Monday, October 1, 2007

Lovely Bones - Discussion 2

Why do the heavens of different characters - Franny, Holly, Flora Hernandez - take such different forms? Is the author offering a rosy view of death and its aftermath? Or do you think she is saying something more profound about the individual experiences of loss and grief?

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I think that the heavens of each character are in different forms because each individual creates there own version of what heaven is. Franny, Holly, Flora, and Susie all imagine positive things that have happened in their lives and re-play them in their own heaven. They have people in their heaven similar to those who they were friends with on Earth. Such sa Ray Singh. Sometimes they make heaven even better than it was when they were alive and create new things.
Also, the view on death the author creates seems like dying is not such a bad thing. Alice Sebold writes like heaven is like Earth but the person who is dead actually controls it. The characters control what happens whether it's good or bad.

Stephanie said...

I agree that their heavens are different because each one creates their own heaven. They each want their heaven to be like thier favorite place on earth. Not all of them have the same favorite place making their heavens different. I also agree with Sami that they have friends similar to the ones they had on earth. Holly and Susie both look at Franny as sort of a mother figure even though they both know that she is nothing like thier real mothers. They all want different things which is why their heavens are so different.
The author is kind of offering a rosy view of death. The characters get all of the materialistic things they want in heaven, making heaven a nice place to be. She is also saying that while they are up there they are all dealing with loss and grief. The characters may be in one of their favorite places in heaven, but they are dealing with the loss of their family and friends and they are each dealing with it differently.

Prof Riotto said...

Is there a relationship to what we would want heaven to be and Suzi's heaven? In other words, do we as humans need to believe heaven is a wonderful place?

Adam said...

Stephanie brings up a good point. Even though they all can imagine their heven to be the way they want it. Which is why they all have a diferent heven, but they are similar. With all of those things they create and how wonderful they make it. They still dont have there family. So all of that can be realy hard on them. Its like gaining all these things, but you still have the feeling lost and greif for losing your family.
As humans I think we all want to imagine heven as a nice place. because no one wants to go to a place and they dont know about it. It gives us a sense of ease to know everything will be oik after we die.

Hannah said...

I agree how with how everyone states that everyones heaven is their own because they get to make it. Every person in the book is differnt, they might be in the same situation, but they get to control their life and act the way they want to in their heaven and maybe sometimes people might be interested and or view things the same way and that is why their heavens cross.
The author definitly makes it seem that heaven is a wonderful place. THe people living in heaven get to control what happens and gets to construct a life that they had always wanted. Reading about susies heaven makes me think about what my heaven would be like, how would my world be contstructed. Personally answering the extra question about us wanting to believe heaven is a wonderful place, is true. I know i want to believe after death i am going to be ending up some where nice, and peaceful.

Hannah said...
This comment has been removed by the author.