In this term paper I'll compare two books that I really liked: "The lovely bones" and "The liars' club". I made a decision to reveal them, because I assume that both stories are extremely similar and very well crafted. I also feel that the authors of the books are admirable women who've struggled with life, society and family. Because of this, I consider important to compare both books. I will start to reveal "the lovely bones". At the beginning, I did so not wan to finish reading the book, because it is a difficult story that discusses the raping of a little girl. Therefore, I felt so angry and frustrating. But I understood i had to keep reading the book if I wanted to know this is than it.
The perspective of the lovely bones is first person and it is narrated by Susie Salmon, the lady that was horribly raped and murdered by her neighbor. The complete story is about the grief that the Salmon family is experimenting after Susie's death. However, there was a member of the family who suffered the most: Susie's father, Jack Salmon. This man loved her daughter much that when he knew that she was killed, life became a hell for him. As a result, his marriage was very damaged and his wife cheated on him. I found a quote that explains the partnership between Susie and her father:
"His own father had taught him how to build ships in bottles. They were something my mother, sister, and brother couldn't care less about. It was something I adored. The den was packed with them. He'd call me in whenever he was ready" (Sebold, Alice p, 45)
Unlike her siblings, Susie enjoyed her father's hobby. This man loved to develop ships in bottles, because his father taught him how to do them. So, he shared this hobby with the children, but the only 1 who liked and value it was Susie because she had an extremely strong relationship with her father. Therefore, when she passed away, his father Jack wished to die as well.
On the other hand, Mary Karr in her book "The liars' club" showed that her relationship with her father was very special and unique. For example, she mentioned that he used to be always a very lovely father with her and her sister which even though he was a long time in the war, when he came back home he always wanted to spend time with his family. However, Mary's father didn't have a good relationship with all of those other family, because his mother in law didn't like him and for that reason, his marriage was falling apart. This quote explains the situation he was living:
"Mother threatened divorce a lot of times, and Daddy's response to it was usually some sort of patient eye-rolling. He never spoke of divorce as a n option. If I asked him worried questions in regards to a particularly nasty fight, he'd just say I shouldn't talk bad about my mother, as if even suggesting they might split insulted her somehow" (Karr, Mary pa, 35)
As we can easily see, Mary's father didn't need to get divorce maybe because he wanted to be with her two children. Moreover, he thought to Mary that even though he had conflicts along with his wife, she needed to love her mother no real matter what. I think this man showed that he was a good husband and a good father since he always asked Mary to respect her mother. This case is nearly the same as the conflict that Susie's parents had in the book "The lovely bones". As we know, when Susie died, everyone struggled with the fact that she had not been longer with them. All of them faced Susie's death differently. The daddy, for example, was obsessed to get the killer, the sister Lindsay didn't want to talk about it, the brother was very innocent to understand that her sister had passed on and the mother decided to cheat on her husband to "relieve the pain". I said before that Susie's father and Mary's were similar because both men were married with women that, from my point of view, did not value their children. Mary's mother cared no more than herself. She just wanted to have fun and get another husband that is why she continued a trip with his Latin-American boyfriend and left her children. Susie's mother did the same thing when she decided to move to another state in order to be alone and deal with her daughter's death.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SIBLINGS
I assume that in both books which i made a decision to compare, the partnership between siblings is one of the most crucial topics. In this part of my term paper, I am going to compare Susie's relationship with her brother and sister and Mary Karr relationship with her sister Lecia.
Susie Salmon had one brother called Buckley and one sister called Lindsay. The tree of these were very closed and cared quite definitely about each other. There is a quote on the book "The lovely bones "where Susie says that once she saved her brother life.
"a three-year-old Buckley had swallowed it. Buckley was choking, his body bucking, and I carried him with Nate trailing into the garage, where my father's precious Mustang sat. I put Buckley in the back and grabbed and grabbed the keys from the unused terra-cotta pots where my father hid them. I sped all the way to a healthcare facility. "if the hadn't been there", the physician later told my mother "you'll have lost your little boy" (Sebold, Alice p, 93, 94)
As the quote explains, Susie saved her brother because she loved him quite definitely. She also had the courage to do it because so many people would not dare to do what Susie did. Susie loved Buckley very much that she didn't think about anything but to safe her little brother. Later in the book, this strong connection is demonstrated when in one of the chapters, Buckley thought to his dad that Susie touched his cheek and that he felt that Susie was seeing them from heaven.
