familiar of, it could be anywhere as long as it’s not from her hometown or any place that would remind her of her death and of her family and she would do all the things that she haven’t done on earth. She would make her heaven a happy place. She would love her heaven to be colorful like a Kid’s playroom like the size of the universe. She would have her own swimming pool the size of the ocean. She wants her heaven to have a refrigerator the size of the tallest building ever made and it would contain all her cravings and the mouth-watering food she have seen on blogs. She wants to build her dream house and change its interior and exterior design every day or every time she wants to. She would like to have her own mall and all of her ’wants and needs’ will be there. If she gets fat of eating, she would build a gym five times larger than a normal gym and work-out whenever she wants. She would have a room intended for video games with a wide screen as wide as those in the theaters. She would build her own stadium and let her Kpop Idols held their concerts there and she would be their only fan. She would collect all their albums, photo books and goodies and she would be present in all their activities. She would want to build a house and let all the dogs with different breeds that she has wanted to live there. She would want a walk-in wardrobe where she could wear anything that she has always wanted to wear, Doc Martens and Givenchy products. She would create her own jungle and virgin forest and name it after her own name. She will not forget to build a Chocolate Factory. She would create magic and let all the fictitious things she have read come to life and make them tangible and real. She would copy all the famous places she have seen on the internet and make it unrealistic, like licorice instead of vines and frosting instead of snow, just to forget the reality that she has left on earth. She would ride around the ’heaven’ she has made with her Toyota Supra or Lamborghini and other luxurious cars she could wish of. Although it’ll behard to move on completely, with the help of her created ’heaven’ she’ll get over it gradually without even noticing.
Ara’s heaven would be a collection of all the places on Earth that she wants to visit and all the food that she haven’t tasted yet. She also wants all her love ones who are already in heaven to be there.
And lastly for Kate’s heaven, she just wanted some simple things. She wants a friendly and loving community and a house where she can stay. In her house she wants to have a huge kitchen where she can cook all the foods she like and also a huge refrigerator that contains all the ingredients she needs, a room where she will have a walk-in closet, in that closet she have all the clothes, shoes and accessories she likes. Beside her house she wants to have a big library where she can read all day without thinking about the time or term papers to make. She wants her library to be complete and updated, across her house there is a children’s park where cute little kids are running around and playing, there’s also a basketball court and gym in her heaven. And lastly, she will have one place where she can watch live games of baseball, basketball, football, volleyball and tennis on earth. That’s the heaven she likes.
CHARACTER CAPTAIN:Nadzla S. Adal
Susie salmon is the protagonist and the starring ghost in the story. She's only fourteen when she's beaten, raped, and murdered by her neighbor, Mr. Harvey. She tells us her story from the after world. She’s loving, caring and helpful. She was already in heaven but still, loving her family. When all the truth sink into the mind of her mother, Abigail, Susie wants to hug, kiss and comfort her to at least lessen the pain that she is feeling on that moment. Susie is the eldest child of jack and Abigail salmon. As the eldest, she must love her siblings and take care of them. One night while her parents are not home, she carried Buckley, the youngest of the family, to make him sleep. Though Buckley is heavy for a thin fourteen year old Susie, she insists to carry him to make him fall asleep because it was already late and Buckley must sleep early. Susie is caring to her sister, Lindsey, she’s worried a lot for her sister because the pain of losing was still in the heart of Lindsey and may lead her sister into depression. Susie's greatest dream is to have a queenly status, a helpful queen. She doesn't want seeing people being humiliated or get tease by the others. She would do something to help people in order to have justice. All she wanted is fairness.
George Harvey or Mr. Harvey is a sexual predator, a rapist, a serial killer. He's the 36-year-old neighbour who rapes and murders Susie, within minutes of her own home. He builds dollhouses for a living. He is characterized as an odd man in terms of his personality, but on the outside he appears to be just a normal man. Mr. Harvey is a quiet, unassuming neighbor who keeps to himself. No one has anything really to say about him when the detectives go around during questioning. But behind closed doors, Mr. Harvey exhibits the classic signs of a sociopath. He is insanely orderly, and everything in his house has its place. He is fascinated with building dollhouses and creating these microcosmic worlds that he can control. It is also later revealed that Mr. Harvey keeps trophies from his many murders, another sign that Mr. Harvey craves control. So, Mr. Harvey is a man who on the outside appears like just a quiet neighbor, but on the inside harbors serious mental problems.
Jack Salmon is Susie's dad; he is the frustrated hero of the piece. He's a loving, determined and tender father. He who knows the truth of his daughter's murder, but can't prove it. Jack shows his love for his kids through his actions. Even after his wife leaves him, he takes care of Buckley and Lindsey and does all that he can. He is determined to seek revenge on Mr. Harvey no matter what, even if that means death for himself. Jack is not always strong. He shows his weakness through Susie’s death. He holds onto little memories and refuses to let go of even her clothes. He is weak without his daughter. However, he sticks it out every inch of the way, facing the truths of his world, and trying to keep his loved ones and himself from going mad over what's happened to Susie. He even manages, to some degree, to hold down his accounting job.
Abigail Salmon is Susie’s mother and she deals with a few different forms of grief throughout the novel. She is a complicated, fraudulent and unhappy woman. Her love for Susie is apparent in her intimate knowledge of things Susie related, as detailed to Len Fenerman. She disguised as a perfect wife and mother in the beginning even though she is unsatisfied with her life, but when her daughter dies the façade disappears. She cheats on her husband with the detective Len Fenerman and then deserts her husband and remaining children. She returns after eight years when Jack has a heart attack and realizes that she is still in love with him. She is finally able to move on from Susie’s death and is now faithful to her family.
