The Lovely Bones

Sebold, Alice. The Lovely Bones. New York: Little, Brown and Company (Inc.), 2004

Dreams are all that connect Susie Salmon to earth. In her new home, heaven, she watches over the lives of her family, friends, and her murderer. As she started to adapt to her new home, she learned a lot about the life she used to have on earth. After 10 years have passed since her death, she discovers:

These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections-sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent-that happened after I was gone (320).

These are the words that show that she grew up while in heaven. As she watches everyone affected by her murder, she sees how people come together; how they need each other. She watches her parents struggle to move on, Ruth and Ray talking of visions, and her sister living through the gossip and rumors about her death. She grows to realize a human's needs for others; how they need comfort and understanding. Also, she sees how something tragic like her death can bring people together in the end. Susie was able to accept that the world could go on without her when her family came back together in the end. With her sister's marriage, her father coming back to health, and her mother's return, things fell back to the way they were before she died; just without her. Seeing as she was able to look down on earth without wishing to be there is a sign that she really matured and learned in her death.