Reading The Lovely Bones has given me insight on things such as mental illness and psychological problems because we see Mr. Harvey who kills Susie. Clearly, if someone kills another person, something is wrong in their life. We are able to get a glimpse into Mr. Harvey’s childhood, and we also get to see some of the memories he had with his mom. This helps us as readers see Mr. Harvey as a person and understand why he killed Susie and what his motives were.
Before reading this, I didn’t know a whole lot about serial killers, and I still don’t, but what I did know is that they likely have a psychological disorder, or a mental illness where there is a voice in their head telling them to do these things to other people. No human being in their right mind would just decide to go out and become a serial killer. I also knew that there had to be some sort of similarity that links all of thier murders to one another. For example, the Happy Face Killer would leave a smiley face somewhere at the crime scene. Others, may only kill women, they may only kill people who look a certain way, etc. There is some sort of preference to serial killers that makes them keep killing.
After reading The Lovely Bones, I now know that there is always a motive as to why serial killers choose to kill certain people who look a certain way, etc. Something had to have happened to them at some point in their life that leads them to this motive that will cause them to commit multiple murders.
To reach out to serial killers before they kill can be difficult. A lot of times, they are disguised in our community as good people and we have no clue what they are plotting in their head. If we do know or think they are going to kill, we can get them the help they need.
Reading The Lovely Bones has influenced the way I think about the human condition. I have realized that there may not be enough of the help these people need around, so they feel as if they have been pushed to the point of killing someone to get attention. Many times, when these people are caught, they end up thrown in prision where there is no help for them that they can get (I don’t want to say always because I’m not sure how every prision does things). We need more help for people with mental illnesses and psychological conditions. We also need these people to know that it’s okay to speak up and get help.
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