Lisbon Paper

The virgin suicide’s was written by Jeffrey Eugenides it was an interesting and fun Filled novel. There were stressful things that take place that lead to the twist and turns within it, The story is told by men looking back who grew up in the same neighborhood as the Lisbon girls, their lives had forever been changed by their fierce, awkward obsession with the five young sisters: Therese, Mary, Bonnie, Lux, and Cecilia. The men noticed and became very into the sisters when Cecilia tried to commit suicide. She was the first sister to attempt suicide among all the Lisbon sisters. She cut her wrists with her father’s razor blade and laid in a bathtub full of water… she laid in the bathtub full of water so that the blood would bleed out of her faster. She was unsuccessful. In the story when the paramedics arrived to the Lisbon house it said “Her small body giving off the odor of a mature woman, the paramedics had been so frightened by her tranquility that they stood mesmerized, but when Mr. Lisbon entered the room screaming the reality of what was going on came back to the paramedics… blood everywhere the razor that belonged to her father’s sunk in the toilet bowl.” (Page 5) this affected her father a great deal initially because that was his daughter trying to kill herself and any parent whose child tries to kill themselves reflects on the parents and how the child was raised. Also when he walked in to the bathroom it didn’t help the situation much that she had used her father’s razor to inflect death upon herself. This could have affected Mr. Lisbon in many different ways, He could have felt it was his fault because he has razors and didn’t have them stored safely, or that he was the reason she was killing herself so she would use his razor as a sign that her father was the cause of her death. These are all possible untold facts about the story but these are how I would have felt in this situation. If Mr. Lisbon hadn’t entered the room Cecilia might have died because of the way the paramedics acted when they laid eyes on Cecilia. Her mother was affected by this to because after she learned her daughter was trying to kill herself she knew there was something wrong with her mentally and she was a concerned parent as any parent would be but had no idea how to handle the situation, in the story it never states that the parents tried to talk to Cecilia which might of helped her better than not talking to their sick daughter at all.

Her second attempt at committing suicide was a little bit more successful. She jumped off her balcony of her house and landed on her wooden picket fence that was in the front yard of their house which impaled her and killed her instantly, After the community found out about her performing this action in the story Mrs. Zaretti said “Our kids could jump on it to.”(Page 53) This comment made by her was the most ridicules, ignorant, and naive thing I have ever heard. Just for the simple fact that it would be impossible for the kids to do that, because they would have to break into the Lisbon house and use their balcony to jump on to the fence to kill themselves. She Cleary said this out of ignorance. After talking about the death among her co-workers and people from the community she rounded up lawyers, doctors, an mortgage bankers from the community and they took it upon their self’s to dig the fence out of the Lisbon’s front yard that Cecilia was killed on. By doing this it stated in the novel that this was the greatest show of common effort in the town, they intended good but in reality it only made the situation head into a faster downfall that it already was. The family stood in the window as the lawyers, doctors, and mortgage bankers dug up there fence that there family member just died on once. They attempted to get the fence out just by shovels, strength, and lots of hope. But They and failed. Upon failure a professional was called to remove the fence, he just showed up with a big truck. He hooked it to the fence and ripped it out of the ground roots and everything. Once the fence was out of the ground his work was finished and he left with the fence on his truck, this left a hole of nothing in there lawn. It was like a remembrance that didn’t go away. The family only could spectate from their living room window but they were helpless. The boys were obsessed with the girls already, but once Cecilia dies it motivates them even more to find out everything they can about the girls. Lux was affected by her sister’s death in the novel it state’s “Lux confused the sexual act with love. For her, sex became a substitute for the comfort she needed as a result of her sister’s suicide.” This shows how people handle different situations differently. She had to have sex to make her feel better and other people would do different things like go for a run, or smoke something, maybe get professional help. But lux was affected differently she needed sex to make her feel better, this probably wasn’t the best way for comfort considering that she was a virgin, never had sex before and she rushed into it which only leads to more and more emotional problems the sister’s and lux were already facing with in their lives.

“Our own knowledge of Cecilia kept growing after her death, too with the same unnatural persistence. Though she had spoken only rarely and had no real friends, everybody possessed his own vivid memories of Cecilia” (page 40) this acknowledge the fact that Cecilia has a huge impact on both the family and the community they lived in. The boys didn’t really have any memories of Cecilia only when looking back to times they spent with her in the sandbox together or any other significance memories they spent time with her. This had created a sympathy factor for the family and especially for her sisters in school. Everybody knew about it and it was the talk of the town. It made the girls have a weird feeling like a withdrawal from everyone in a sense. I remember when a kid in our school died…