Readers will often think about characters long after a text has been finished. Analyse how the WRITER made a CHARACTER or characters MEMORABLE for you in a text you have studied.
In The Lovely Bones, a provocative account of a young girl’s life and death, by Alice Sebold, we are thrust into the cruel reality of Susie’s mislaid youth. We are immediately introduced to the protagonist, Susie Salmon, “like the fish,” who wastes no time in describing her brutal and gruesome death, followed by her ascent into heaven, where she reminds us of her dreams on earth, which suddenly slipped away. Susie was the most substantial and memorable character for me, because of the way in which she encompassed the themes of the novel, such as the bonds between family, and entrapment, as well as Sebold’s bold narrative style, which has Susie narrating her own story from a perch in heaven, with great use of imagery. Any reader can immediately identify with Susie’s wave of emotions, and it is ultimately this …show more content…
“He was the pestle, and I was the mortar,” is a prime example of Susie’s memorable imagery, and bold honesty. She describes how she needed to fit her limbs back together, and how the oil stain in Mr Harvey’s house was really her, “seeping out of the bag... spilling onto the concrete. The beginning of my secret signals to the world.” With this dramatic imagery, the reader becomes drawn into the book, and Susie’s initial quest for revenge, followed by her development as a character to accept the wrongs done to her. The images of Susie’s heaven in particular, portray an abstract world, filled with everything, and nothing, reflecting Susie’s bewilderment at her new position. Sebold has used immensely powerful imagery to convey her vision of Susie, and the book, and this assists the reader to lose themselves in the story and truly remember