The second chapter addresses denial. Susie's Heaven conforms to her wishes in all aspects but one: "I could not have what I wanted most: Mr Harvey dead and me living. Heaven wasn't perfect." (20, The Lovely Bones). She struggles to reach through to her family on Earth, not ready to let go.
Lacking Susie's perspective, her family struggles even more. "Nothing is ever certain" becomes their motto whenever discussing the possibility of her death, though the evidence continues to mount. They begin to accept the idea of her death when the detective Len Fenerman informs them that they will be investigating Susie's disappearance as a homicide due to the evidence their search has uncovered (they never find the body). Each member of her family collapses into themselves in their own way, knowing the truth but not wanting to face it.
"Not so deep beneath the earth were the warrens of the wild rabbits I loved, the bunnies that ate the vegetables and flowers in the neighborhood nearby and that sometimes, unwittingly, brought poison home to their dens. Then, inside the earth and so far away from the man or woman who had laced a garden with toxic bait, an entire family of rabbits would curl into themselves and die." (22, The Lovely Bones)
I believe this is an allegory to Susie's family's reaction to her presumed death.
The five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance (I've heard these before, but I'm quoting them from "Codependent No More" by Melodie Beattie). I believe that, with any major change in life, we all go through some level of these stages, sometimes combining them. What are your thoughts on the stages of grief and how they apply to this chapter and to life in general?
ReplyDeleteAlso, do you agree that the side story about the wild rabbits is an allegory for her family and their grief? Why or why not?