what are grave rubbings? Of what significane to the story is Susie's fasination with them?

The symbols presented in these chapters help to further our understanding of the effects of loss on all of the family members. The monopoly shoe represents Susie and her inability to be a part of the game of life. Buckley keeps the shoe hidden because he is aware that his family is each keeping their own memories and feelings about Susie hidden. The other symbolic presence is the grave rubbing that is hanging in the upstairs hallway of the Salmons' house. A grave is one way of remembering the dead, yet Susie does not have a grave. The image in the rubbing is a knight with his faithful dog at his heels, and Lindsey and Susie used to pretend that Susie was the knight and Lindsey was his bereaved widow. In their role-playing Lindsey would tell the knight that she had to move on. Thus the grave rubbing represents both absence and loss and the necessity to move on.