Gender and Age Representation in 'The Lovely Bones' - Ettie Greenwood

Here I will analyise the ways in which the little girl in the ' The Lovely Bones' opening is denoted though gender and age representation:

•  The little girl is young -about 2/3- which connotes her innocence and youthfulness. This is easy to tell due to her height, and obvious looks. 
• Her clothing also conveys her age as she is dressed in the stereotypical clothing of the child. She wears red dungarees and a white t-shirt, as these are everyday infant clothes, this may connote a sense of realism which is unusual in a thriller. It also enforces her innocence as she seems to be behaving like a stereotypical young girl -at home playing with her toys-

•   Also surrounded by the girl are toys, eg. a teddy bear, colouring books and a mini fair ground. These again are seen as everyday, normal toys for an infant, therefore adding to the realist feel.

• However after the flash forward, her femininity starts to shine through. She buys a new camera and starts taking 'selfies' with it. This is very typical of a young female (aged 14) and again connotes her innocence and suggests realism in the plot. 

• The non-diegetic sound in the opening is a voice over narration of the girl talking about her memories. Her voice is soft, but maybe too soft which slightly connotes an eery and foreshadowing effect. However it also highlights that she will be the main protagonist in the film as the focus is only on her in the opening, and she narrates her memories to the audience. 

 Link to our thriller opening:
By analysing how the female character in 'The Lovely Bones' is denoted, this will help us to chose similar characteristics to give to our female protagonist -a sense of realism at first and to create innocence-.