George Harvey (The Lovely Bones)

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George Harvey is a fictional character of Alice Sebold's 2002 novel The Lovely Bones.

[edit] Character overview

A serial killer, he murders the protagonist, 14-year-old Susie Salmon, at the beginning of the novel, setting the story in motion. He is referred to throughout the novel as Mr. Harvey, the name by which Susie had always addressed him in life.

[edit] Novel back story

Born in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico in 1938, Harvey's childhood (seen by Susie, along with all other aspects of his life, from Heaven) was extremely dysfunctional. His mother was a kleptomaniac who stole from corpses and often associated with petty thieves. When he was five years old, three such thieves came after her and attempted to rape her while she was alone with him. During their escape, his mother ran them over with the family car. Harvey decided then that women and children were "the two worst things to be." Shortly afterward, he witnessed his father expel her from the family. These early traumas led him to develop a deep, violent hatred of women. He committed his first rape in high school, and graduated to murder at 21.

An ephebophile, Harvey's preferred victims were pubescent girls like Susie, but he also murdered adult women ranging in age from mid-20s to well into middle age. At first, he felt twinges of remorse after each victim and attempted to stop killing by taking his sadistic impulses out on animals. He eventually abandoned any self-restraint he may have once had, however, and came to think of each victim as "a present to himself." By his mid-30s, he had killed possibly a dozen women and girls.

He eventually settled in Norristown, Pennsylvania, where he made his living making dollhouses. He told his neighbors that he was a widower, using as his "wife"'s name that of one of his victims.

[edit] In the novel

He murdered Susie, the daughter of his nextdoor neighbors, on December 6, 1973. He lured her into an underground den he had built, raped and strangled her, and cut her body into pieces so she would be easier to dispose of. He put the pieces into an old safe, which he buried in a sinkhole, and collapsed the den. On his way back to his house, however, he dropped a piece of her elbow in a field.

From Heaven, Susie watched with disgust and fear as Harvey, feigning concern and sympathy for her family, tried to befriend her father and toyed with the idea of making her younger sister, Lindsay, his next victim. Susie's father at first merely thought Harvey odd, but eventually grew to suspect him of murdering Susie. He continually begged the police to investigate Harvey, but no evidence was found. Lindsay, too, was convinced of Harvey's guilt and, at her father's implied request, broke into Harvey's house looking for clues. Harvey came very close to catching her in the act. Frightened of the growing suspicion from his neighbors and the police, he fled, never to be seen or heard from again (except, of course, by Susie.)

In Heaven, Susie saw into all parts of Harvey's life, past and present, and met his past victims. Despite herself, she developed a grudging pity and understanding for the man who robbed her of life and destroyed her family. She gradually came to see him as a pathetic figure, incapable of real relationships or normal human feelings.

After fleeing his home, Harvey lived an itinerant, destitute life traveling around the country, killing with less frequency as the years went on. In spring of 1982, Harvey, now living in New Hampshire, attempted to lure a young diner waitress home with him, but she rebuffed his advances. On his way back home, he was struck on the head by an icicle and knocked, unconscious, into a ravine, where he eventually froze to death. His body would not be recovered for several weeks.