Mrs. Debbie Morgan is a 45-year-old female who works as a secretary for a big corporation. While going to the stock room to pick up some supplies for a meeting, a large box falls on her and brings her to the ground. The ambulance personnel reported that she had lost quite a bit of blood at the accident scene and was “knocked out” when they arrived.…
The Bottom Line: If you're looking for her sister's bones, you'll have to dig deep.…
I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973," Susie Salmon tells us in the second sentence of The Lovely Bones. She shows us who did it—a neighbor everyone thinks is weird—and describes the horrible scene, a brutal assault and dismemberment in an underground hideout in a bleak winter cornfield. Sebold's triumph is in making Susie's voice so immediately compelling that we don't want to let her go, even after she's dead. We want to know what happens next. So does Susie.…
Two of the short stories we have read this year, “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” by Rudyard Kipling and “Three Skeleton Key” by George Toudouze, are suspense stories that have many similarities but also some differences.…
The Lovely Bones is a 2002 novel focused on the life, and afterlife, of 14-year-old Susie Salmon. Salmon recounts the story of her brutal rape and murder at the hands of her neighbour, and centres on the mourning process of her grief stricken family. Moreover, the 2013 film The Book Thief, follows the life of orphaned Liesel, living in Nazi Germany. The story is narrated by death, and details Liesel and her family’s resistance against the Nazi regime through the theft of burning books, and the sheltering of a Jewish boy. Throughout the texts, there are a variety of common themes explored, including those of the duality of humanity, death & what happens after we die, and the love between family, friends & romantic partners.…
Jesmyn Wards novel, Savage the Bones, takes place in Bios Savage, in rural Mississippi. The novel consists of twelve days each day being a chapter, all leading up to the massive destruction of hurricane Katrina. The main characters include Junior, age seven; Esch, fifteen; Skeetah, sixteen; and Randall, seventeen. Their Mama died seven years ago when Junior was born. Daddy is around but has a problem with alcohol. They have a pit bull named China, who gives birth to five puppies and is used for prize fighting. The novel is narrated by the character Esch. Having lost her mother and being the only girl in the family beside China, Esch is desperately trying to find herself. Esch…
Many authors have a different approach to creating suspense in their writing. In this essay I will be using examples to show this using 2 different short stories from 2 different authors.…
Society often depicts skeletons as a symbol of death and although death is a natural process of life, there will always be horror attached to the idea of it. ‘’Skeleton’’ was compelling because like Mr.Harris, we all have a skeleton, yet we never ponder around the idea that we carry the inevitable inside of us: death. As I continued to read ‘’Skeleton,’’ I simply thought the true horror was Mr.Harris losing his mind and collapsing into the idea that his own skeleton was against him. However, Bradbury adds even more horror to the story by showcasing how Mr.Harris’ doctor only further encourages his obsession. As a reader, I didn’t expect the horror to be Mr.Harris’ self-deprecating obsession with his own anatomy, however I was even more frightened at the end when his girlfriend walks into her house only to find Mr.Harris’ skeleton lying on the ground calling her name. Likewise with ‘’It,’’ Alton and Kimbo dying was horrific, but the monstrous entity that was murderous was even scarier. Both Sturgeon and Bradbury created short stories that were riveting and eerie. As a fan of horror, both stories were appealing and definitely something I would read on my…
The Lovely Bones is written by Alice SeBold and is about a young girl named Susie who was brutally murdered by her next door neighbor, Mr. Harvey. No one suspected Mr. Harvey in the beginning, but with Susie’s help from the beyond, he became the lead suspect. Susie began to send clues to her family from heaven, but the problem was that only her father, brother and sister could connect with her and feel her presence. This problem expanded quickly and because of it, tore the family apart. Abigail, Susie’s mother, became the one torn from the family. Abigail dealt with Susie’s death differently than everyone else in the Salmon family. Abigail’s grieving process was slower than everyone else’s grieving process. Abigail becomes the antagonist in the novel and becomes the one character that can’t face Susie’s death.…
The story Bone written by “Fae Myenne Ng” focuses on the struggle Leila and her family go through in San Francisco. Leila the narrator tells her family’s struggles in this country after they immigrated from china. Mah her mother and Leon her stepfather are hardworking immigrants who have battle to make it through life. I relate to her story in so many ways, my mother is also a very hardworking immigrant who has done everything to give my brothers and me a better future.…
Pain is deeper than all thought; laughter is higher than all pain. The novel “The farming of Bones” by Edwidge Danticat is a fictional story based on real events of the Haitian massacre. This story depicts a very intense picture of how the conditions of living as a Haitian in the Dominican Republic were terrifying. The people who lived through the Haitian massacre paved better ways for future generations so that they could have better and more comfortable lives.…
A comparison of the ways that the dead affect the living in the novels Beloved by Toni Morrison and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.…
Some people seem to thrive on figuring out the unknown, and I’m one of them. That, perhaps, is why I fell so immediately in love with Arthur Conan Doyle’s universe of Sherlock Holmes. Opening my first Holmes book, A Study in Scarlet, and becoming enthralled with the characters, the language, and the mystery, was a turning point in my life.…
Burkeman, O. (2012). This column will change your life: Morbid curiosities. Retrieved November, 12, 2012, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jul/27/morbid-curiosity-change-life-burkeman…
Of all the horror short stories I have read “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W Jacobs is by far the best for creating a suspenseful atmosphere/mood. I intend to show how W.W Jacobs creates this suspenseful atmosphere/mood through the analysis of setting, narrative, dialogue and character in order to deepen my understanding.…