Taylar Byrne

15 March 2015
UWRT 1103
Robert Brown
The Lovely Bones Prompts and Observational Reflection
Prompt #18
When asked to choose a genre for The Lovely Bones, I found it difficult to just choose
one genre because I feel that it can be classified in more than one category. The main
genre of The Lovely Bones is mystery, but it is not your normal mystery. The reason that I
do not think it is a normal mystery is because as the reader, we know what happened to
Susie, but her family does not know what happened to her. In the beginning of the novel
there is a little bit of horror when Mr. Harvey murders Susie. Finally, I think that The
Lovely Bones also has an element of a love story. One example is Mrs. Salmon and the
detective have an affair. Secondly, I Lindsey and her boyfriend, Sam, have been dating
since they were in middle school and continued to date through college, and at the end of
the novel they got engaged. There is also a love story between Ray and Susie. Ray and
Susie kissed each other at school. Then even after Susie died Ray never stopped loving
her. As Susie was in heaven she never stopped loving Ray, and would always keep watch
over him.
Prompt #17
My favorite character from The Lovely Bones is Lindsey. She is my favorite character
because throughout all the drama she was always there for her family, and had her
familys best interests in mind. She never forgets about Susie, but she learns to accept it
and continue on with her life. My least favorite character is Susies mom.
Lesser Gods Prompt
Throughout the book there were many examples of how the parents were lesser
gods, one example was the Abigail, the Salmons mother, left her family without telling
them. This is important because she promised Lindsey that she was not going to leave
them. The second example was, Ruths mom was unsupportive of her choice to become a
vegetarian, when she through the huge steak in front of her. Another example is Mr.
Harveys mother. When he was a little boy she taught him how to shop lift, and ran over
and killed two men in front of him. My final example is Mr. Salmon, he became obsessed
with trying to prove Mr. Harvey guilty, and he began to pay less attention to his two
children that were still alive.
Throughout The Lovely Bones, the one character that I had the greatest
evolution as a human being was Lindsey. We were able to see her age, and grow up into a
grown woman. When Susie dies, she is a young girl but throughout the novel we get to
see her grow up. From Susies point if view we get to see her ask Grandma Lynn to teach
her how to do make up, what she does in school, her experience at Camp, going to high
school, and going to and graduating college. Another human evolution that we get to

experience through Lindsey is how her relationship with Samuel starts as a school crush,
into high school sweethearts, and eventually they become engaged. The character that
had the least amount of evolution as a human being was Samuels brother. From the
beginning of the novel to the end of the novel, he was just a boy who rode motorcycles
and worked in as a mechanic.

1. It is important to expose readers to situations that may make them feel

uncomfortable because it gives them the opportunity to experiences new things.
From reading The Lovely Bones I was able to experience the death of a sibling,
and learn to cope with there passing and how to continue to live my life without
them.
2. In The Lovely Bones, it is important to expose readers to characters which are not
perfect because in real life no on is perfect. I think that it makes it easier to for the
read to relate to the characters because they are not shown as some perfect person,
so that its easier for the reader to relate.
3. In The Lovely Bones, one of the authors ideas that I found very original was
Susies heaven; I found it a very unique way to represent heaven that I had never
heard of before. I liked that everyones heaven was a little different, and that Susie
had her own little private part of heaven that only she could go to, but all the
people in heaven could still come together. Another reason I thought that the idea
of Susies heaven was unique was because she was still able to watch over her
family, friends, and Mr. Harvey. I believe that this was an important aspect
because she was able to watch them grow up, and experience things that she
would never get the chance to experience because of dying at such a young age.
4. If I had the chance to tell the author my opinion about The Lovely Bones, I would
say that is was unlike any book I have ever read, in a good way. As I said when
answering question three, I thought her idea of heaven was very unique. The
whole concept of the book was very also very unique. For some strange reason, I
liked how the family never truly learned what happened to Susie. Another thing I
liked about the book was how she kept characters like Ray and Ruth around and
how they played an important role in the end of the novel.
5. After reading The Lovely Bones I learned that when something bad happens to
you, you have to learn how to accept it and continue on with your life. I believe
that it is important to take your time to and grieve about what has happened. Then
you need to accept what has happened and that it cannot be changed. Then you
need to continue on with your life. Or else you will be consumed with it, and you
will realize that your life is passing by. I learned that the only case of going

through this process is not only when someone dies. You can go through this
process after a break up, or losing your job, or any other bad experience.