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Susie Salmon is murdered
Susie Salmon, a 14 year old girl, is murdered by her neighbor George Harvey. On her way home from school, she took a shortcut through a cornfield where she came into contact with Harvey. -
Family learns of discovery
The lead detective, Len Fenerman, calls and informs Jack, Susie's dad, that her elbow has been found by a neighbors dog. They are shocked to find out this and go into a stage of disbelief. The next morning, Jack drains a bottle of scotch down the sink, and when asked why, he says he'll drink the whole thing. Lindsey, after learning what happened, throws up into the dog bowl. -
More evidence is found
A few days later, the novel To Kill a Mockingbird is found near where they discovered the elbow. Det. Fenerman asks a nearby witness is their child is reading it in school, which she replies yes and confirms that her child is in the same grade as Susie. He then confirms this by cross-referencing the classes' syllabus, and calls the Salmons.Though evidence is mounting, Jack and Abigail continue to explain away the policemen’s finds, refusing to believe that their daughter is dead. -
Accepting the truth
Det. Fenerman pays a visit to the Salmons and reveals that the police have found yet another personal item of Susie’s. He holds up a plastic evidence bag with Susie’s hat inside, to which Abigail responds by grabbing the hat, hunching over, and beginning to sob. She finally has to accept that her daughter is dead, and begins to deal with her grief towards the loss of her eldest daughter. -
Lindsey deals her own way
After returning to school, Lindsey meets with her principal who offers his condolences about the loss of her sister and Lindsey says she wasn't aware she lost anything. He then offers for her to join the soccer team, which she declines, because the field is close to where her sister was murdered. Later, Susie watches Lindsey work out in order to try out for the soccer team. Lindsey just wants to be left alone to deal with the information herself by retreating into herself, showing her grief. -
Jack begins to break
Two days before Christmas, Jack is cleaning his den when he comes across ships in a bottle, which he and Susie used to build together. He is overcome by his grief, he smashes the creations in order to christen the walls with the news of Susie’s death. It's at this time that Susie breaks the realm between the two worlds, and the father-daughter see each other in the shards of glass. -
Jack sees the signs
Fresh from seeing Susie, Jack goes outside to calm down and sees Mr. Harvey building a tent in his yard. Harvey offers his condolences, to which Jack gives his thanks. They begin to work on the tent, but Jack begins to feel as if Mr. Harvey knows more than what he's letting on. He vocalizes his concern, while Harvey responds that he cannot help him. This begins Jack's hunt to find out the truth, which leads to his grief being very pronounced within the community. -
Grief turns into injury
From Jack's den, he sees a light outside of his window and puts on his coat and follows it into the dark night. The light leads him into the cornfield. Jack thought he was being lead by Susie to Harvey. However, he scares Clarissa, Susie's friend. Brian, Clarissa's boyfriend heard her scream and thought Clarissa was in trouble so Brian starts to beat up Jack, which lands Jack into the hospital. Jack’s obsession seems to have driven him temporarily crazy with trying to find the truth. -
The beginning of an affair
After Jack is beaten up, Abigail calls Len and they go out to smoke on the balcony. After talking about the death of Len's wife, Abigail kisses Len. It is heavily implies that the two begin this affair in order to distract themselves from the grief of the loss of their loved ones. -
Lindsey makes a plan
Lindsey makes up a plan to break into Harvey's home to obtain proof of what she believes. She finds a drawing of the structure in the cornfield in which Susie was murdered, unaware that Harvey is downstairs. He almost catches her, but lets her go. He reports it to the police, lets them search his house, but clarifies that he doesn't want to press charges against Lindsey because he knows it was her grief that drove her to break in. -
Abigail is at her breaking point
On the one year anniversary of Susie's disappearance, Abigail has done everything she can to shut down the part of herself that still grieves Susie’s loss. She does not want to spend any more time thinking about the daughter she lost and wants to move onto other things. She does not want her life to become defined by Susie’s death. Lindsey empathizes with this, but also sees it as a warning sign that her mother is preparing to pull away drastically. -
Abigail leaves
Abigail, wanting to be her own person rather than the mom of a murdered girl, decides to leave her family and move into her fathers cabin in New Hampshire. A year later, she moves to California and begins working at a winery. She tries to keep in contact with Lindsey and Buckley, but to no avail. She cannot escape her grief, however, and finds herself frequently reminded by memories of Susie. -
Injury leads to reconciliation
When Buckley uses one of Susie's shirts for his gardening, Jack is so overcome by his grief of seeing his daughters clothes used for it, he has a heart attack. This, in turn, makes Abigail return home and the Salmon family begins to mend around the loss of Susie. -
Susie leaves
With her mother home and her loved ones together in her home, Susie realizes that there have been "lovely bones" that have grown around her absence. She understands that she doesn't need to look over her family anymore because they have started to move on with their lives and doing their own thing. They have tied up all the loose ends that they can and begin to start a new chapter of their lives, one which she's not physically involved in. -
The Theme of Grief in The Lovely Bones
Overall, the theme of grief and its hold is very prominent throughout the novel. We as readers have an inside look at how the people in Susie's life begin to unravel after her death. Alice Sebold (author) shows the emotional, physical, and mental effects that grief can have on someone. We see throughout time that grief changes us as people and drives us to make decisions that we never thought we would have to, may it be breaking into a home or leaving our loved one for our own purposes.