Characters
Susie Salmon: Susie Salmon is a fourteen year old girl who was murdered by her neighbor, Mr. Harvey while walking home from school. When we first meet her in the beginning of the novel, she is already in “heaven” looking down at her family members back on Earth and telling the story of her life. Susie was a very outgoing but curious girl who was loved by many people. While walking home one day, she took a shortcut through a corn field by her house. Her neighbor, Mr. Harvey was in the cornfield at the time and asked Susie if she wanted to see something he built underground. Susie “...was like [she] was in science class : [she] was curious” (Sebold 9). Susie went down in the underground structure with Mr. Harvey, and he murdered her. Susie was always a very intelligent girl, but her curiosity got the best of her. Later on in the book, Susie is stuck in this place like heaven, the inbetween, where there was only a few people there and none of her loved ones. She meet Franny and Holly there. Franny and Holly were her friends and taught her many things about the place she was in. Susie could not let go of her life on Earth. She often visited her family members in their rooms, and she would constantly watch over them. She could not believe her life on Earth has ended. Towards the end of the book, Susie visits her first love, Ray Singh, in the body of Ruth Connors. She learns from her visit to Ray that it was easier to leave the second time then the first. Susie learns that if she wants to go to the "real" heaven, she must let go of her past life on Earth.
Mr. Harvey: Mr. Harvey, Susie’s neighbor, is a very old fashioned man. He is an introvert; he likes to spend time by himself and inside his home. He makes dollhouses for a living. Mr. Harvey is a strange man, but no one in the town ever thought he was a murderer. Mr. Harvey is a very intelligent man and knew how to cover up Susie’s murder. He had a pattern of opening his blinds every day and getting his mail at the same time, making the police not suspicious of him. “He set several clocks. One to tell him when to open the blinds, one when to close them. In conjunction with these alarms, he would turn lights on and off throughout the house” (Sebold 128). He knew if he had a schedule, that no one would suspect that he murdered Susie. He also knew how to tell a believable lie to anyone and get away with it. Later in the book, we find out that Susie was not his first kill. He knew to watch the weather to see when it would rain again, making sure he killed on that day so that the evidence would be washed away. His motivation in this story is not to get caught for Susie’s murder.
Jack Salmon: Jack Salmon, Susie’s father, is devastated about Susie’s death. After Susie’s death, the family was not the same. Jack and his wife barely talked to each other anymore; her death tearing the family apart. He was often quite, hiding his thoughts about Susie. His relationship with his wife was now damaged by the loss of his daughter. Most of the time, he would spend time in his office. There he would look at the bottled ships him and Susie had built together. He would often think of her there. One day he wrote in his notebook, “I think Susie watches me” (Sebold 59). While looking at a candle the by the window, the flame flickered rapidly and he saw the face of Susie. He often had thoughts that she was looking down on him from heaven. Len Fenerman, a detective investigating Susie’s case, would often check up on him and tell him if he found who murdered her. Jack Salmon is motivated to find out who murdered his daughter and make him pay for what he did. In the middle of the novel, Jack suspects that Mr. Harvey murdered his daughter. One day Mr. Harvey was building and tent in his yard to lure more children there, and Jack asked if he could help him. Jack became very suspicious of Mr. Harvey, and he asked him about his daughter. Mr. Harvey said he was sorry for his loss and would not tell him anything he knew about her and went inside. Jack knew it was him but he could not find any evidence pointing to him. One night while Jack was in his office, he saw a person with a flashlight go down to the cornfield. He knew it was Mr. Harvey. He followed him with a bat, and found who he thought was Mr. Harvey. It was actually Susie's friend from school and her boyfriend. Trying to find enough evidence to get Mr. Harvey arrested was an obsession to him which damaged many relationships he had.
Lindsey Salmon: Lindsey Salmon, Susie's younger sister, cannot believe Susie is gone. Lindsey is outgoing like her sister. Lindsey is determined like her father, to find out who murdered Susie. She learns that her dad suspects Mr. Harvey killed Susie. She then goes investigates Mr. Harvey's house by herself because the police do not believe Mr. Harvey murdered Susie. There she finds a drawing of the corn field Mr. Harvey drew that had the structure he murdered Susie in. Even after that, the police still do not think Mr. Harvey murdered Susie. Lindsey changes a lot throughout the novel. She falls in love with a boy from her school named Samuel. Susie watches her experience everything she could not. Lindsey also gets married to Samuel and they have a baby. She names her after Susie.
Susie Salmon. Photograph. n.d. "The Guardian." Theguardian.com. Web. 04 March 2015. <http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/feb/18/the-lovely-bones-review>.
Mr, George Harvey. Photograph. n.d. "BBC." News.bbc.co.uk. Web. 04 March 2015. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8539509.stm>.
Jack Salmon. Photograph. n.d. "Famous Fix" Famousfix.com. Web. 04 March 2015. <http://www.famousfix.com/tag/jack-salmon/>.