Summary
Introduces us to Susie Salmon - a 14 year old girl from Pennsylvania, America. The story is narrated by Susie from a first-person perspective from heaven. Begins with her recalling her murderer on December 6th 1973 where one of her neighbours, Mr Harvey, approaches her in the cornfield on her way home and invites her into a crawl space that he has made underground. She begins to feel uncomfortable but is pressured into having a drink with him and is then told that she cannot leave. He then forces her to take her clothes off and rapes her, he uses her hat to stuff into her mouth as a gag, he forces Susie to tell him that she loves him then kills her anyway.
Characterisation: names and literary onomastics (AO1, AO2)
Author’s choose particular names to allow them to express ideologies, opinions, attitudes, cultures and various other concepts. The names of people are called anthroponyms, and the names of places are called toponyms. In the novel’s first line Susie defines herself by her name. Names are important in human life as they are carried with a person their whole life and are a mandatory part of living - they are a part of our identity send how we are referred to by others. Susie is preoccupied with her name during this chapter as she remembers the feeling of discomfort when she hears Mr Harvey call her by her name and when she fantasised about being called Suzanne in high school. Susie dying denied her the opportunity to change her name therefore leaving her restricted as being the 14 year old girl who was raped and murdered.
Characterisation and semantics (AO1, AO2)
Sebold’s choice of name for the protagonist could be perceived as symbolic. Emphasis is placed on Susie’s surname as we are provided with this prior to her forename. ‘Salmon’ is immediately associated with the fish and the idea that they are known for swimming upstream which highlights the idea of the text being an uphill struggle. Fish are also a symbol of faith, this symbolism arises from Christianity in roman times. More recently fish have come to be a symbol of faith in general, not necessarily linked to Christianity. Susie’s name can therefore be seen as having allusions of faith.
Phonetics (AO1)
Susie’s name also has an alliterative meaning - each word of her name repeats the same consonant sound ‘s’. Her name also falls into the category of alliteration called sibilance which creates a soft sound when it is said out loud. This could be seen as a reflection of the way the dead are often referred to in hushed tones.
Time and space/place (AO1, AO2)
This chapter introduces the suburban setting and the cornfield. The cornfield remains significant throughout the novel and remains in the characters thoughts and feelings - it becomes linked to Susie’s murder when the Gilbert’s dog finds her elbow there. The cornfield has various purposes in the narrative - it is a working field and it is used as a shortcut home for the students from the junior high school. It also has the hidden ‘clubhouse’ that Mr Harvey built and planned to target Susie before raping her and killing her there. The cornfield still affects Susie in her afterlife as she is frozen in that moment in time and is linked to that specific place forever - time no longer moves for her so she is forever a 14 year old girl; she can still appreciate how her loved ones continue to move through time in a normal way. Susie’s final moment of understanding allows her to understand that kinds of existence have gone on without her acknowledging them. Her trauma makes her project her thoughts back to her family home which marks the start of her journey in heaven and she develops a new appreciation for life and its value.
Why does Susie follow Mr Harvey into the hole?
Susie knows Mr Harvey to some extent due to him being her neighbour. Susie has been brought up in the 1960s when it was especially important to respect people that are older than her and to be polite to them which is potentially what encouraged Susie to follow Mr Harvey into the hole as she was not aware of the dangers but was concerned about respecting him and acting politely.
What are the technical terms for names of people and names of places?
The names of people are known as anthroponyms and the names of places are known as toponyms.
