The Lovely Bones and Belonging

An individual shapes his or her own sense of Belonging.” Discuss   *provide points for and/or against

In Alice Sebold’s The lovely bones, she explores the concept of belonging and   Susie’s journey to find belonging and accept what has happened, she did not chose her sense of belonging. Susie felt out of place in the “inbetween”. Her journey to self discovery was shaped by the people around her, her family, her murderer and eventually the victims that had been murdered too had shaped her eventual sense of belonging.

Susie’s sense of belonging was gone. When Susie was murdered, so was her sense of belonging, she was ripped from everyone she knew and loved. She had to leave her world and come into a new and unrecognisable place. When Susie is placed in this unrecognisable place she must continue her journey to heaven, the only problem is that she cannot let go of the world she is no longer with, this is supported when Susie states “holly said there was a wide, wide heaven beyond everything we knew; where there was so cornfield, no memory, no grave… but I wasn’t looking beyond yet, I was still looking back” this verbalises her desire to stay and belong. She is trying to turn back time and go back to her world where she felt loved and cared for. This demonstrates how Susie did not chose to leave her world, she did not chose to be alienated, therefore she did not shape her own sense of belonging.

Although Susie did not shape her own sense of belonging, her sense of belonging was somehow shaped by people around her such as her family. Before she was murdered her family bond was so strong, this sense of family and togetherness made Susie feel loved. Susie’s family was so loving and cherished her, the uniting nature of her family was portrayed when Susie says that “there was one thing Mr Harvey didn’t understand, he didn’t understand how much a father could love his daughter” she demonstrated how her family love was something special and something so strong. She...