| “ | My name is Salmon, like the fish. First name: Susie. I was 14 years old, when I was murdered, on December 6, 1973. I was here for a moment. And then I was gone. I wish you all a long and happy life." | ” |
–Susie Salmon, The Lovely Bones | ||
| Susie Salmon | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Gender |
Female |
|
Race |
Caucasian American |
|
Family |
Jack Salmon (father) |
|
Born |
1959 |
|
Died |
December 6, 1973 |
|
Cause of death |
Murdered by George Harvey |
|
Portrayed by |
Evelyn Lennon (aged 3) |
Suzanne 'Susie' Salmon is the main character in The Lovely Bones. She is murdered in the first chapter in the novel and the film. She is raped and killed by Mr. Harvey.
Susie's death is spread around the town, and when her father finds out that Mr Harvey is the killer, he attacks him but is stopped. When Susie is on Earth, her dreams are fairly typical for a well-adjusted, talented girl. High school is the big deal in her immediate plans.
In her Earthly life she sees the mediocrity of junior high fading into the past, as she becomes the queen of high school. This is why, in her first heaven, "all the buildings looked like suburban […] high schools built in the 1960s".
She is a natural with the camera, and learns from photographing her mother, Abigail, that a photo can reveal a person's inner needs and desires. The photos of her mother that Susie leaves behind help her father, Jack, to understand Abigail. This understanding leads to a strengthening of their relationship. Susie carries this photographic eye with her into heaven, and she often tells her story pictorially, as stressed in one of the few titled chapters, "Snapshots."
Appearance
In the novel, Susie is described as being quite an ordinary-looking Caucasian girl, with fair skin and mousy brown hair. She has begun to lose her baby fat and develop a more adult-like figure. A detailed description of Susie is never given. The clothes she was wearing when she died include a pair of yellow bell-bottom pants, a shirt and a royal blue parka.
In the film, Susie is portrayed by Saoirse Ronan. Her appearance remains much the same as it is in the novel, except for the fact her hair is lighter than mousy-brown, with more blonde highlights. She also has blue eyes in the film (as her eye colour is never given in the novel).
Quotes
- "Always, I would watch Ray; I was in the air around him, I was in the cold winter mornings he spent with Ruth Connors; and sometimes Ray would think of me, but he began to wonder maybe it was time to put that memory away, maybe it was time to let me go."
- "There was one thing my murderer didn't understand; he didn't understand how much a father could love his child."
- "My murderer was a man from our neighborhood. I took his photo once as he talked to my parents about his border flowers. I was aiming for the bushes when he got on the way. He stepped out of nowhere and ruined the shot. He ruined a lot of things."
- "I wasn't lost, or frozen, or gone... I was alive; I was alive in my own perfect world."
- "Grandma Lynn predicted I would live a long life because I had saved my brother. As usual, Grandma Lynn was wrong."
- "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. And I began to see things in a way that let me hold the world without me in it."
- "When my mother came to my room, I realized that all this time, I'd been waiting for her. I had been waiting so long, I was afraid she wouldn't come."
- "The man has no shame" I said to Franny, my intake counselor. "Exactly." she said, and made her point as simply as that."
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