Susie also got along well with her sister Lindsay. Both girls enjoyed being together, not only because these were sister but also because they were the same age. As a result, when Lindsay knew that her sister was dead, she did not want to speak about this tragic event to anybody. For me, it's very understandable the way that Lindsay felt. Some people like her deal with death like by being quite and reserved. Some others share their feelings to be able release a their pain. But what really cares is to remember the people who we love.
Now, the writer of "The liars' club" also had a good relationship with her sister Lecia. Both of these girls suffered a lot not only because they had many problems in their house, but also because they have an alcoholic mother and a hysterical grandmother. I found a quote that explains how Mary Karr felt strong because of her sister:
"Lecia and I both behaved like savages at any opportunity. When she was only twelve, Lecia could beat the dogshit out of any neighbor boy up to age fifteen. For my part, I could remember standing behind the drainage ditch in our yard cussing Carol Sharp for bloodying my nose" (Karr, Mary pa, 40)
In this quote, Mary Karr explains that she used to experiment with pranks with her sister and that thought she had problems in home, she tried to forget them by playing with her Lecia. From my point of view, it's very difficult to live you life normally when you know that your loved ones is hurting one another. Because of this, I admired Mary Karr quite definitely, because she tried to forget all her problems. Unfortunately, if you are a child, each one of these family conflicts affect you and the thing that you can do about any of it is to go on with your life just as Mary Karr did. Alternatively, I also believe she was conscious about her family problems, but she cannot do anything about any of it. I can not imagine what it feels as though to have with a family that is full of traumas and that does not care about you. For example, Mary Karr's grand mother was a bitter woman who didn't love their grand children and who lived before. That is why Mary Karr didn't suffer when her grand mother passed on. Instead, she felt relieved and free.
Susie Salmon also had a particular grand mother, but unlike Mary's she was a good person who loved their grand children very much. This woman was an alcoholic but she took cared of the grand children while her daughter Abigail decided to proceed to another state. Both of these women were so different, but as any human being has flaws. Now, in another pages of my paper I will speak about the role of the mothers in both books "The lovely bones" and "The liars' club"
THE ROLE OF AN MOTHER WITHIN A FAMILY
It established fact a mother represents many important things in a family. She is the one who manages her children, because she's a protective instinct that a father does not have. Because of this, it is unbelievable for me to understand why Susie's mother abandoned their children to be able to forget her dead daughter. I can understand that it is very painful to lose your daughter, but by abandoning your other children you aren't going to solve anything. Now, I also comprehend that as humans we need to have our space, because is our right. However when you have a family like Susie's mother you also have to think about them.
Another thing that also surprised me was that Susie's mother cheated on her behalf husband. Nonetheless I can not know very well what she did. There's a very good quote that explains Abigail's attitude according to Susie's point of view:
"Len kissed her forehead hard and closed his eyes. She took his hand and located it on her breast. She whispered in his ear. I knew that which was happening. Her rage, her loss, her despair. The complete life lost tumbling out in an arc on that roof, clogging up her being. She needed Len to operate a vehicle the dead daughter out" (Sebold, Alice p, 152)
This woman wanted to forget her daughter's death by cheating on her husband. She thought that her pain would disappear if she transferred all his sorrow in someone else, but I feel that is not the way in which to resolve our problems. She could have attended a therapist or speaking with her husband about Susie's death. Infidelity is something that I can not comprehend.
Unfortunately, Abigail's infidelity didn't bring Susie back. Instead, this deception caused Abigail more pain and even more remorse to her life. At the end of the book, we realize that Abigail returned with her family because Jack had a coronary attack, but we never knew if she stayed again with them or if she made a decision to be brave enough in order to inform her husband that she had cheated on him with Len Fenerman.
In the book "The liars' club" Mary Karr explained that her mother was always worried about herself, just exactly like Susie's mother. You may think that I am judging these women very difficult, but I just can not realize why they behaved that way with their children. I mean, when you decide to have children is basically because you know you need to care for them, yet there are a few mothers that do the contrary thing.
