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.…
A crime scene investigator might indicate the scale of evidence in photos by using common tools like cigarette packs, ballpoint pens, or car keys as points of reference. They also use rulers, probably for measuring.…
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.…
The Bottom Line: If you're looking for her sister's bones, you'll have to dig deep.…
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.…
1. Evaluate the depiction of violence in Salvage the Bones. Consider how the scenes of violence – including Daddy’s loss of fingers, China’s brutal killing of her puppy, and the dogfight between China and Kilo – add to the novel. How do violence and tenderness co-exist in this troubled setting?…
In The Farming of Bones, Edwidge Danticat uses a unique point of view to place the reader into the story through the use of ‘you’ and common senses. By using the trigger word ‘you’, Danticat helps the reader connect to the story in two ways: emotionally and physically by describing common senses or feelings that one can relate to in their own life.…
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.…
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.…
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.…
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.…
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.…
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…