Kelso High School English Department

Chapter Eleven

In today’s lesson we will: Analyse chapter eleven of the text in relation to: plot characterisation theme: grief and loss irony symbolism

Plot Discuss briefly with your partner the main events of chapter eleven. Check that your chapter summary notes include all relevant information.

Characterisation: Jack Discussion point: Why is Mr Salmon so full of grief and anger in the novel's middle chapters? How do his grief and frustration manifest themselves in his professional and personal life?

Characterisation: Jack We see Jack Salmon’s continuing determination to find a way to prove Mr. Harvey is the killer. He becomes so annoying to the police that Len Fenerman finally has to tell him the case is being closed. He writes down all his anger and frustration in his journal, allowing Susie to see his fears as well.

Characterisation:Jack He is so beside himself with grief and loneliness that he follows a flashlight he sees in the cornfield. This behavior triggers an attack against him which will only add to his devastation.

Characterisation: Susie Susie, in the meantime, faces her own frustration as she watches Earth from heaven. She can’t help her father and she watches Mr. Harvey try to control his own obsessions in the cold, dark house laid out just like her own. He counts bones and belongings of the dead to stop his lust.

Characterisation: Mr Harvey Mr. Harvey try to control his own obsessions in the cold, dark house laid out just like her own. He counts bones and belongings of the dead to stop his lust. Mr. Harvey also likes to go down into his basement where he has hidden the bodies of the animals that all the neighbors believed had been killed by Joe Ellis. Mr. Harvey would spread quicklime on the bodies so he would have nothing left but the bones. Then, he would count them just like the souvenirs of his murders. When he counted the bones, it helped him stay away from the thoughts of killing that the souvenirs brought him. Susie realises that this is the way he has tried to stop himself from killing children in the past.

Characterisation: Mr Harvey Holiday, Susie’s dog, instinctively knows that Mr. Harvey’s house is bad when he howls uncontrollably outside it. He has a deeper instinct and is in contrast to the police who are impotent.

Characterisation:Abigail In a way she betrays Jack and Susie by not fighting for justice and by seeking comfort in another. “My father looked at his wife and Len” (pg 135)– “Abigail thinks Len F is right about Harvey” “And I watched that flat read mouth move across an invisible line that separated her from the rest of the world” “I saw the chances of Mr Harvey’s capture diminish as I watched the end of my family as I had known it ignite.”

Theme: Grief and Loss He is still in two stages of grief: anger and depression.

Irony It is ironic that Jack goes into the field to kill who he thinks is Mr. Harvey, but is attacked himself.

Symbolism: The Porch Light It has been left on continuously and represents the family’s belief that Susie will come home. When Jack turns it out to try to catch Harvey in the cornfield, it represents that, with the capture of her murderer, there will be closure for Susie’s family. Unfortunately, he is never caught and Susie never comes home.

Symbolism: The Candle Blowing it out is the only thing Susie is able to accomplish from Heaven as she watches her father assaulted. It represents her frustration and unhappiness that she can’t do more to ease their pain.

The End!