The Virgin Suicides

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The Virgin Suicides

• Chapter 3

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Chapter 3

• Obsession with happiness
• Because of the nature of the death, most people
  decided not to send flowers to the Funeral Home,
  and in general everybody out off placing their
  orders, unsure whether to let the catastrophe
  pass in silence or to act as though the death
  were natural (48).
• Do not want to admit he unnatural aspect of
  suicide
• Not a public problem, her own personal sickness

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Chapter 3

• Already the house showed signs of cleanliness,
  though they were nothing compared to what was to
  come later. Dust balls lined the steps. A
  half-eaten sandwich sat atop the landing where
  someone had felt too sad to finish it (50).
• decline of environment mirrors and contributes
  to the decline of the Lisbons
• Mrs. Lisbon neglecting her role as mother

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Chapter 3

• Everyone felt a lot better, as though the lake
  had been cleaned up, or the air, or the other
  sides bombs destroyed. There wasnt much you
  could do to save us, but at least the fence was
  gone (55-56)
• Dont worry why she did it
• Will ruin their safe, protected neighborhood
• Feel that the danger is confined to Lisbons
  house
• Fence serves as a symbol of her death- they
  remove it

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Chapter 3

• Narration and Perspective
• Once again, despite their closed ranks, we could
  see the new differences among them, and we felt
  that if we kept looking hard enough we might
  begin to understand what they were feeling and
  who they were (63-64).
• Like a film or camera, filtered
• Try to be objective but present them with a
  skewed perspective
• Almost angelic, heroines

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Chapter 3

• Community reaction
• had shown great prescience in predicting the
  negative publicity the suicide scare would bring
  to our town, as well as the subsequent fall in
  commercial activity. While the suicides lasted,
  and for some time after, the Chamber of Commerce
  worried less about the influx of black shoppers
  and more about the outflux of whites (99).
• TV sensationalizes it
• Pamphlets stop the threat
• School avoids it
• Do not answer why rather characteristics of

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Chapter 3

• Trip Fontaine
• Symbol of masculinity
• Different than other boys
• Living the American dream
• In detox
• Wont talk about his relationship with Lux
• No one knew how Trip and Lux met, or what they
  had said to each other, or whether the attraction
  was mutual(75).

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Chapter 3

• Loss of Innocence
• the photograph still conveys the pride of
  attractive offspring and liminal rites. An air
  of expectancy glows in the girls faces.
  Gripping one another, pulling each other into the
  frame, they seem braced for some discovery or
  change of life. Of life (119).
• 1st and last chance at happiness, youth
• Change with their environment

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Chapter 3

• Loss of Innocence
• Who had known they talked so much, held so many
  opinions, jabbed at the worlds sights with so
  many fingers? Between our sporadic glimpses of
  the girls they had been continuously living,
  developing in ways we couldnt imagine,
  reading(124)
• Im having the best time of my life She was
  telling the truth. Never before had the Lisbon
  girls looked so cheerful, mixed so much, or
  talked so freely
• We want to live. If anyone would let us
  (132).
• Girls become normal
• Show personality and desires
• Actual perspective from girls