What are some examples of figurative language in The Lovely Bones?

When examining figurative language, keep in mind that it is writing that the author does not intend for you to take literally. Figurative language adds depth and beauty to the author's story.
In The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold utilizes figurative language throughout her novel. Mostly she uses simile (a comparison of two things by using the words "like" or "as") and imagery (or writing that appeals to any of the five senses). By using these specific types of figurative language, Sebold is able to strengthen the novel's narrator: Susie.
Susie uses similes to make comparisons between descriptions she thinks her audience will know to those she believes they will not. In chapter 7, Sebold writes "My parents were like sleepwalkers saying yes to his questions, nodding their heads to flowers or speakers." This comparison to sleepwalkers illustrates the pain her parents are going through. They're unable to do anything aside from nod mindlessly while making the funeral arrangements. Later in the chapter, Susie uses a simile again when she describes her first kiss: "Our only kiss was like an accident- a beautiful gasoline rainbow." Later in the book, Susie uses the simile

I watched my beautiful sister running . . . and I knew she was not running away from me or toward me. Like someone who has survived a gunshot, the wound had been closing, closing -braiding into a scar for eight long years.

The powerful simile explains that, for her sister, getting over Susie's death is like getting over a gunshot wound: it is painful and takes time.
Imagery is used throughout the text as Susie describes her view of heaven, what she sees going on at home, and even how she died. When describing heaven, Susie says it is "large, squat buildings spread out on dismally landscaped sandy lots, with overhangs and open spaces to make them feel more modern." In chapter 5, Susie uses her childlike diction to describe her family's home: "the spots on our suburban walls replaced with bright graphic prints meant to stimulate children." Later, in a flashback in Chapter 15, Susie remembers a thunderstorm and reminisces about how she and her sister enjoyed them: "We both listened together to the rain pour down and the thunderclap and smelled the earth rising to greet us."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How does Bilbo show leadership and courage in The Hobbit?

Bilbo’s increase in confidence and courage is the defining aspect of his character arc. At the beginning of the novel, he is shut away content in his Hobbit hole, happy to remain separate and coddled from the rest of the world. In the movie, Bilbo chooses to join the dwarves on their quest out of a sense for adventure. In the book, however, Bilbo wants nothing to do with them and only joins because he had been duped into signing a contract. Despite being on the adventure somewhat against his will, Bilbo still proves himself time and again, saving the dwarves from the spiders, the trolls, and a number of other dangers they encounter along the way. Bilbo’s character arc has even been cited as a sort of Christian metaphor for the growth of the soul, though how much Tolkien intended on this front is up for debate. From a thematic standpoint, the ring of invisibility also plays into Bilbo’s brand of bravery. If Hobbits are the overlooked creatures of Middle Earth, then it is noteworthy that...
Read more

In “Goodbye to All That,” Joan Didion writes that the “lesson” of her story is that “it is distinctly possible to remain too long at the fair.” What does she mean? How does the final section of the essay portray how she came to this understanding, her feelings about it, and the consequences of it?

In this classic essay, Didion describes moving to New York City from her native Sacramento at the age of twenty-one, and, as she freely admits, a somewhat naive twenty-one, her mind, "programmed by all the movies I had ever seen and all the songs I had ever heard about New York," with the typical feeling, at that age, that, "nothing like this...has ever happened to anyone before." Intending to stay for only six months, she falls in love with the city. As she says, "I do not mean 'love' in any colloquial way, I mean that I was in love with the city the way you love the first person who ever touches you and never love anyone quite that way again." This initial love led her to prolong her residency, since, "I still believed in possibilities then, still had the sense, so peculiar to New York, that something extraordinary would happen any minute, any day, any month." But as the next years roll past, and the "new faces" she encounters...
Read more

Why does the poet say "all the men and women merely players"?

It's one of the most famous lines in literature: All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players . . . This famous saying comes from Shakespeare's play As You Like It, and it's spoken by Jacques. What he's saying here is that simply going about our daily lives is a type of performance. Just like actors on a stage, we all have roles to perform: Daughter. Student. Sister. Captain of the soccer team. The fact that Shakespeare writes that men and women are merely players suggests that the roles are preordained and that a person's choice in being a mother, for example, or a doctor or starting point guard for the Brooklyn Nets is out of their hands. What roles a person performs over the course of their lifetime is up to fate. The notion that "all the world's a stage" has entered pop culture, but within the context of the play, this idea does not sit well with Jacques. He's a pessimist, and the idea that everything is up to fate makes...
Read more