Lindsey Salmon is Susie’s sister and is the strongest family member as she helps her father investigate Mr. Harvey. She is a very wilful even through her immense pain and longing for her sister. Even though Susie is dead, Lindsey must live in her shadow. Whenever someone sees her they do not think of her as her own person, but as ‘the dead girl’s sister’. Abigail has completely shut her out which is very difficult for the thirteen-year-old because of all times to need a mother, this one is major. She must remain strong and caring for her little brother and even her father. Jack remains extremely attached to Susie which is very hard on the entire family because they need his support. In heaven, Susie continues to follow Lindsey because she views Lindsey’s life as the one she was not fortunate enough to live. This burdens Lindsey subconsciously, but her character is strong even to not let this break her family apart. Lindsey has a happy ending with the love of her life, Samuel, who she marries and the book ends with them preparing to move into a house together. Although Susie is smart, Lindsey is considered a genius. She's not only a brainiac, but also one of the most physically fit people we know, able to run eight miles in the rain and leap from a killer's window in a single bound.
Buckley Salmon is Susie’s little brother who is four at the time she is murdered. He is an affectionate, caring brother but lately become mad to his mother. He and Susie were very close when she was alive and he sees her ghost quite often. Those he mentions this to do not seem to believe him but he knows that he can communicate with his sister. Buckley does not understand death when Susie dies and as he grows older still cannot comprehend that his parents will not move on. He keeps the shoe from Monopoly because it was Susie's favorite piece. He definitely misses her and stays quite attached but he needs support from his family that he is not receiving because they are so obsessed with Susie’s death. He is very angry with his mother leaving them but in the end is able to forgive her for her mistake.
Mae Andrea Tabaosares
In the story Lovely Bones, there are some part which has
similarities to my cousin’s experience. The date and age she was raped was not
the same with the protagonist on Lovely Bones but they are similar on the
number of family members. My cousin, actually, was 18 years old when she
experienced the tragedy of her life. In Lovely Bones, Susie Salmon was raped
and killed by her neighbor named Mr. George Harvey but in my cousin’s case, she
was raped and killed by her own boyfriend.
The root of the scenario was only because of the gift of my
cousin’s best friend. She received a present from her best friend, which was a
white stuffed teddy bear with a note that says “I LOVE YOU!”. When her
boyfriend found out about that gift, he threw it away out of rage. Her cousin
slapped him, but then she was raped and eventually killed.
Abbygayle Basio
I was once a somebody
Does heaven exist? I don't really know.
When we die, where do we really go?
But to live as a spirit, in a lifetime before this life
we must have some memory of that time.
When I leave this world, I'll leave no regrets
leave something to remember, so they won't forget
I was here
I lived, I loved.
I was here
I did, I've done, everything that I wanted
And it was more than I thought it would be
I will leave my mark so everyone will know I was here.
I want to say I lived each day, until I die
And know that I meant something in somebody's life
The hearts I've touched, will be the proof that I leave
That I made a difference , and this world will see.
Vocabulary: Rica Ann Colina
Reason:These words I've chosen were the words that mostly describe a certain situation in the story. These words made the story more realistic and which have stirred my emotions
Author’s Purpose:
The purpose of the author in using these words is to make the readers feel and understand the intense emotions of each character in different situations. These words make the readers visualize the happenings in the story to be more realistic. Also, this is an effective way of making the readers realize something at the end.
1. SKEEVY
“Thanks, I said, even though he gave me what my friend Clarissa and I
had dubbed the skeevies.” Adjective. “Morally or physically repulsive” from
Italian “schifo” disgust and Schifare to sicken, disgust.
2. ICKY
“He made me feel skeevy and icky now that he was blocking the door.”
Adjective. “Nasty; having a very unpleasant quality” from baby talk
alteration of sticky.
3. BLUBBERY
“Mr. Harvey started to press his lips against mine. They were blubbery
and wet..”
Adjective. “Puffed out: thick” first used in 1791
4. DRIPPY
“...she was cursed with the drippy looks of consoling teachers.”
Adjective. “Silly and extremely sentimental” From Old English dryppan,
Indo-European, “to drop”
5. PETULANT
“She was being what my father called “petulant”, as in, “Susie don’t
speak to me in that petulant tone.”
Adjective. “Having or showing the attitude of people who become angry
and annoyed when they do not get what they want.” From Latin or Middle French;
Middle French, from Latin petulant-, petulans; insolent akin to Latin petere
“seek, go toward”
6. GRAZE
“I could not help but graze her.”
Verb. “Touch something lightly” From Middle English grasen, from Old
English grasia, from grass.
7. GESTICULATING
“She wanted her daughter gesticulating with the long thin fingers of
her hands.”
Verb. “Make gestures: to move the arms or hands when speaking, or
express something with movements of the arms or hands” From Latin gesticulat-,
past participle of gesticulari < gestus "action, gesture" gerere
"carry, and act"
8. CONVIVIAL
“He had never felt completely comfortable at these forced efforts of
conviviality himself.”
Adjective. “Pleasant: enjoyable because of its friendliness” From
Mid-17th century. Latin convivialis , convivium "feast" vivere
"to live"
9. ASSIDUOUS
“How maybe if she was assiduous she could free us both.”
Adjective. “Very careful: showing persistent and hard-working effort in
doing something” From Mid-16th century. Latin assiduus < assidere, in a late
sense "apply yourself"
10. ONSLAUGHT
“She was armed to the teeth for any onslaught of sympathy.”
Noun. “Overwhelming assault or force: a powerful attack or force that
overwhelms somebody or something” From Early 17th century. Via Dutch aanslag
< Middle Dutch aenslach "blow on" < slach "blow"
