The narrator of The Lovely Bones, Susie Salmon, is a normal fourteen year-old girl. She has just received her first kiss and is looking forward to going to high school next year. She is on her way home from school when she is stopped by a man who wants to show her something in the cornfield. Susie thinks she can trust this man because he is a neighbor who knows her parents. Unfortunately, this man, George Harvey, is a serial killer who rapes and murders Susie.
He looked at Susie and grinned. “Tell me you love me,” he said. Susie did, but he killed her anyway. A few weeks after her death, Susie watches life continuing without her, her school friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her family hoping that she’ll be found, and her killer trying to cover his tracks. Susie sees her parents’ marriage fall apart by the loss, her younger sister, Lindsey trying to stay strong and her little brother, Buckley trying to figure out that she was gone.
The Lovely Bones is a tragic tale of how Susie Salmon and her family dealt with her rape and murder at the age of fourteen. The novel is riveting as it combines violence, love and mystery into one story of a broken family and their healing. The book was written by Alice Sebold who herself was raped during her college years. The story does not have your typical perfect ending but one as Weldon describes, one in which Susie has come to terms with her death. Susie was only fourteen when she was raped and killed by a man she knew.
The Salmons are a typical family of two parents, and three children: fourteen-year-old Susie, thirteen-year-old Lindsey, and three-year-old Buckley. However, one day a tragedy happens to the family. Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan), is murdered on 16th December 1973 by her neighbour, Mr George Harvey (Stanley Tucci). The heart wrenching story is delivered through the perspective of Susie – before and after the tragic incident befell on her. From her ‘in-between’, Susie observes the trauma on her family and the horrific crimes of her pedophile murderer.
For example in “Destroying Avalon” Avalon had to face the death of her best friend Marshall who took his own life because of being bullied for so many years and not letting anyone to support him through his tough times. “Marshall is dead” was repeated in the book to emphasize the feeling of grief Avalon faced. In “The Colour Purple” death and loss is shown when both Celie’s children are taken away from her at birth and is given the impression that they where killed. Bullying occurs the day you are born by society determining colours, interest and behaviours that suit the type of gender you are. However bullying doesn’t really show it’s self until we go to school, this style of bullying can be verbal, physical or electronic.
Film Critique: True Grit The movie, “True Grit,” is about a 14-year-old girl named Mattie Ross hiring men to go after an evil man named Tom Chaney who murdered her father. In the movie, many themes such as bravery and morality are explored, but the main theme of the movie is about the timeless virtue of bravery or grit. Mattie is depicted as a brave girl who has learned how the world works at an early age and is shown bartering with dealers and not willing to be taken lightly by adults. On the other hand, the old man that Mattie hires, Rooster Cogburn, is shown as very experienced and tough but has lost some of those qualities due to time and age. Even though these two characters come from very different worlds and have big generation differences, by the end of the movie, they find their inner-grit and learn from each other.
The story begins when a farmer, John Wright, had been found strangled to death by a rope while sleeping in his bed, with his wife. His wife, Minnie Foster, has been arrested, jailed, and accused of the murder. The next day, the sheriff and his wife, Mr and Mrs Peter, together with the country attorney and the Wrights’ neighbors, Mr and Mrs Hale went to the Wright house, seeking evidence that might convict the accused. The men came up empty. However, the women, more penetrating in their vision, they piece together the sort of married life Mrs. Wright had lived.
Bud Cort, who plays Harold, spends a good deal of the movie committing suicide (primarily for the benefit of his mother). He does this mainly to witness his mother's increasingly exasperated reactions. Harold "killed himself" eight different ways during the 90 minute film. When he isn't trying to kill himself, Harold passes the time attending the funerals of complete strangers. So does Maude.
He sets up to have everybody accused of a murder meet at Indian Island for either a job or visiting old friends. When they arrived at Indian Island Justice Wargrave killed them one by one along with the “10 Little Indian Boys” poem. Vera Claythorne is a young lady who used to be a nanny for her boyfriend Hugo’s nephew, Cyril Hamilton. Vera was in love with Hugo and she was middle class. She also used to be a teacher.
Last year, Angelina Green, a fourteen year old girl from Indiana hung herself from a tree, and left a suicide note on her bed for her mother explaining her death was caused by bullying (Goldstein, 2014). The young girl was called demeaning names every day from her eighth grade classmates. In her suicide letter, she indicated she wanted her classmates that tormented her to attend her funeral. Angelina’s mother pleaded the suicide of her daughter to Indiana’s state legislature to pass House Bill 1423. This bill will hold schools responsible for any bullying that take place on or around the school campus.