Hi there !
Book #1: Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
Book#2: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
I am terrible at writing but this costs A LOT of my marks so any help at all is appreciated ! THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYBODY.
Jimmy, Dave, and Sean from "Mystic River" along with Abigail, George Harvey, and Ruth from "The Lovely Bones" succumb to the sense of imprisonment within their roles in life and the expectation of society causing the characters to lose hope for themselves and question their own self knowledge.(thesis : good or bad ?) Dave was always traumatized by the haunting memory of him being sexually abused when he was younger. This psychological damage leaves a person scarred for their entire life, leading to the individual to lose their connection with their self or sometimes growing up to become a sexual predator such as George Harvey. No one can escape that fate. Jimmy has always been a natural born leader, however, after his daughter's death, he questions his role as a father for his family and friends. Abigail feels pressured in her role as a mother and is conscious about it, as she is in control of her own future, unlike Dave or George Harvey. What individual has not asked themselves the questions "What if I just ran away from it all? What if I left everyone here and I just went?" The opposite of imprisonment comes in mind when saying this; escaping. Dave, Jimmy, and Sean wonder if they left their hometown, what would become of them, even though in reality, they cannot. Ruth questions the same, but she had come to enjoy Susie's death with a bittersweet affection.
Both Dave and George Harvey are helplessly trapped inside their psychotic, controlling minds portraying a predator to everyone else outside. Molested at a young age will have traumatizing effects as shown by Dave's actions. However, Dave cannot control how this event had traumatized him and inevitably, his own subconscious traps Dave within these urges he cannot control. Dave is slowly losing hope for himself and does not know who he is anymore.
"They turn into molesters themselves. Sooner or later. The poison's in you and it has to come out. I was just protecting some poor future victim from your poison. Maybe your son." (LeHane, 394)
Dave's mind is at war between the poison seeping into his soul and himself. He is aware that he is slowly losing to the sexual predator inside, but there had been times he had tried to stop . The quote also reveals that Dave has a son and of course, loves him. Yet the predator inside of him has a lust for little boys, making his own son vulnerable to Dave himself. Dave does not know whom he is anymore and is powerlessly giving himself over to the evil within. Unfortunately, George Harvey's state of mind is already trapped as a psychopathic sexual predator. He has no one he loves to motivate himself to try to fight the urges. The poison and desires had already taken over. As the antagonist of the novel, George Harvey is constantly portrayed as the evil character with negative characteristics. However, during this quote, Susie realizes that this man that murdered her, had no control over it. Unlike Dave, this man had already lost himself.
"What I think was the hardest for me to realize was that he had tried each time to stop himself. He had killed animals, taking lesser lives to keep from killing a child." (Sebold, 131)
The quote provides evidence that George had tried to evade himself from taking away a life from a child. He is trying to keep that small bit of hope and resist from his crimes. Killing another child is like feeding to Harvey; he can survive without it for a while, but eventually, he must eat. If George Harvey had tried to stop himself every time that he killed, that means that he had tried to stop himself when killing Susie. He had tried but those impulses overcame him. He is also a man trapped.
Although not mentally ill or psychopaths, Jimmy from "Mystic River" and Abigail from " The Lovely Bones" feel the effects of being closed in from the expectations of their surroundings. Jimmy questions his role as a father when his oldest daughter is murdered. Jimmy is also tired of being the leader of his group, with Dave copying and chasing Jimmy around like a dog. Jimmy wanted a friend, not a lackey.
"'Smart stuff!' Dave Boyle said. 'Right, Jimmy?'
Right, Jimmy? Right, Jimmy? Dave was like a parrot some days." (LeHane, 9)
Jimmy later questions his own role as a friend. Nevertheless, Jimmy just does not like the way Dave acts towards him, parallel to how Abigail feels about her son and her role of being a mother. Abigail truly sees, after Susie's death, what her life was and finds herself detesting it.
"'Momma?' She stuffed the macaroons back in the medicine cabinet, swallowing what was already in her mouth.
'Momma?' Buckley repeated. His voice was sleepy.
'Mommmmm-maaa!'
She despised the word." (Sebold, 62)
This form of being confined is very much different from how Dave and George Harvey are confined. Abigail is able to consciously think about it and control the urge to succumb to the feeling of being trapped in her role. In this quote, it is not the individual that she hates, but rather the situation similar to the relationship between Jimmy and Dave. Later in the novel, Abigail leaves the family to find herself and gain some sort of self-knowledge, but to only come back and find it within accepting her role in the family that she rejected so reluctantly.
Lastly, before falling imprisoned in one's own life, one questions about their self-knowledge. In "Mystic River", Jimmy, Dave, and Sean are older wondering what would happen if they just left the Mystic River. What would become of them? This form of being trapped is much different from Dave as an individual, how he can barely fight the evils within his body, and different form Jimmy individually who feels that he can just change his direction in life in a slight variation. This form of being trapped, using the example above is like either staying the way they are or plainly starting from a new direction from the beginning of the story.
"That all three of them were, in reality, still eleven-year-old boys trapped in some cellar, imagining what they'd become if they ever escaped and grew up." (LeHane, 156)
In reality, the three men are trapped due to having been raised and living there, these men cannot just leave. Ruth, also parallel to what is happening to the trio of grown men, is facing the same reality. Ruth is tied down to Susie's death not physically, but mentally and especially spiritually. It again, is nothing like the urges a sexual predator goes through, neither is it the expectations of one's surroundings that trap her, but rather, it is Susie's spirit that does. This form of imprisonment is much different in a way that she could forget about Susie and move on, but she in reality just cannot.
"She would always feel me and think of me. I could see that, but there was no longer anything I could do. Ruth had been a girl haunted and now she would be a woman haunted. First by accident and now by choice. All of it, the story of my life and death, was hers if she chose to tell it, even to one person at a time." (Sebold, 321)
Like Dave, Jimmy, and Sean, Ruth can stay the way she is now, or forget about Susie and start in a new direction altogether. In reality, Ruth cannot forget about Susie because Susie's death assisted Ruth to her finding what she enjoys in life, and finding herself. Ruth has no choice but to accept the fate that is given to her.
Characters from both novels "Mystic River" and "The Lovely Bones" cannot help by fall prisoner to their roles in lives leaving little hope for themselves and question their own identity. The levels of being confined into one's role can be described using the three parts of the human psyche defined by Sigmund Freud. Like the id, basic needs and urges must be met. Both Dave and Harvey show that they are falling to the basic needs of a sexual child abuser and cannot climb out of it. The ego is the organized, regulator part of the mind. It seeks to please the id, but on rational terms. Jimmy and Abigail want to change their ways for the urge to escape, but know that they should not. Finally, the superego plays a more moralizing role and usually goes against the id. Dave, Jimmy, and Sean react in a way that is beyond what is currently happening to them, but rather they think about what could of happened to them if they all moved out of the Mystic River. If Ruth were to be selfish, she would forget about Susie and move on, but instead she stays and thinks about Susie all the time. She does the completely opposite such as the superego and gives her own needs away so she can be "haunted" by the death of Susie forever. It is told that life means freedom, however Dave, Jimmy, Sean, George Harvey, Abigail, and Ruth show that life can easily also mean imprisonment within an individual's daily roles.