Mary Karr's mother for example, tried to be always a good mother, but I feel that she had a very hard background that did not allow her to live a life her life peacefully. Even Mary Karr recognized that when she finished her book, it was very hard for her mother to read it. At the same time, Mary said that she was very supportive when the book was done. One more thing that it was hard to assimilate for Mary and her sister Lecia was live with their stepfather Hector. He constantly had arguments with Mary's mother plus they didn't have a good relationship. There's a quote that explains this situation:
"Other nights were occupied with Mother and Hector fighting. The litany of his innate low-lifedness got seared into skull during this time period. Hector was a pussy, was her main gripe. Also, he lacked gainful employment, which meant Mother accused him of sponging off her on a regular basis".
As this quote explains, Mary's stepfather did not support his wife economically. Therefore, Mary's mother argued with him and had many conflicts. Plus, he was an alcoholic who was worried more about drinking than about taking care of his wife, his house and his stepdaughters. When I think about the issues that Mary had to cope with, I must say i felt sorry on her behalf. She was only a child when her parents got divorce so when he had to accept a fresh father figure. I can see Mary's real life a quest. During her childhood, she lived so many bad things that made her stronger, but at the same time made her more vulnerable.
In order to conclude this term paper in the next to pages, I'll talk about the most difficult topic in both books: raping. The key reason why I made a decision to write about it at the end, was because I want to reflect about how raping can transform your life.
TWO GIRLS WHO LOST THEIR INNOCENCE
The books that we made a decision to compare in this term paper talk about an extremely hard topic: raping. Inside the lovely bones, the primary character Susie Salmon was horribly raped and killed bi her neighbor Mr. Harvey. This story is fiction, however the author of it was raped in real life. Because of this, she wrote this book.
As we realize, Susie Salmon was a fourteen year old girl who had a standard life and who wanted to fell in love for the very first time. Unfortunately, most of her dreams were destroyed by the disgusting and despicable man named Mr. Harvey. He took away Susie's innocence when he raped her. Following this, he decided to kill her so she cannot accuse him of anything. But Susie had not been dead in a one hundred percent, because her spirit went to heaven. She saw her family and her killer following that. She saw all the pain that Mr. Harvey had caused after he killed her. But she also saw that her family got over her death and moved on. Here is a quote where Susie explains her raping:
"Mr. Harvey made me lie still underneath him and listen to the beating of his heart and the beating of mine. How mine skipped like a rabbit, and exactly how thudded, a hammer against cloth. We lay there with our bodies touching, and, as I shook, a robust knowledge took hold. He previously done this thing if you ask me and I had lived". (Sebold, Alice p, 14)
The only thing that I could say about this quote is the fact that I can't imagine what this girl felt in that moment. For me, it's very difficult to understand how these criminals can exist. After all, this man took advantage of a child who was not big or strong enough to guard herself. Killing one is horrible, but killing a youngster who's weak and innocent is the most despicable act on earth. From my point of view, Mr. Harvey was a scum of the planet earth who didn't deserve to be alive, because she also killed other children. All of them were girls that had a life, dreams and hopes for the future. But this killer ruined their lives and left sorrow in their families.
Finally, in the book "The Liars' club" Mary Karr narrates that she was raped, when she was a little girl. This event changed her life and her perspective about the earth. The quote says:
"He pulled me off my shorts and underwear and threw them in the corner in a ball, over where I knew there may be spiders. He pushed down his pants and put my hand on his thing, that was unlike any of the boys' joke about hot dogs and garden hoses. It had been hard as wood and felt big around and felt big around as my arm. He wrapped both my hands around it, and showed me how to slide them along" (Karr, Mary p, 66)
When I read this fragment of the book, I must say i felt so angry and frustrated. I can to assume the desperation that Mary Karr experimented. She as Alice Sebold experienced how it felt to be raped and humiliated by a man. But at the same time this horrible experience made them successful and brave. So, my conclusion because of this term paper is the following: every person forms his character based on his personal experiences. As a consequence, in life we can follow two paths: the one that is related with hate, vengeance and sadness and the the one which is linked with love, success and hopes. I believe that the authors of the books that we compared follow the next path, because they decided to heal their emotional wounds to be able to move on. That is clearly a lesson that human beings should learn.
Nobody said that life is simple. Nobody said that life is pink color. However, god made us strong to achieve any objective that people have. He made us intelligent to comprehend that life is something that id full of bad and good moments. For this reason, both of these authors, Alice Sebold and Mari Karr succeed when they made a decision to tell their stories to the globe. That they had a lot of pain in their lives, nevertheless they also decided to cure their traumas to move on and have a good life.
