Sunday, November 30, 2014
Summary
25 years ago, a neighborhood is remembered for the suicides of the Lisbon Girls. Known as beautiful creatures and everyone unable to fathom the reason for them killing themselves. But through the eyes of obsessive neighbor boys, we learn of the beauty, the depth, and maturity these girls had. Still, unable to put the Lisbon girls back together.
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How Teens Relate?
How Teens Relate?
Teens can relate because they have known what it's like to be trapped in some situation. They have felt like they exceled over others without anyone noticing. Where they seem like they're fine when inside they're losing themselves, hoping someone will grab ahold of them. Not everyone goes to the extremes the Lisbons did, but teens have felt the stress of trying to find a way out of it all.We have been all these characters or seen these characters. We know a rebellious Lux, we know a dreamer Cecilia, seen a Trip, know strict parents like Mrs. Lisbon, and lastly we have been the neighbor boys who look at people with care and love than anyone. We are conflicted, but so were the Lisbons. We all feel as if we may never get out, and only if we find the neighborhood boys who had seen us-really seen us- then maybe we wouldn't feel so alone.
Diction and Tone.
Diction and Tone.
Diction and Tone: Section 1.
The tone that starts in the beginning is not lively and somewhat confusing by starting off with Mary's suicide. " On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide- it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Therese- two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope." (Eugenides 1). Since we know nothing about the Lisbon girls besides them killing themselves, we're very confused about who they are. But then they tell about Cecilia's suicide (Eugenides 1) you aren't confused anymore but since they say "had gone slitting her wrists" (Eugenides 1), "blood", (Eugenides 2) "screaming" (Eugenides 2) and "attempt at suicide," (Eugenides 2) might have an uneasy tone from hearing about a touchy subject. Basically making an uneasy tone through the rest of the section.Diction and Tone: Section 2.
Section two starts out with a very sad and devastating tone. Using emotional words for diction like "funeral" (Eugenides 35) and "cemetery" (Eugenides 35). Thinking about a thirteen year old girl dying or "a creature who in dog years was still a puppy- Cecilia Lisbon." (Eugenides 35). This can make people feel sad from wondering what would drive a young girl to do something like kill herself. But after Cecilia is buried, I believe the tone becomes more positive and you almost feel dizzy from the words used, or mystifying. The words "mind active and dreamy," (Eugenides 43) and "colors," (Eugenides 43) are words people usually like to hear. Or when we hear the words that describe the girls "women in disguise," (Eugenides 44) or how the boys say they were unable to "fathom" (Eugenides 44) shows how utterly beautiful and different from anyone and in a way we fell pleased by hearing those words.Diction and Tone: Section 3.
Section three's tone sounds more depressed by starting with, "Flower arrangements arrived at the Lisbon house later than was customary." (Eugenides 48). It's depressing because we know it's condolence for Cecilia's suicide. Words like "too sad" (Eugenides 50) "poorly" (Eugenides 50) and "crying" (Eugenides 51) in the chose of diction, makes the reader feel pessimistic about the situation. But once we meet Trip, we're somewhat ecstatic about learning that Lux has a love interest. Making the tone the same. "sense of honor"(Eugenides 69), "love" (Eugenides 75), and when Trip says "She was a still point in a turning world," (Eugenides 78), from the diction used were excited to see how this relationship continues.Near the end of the chapter, I believe the tone is very disdained. How Trip says he was "sick" (Eugenides 139) of Lux. Gives you a hatred towards the situation and Trip.
Diction and Tone: Section 4.
The tone is bleak in section four because of the words to describe the Lisbon girls situation. Saying "maximum- security" (Eugenides 141) and "murk" (Eugenides 141) makes the reader read it with gloom because our main protagonists are stuck in a sad isolation. Or using the diction "derangement, desperation, self-destructiveness" (Eugenides 149) to describe Lux, even makes the reader feel down by knowing she's deterioration.Diction and Tone: Section 5.
I believe, for the last chapter, we have the tone of loving. Mostly because it talks about the boys unable to forget the girls. Saying "intimate treasures" (Eugenides 226) shows how the boys saw the girls things and "Cecilia's shrine" (Eugenides 230) shows how the boys portray Cecilia's belonging. "Her brain going dim to all else, but flaming up in precise points of pain, personal injury, lost dreams." (Eugenides 248) shows empathy for the girls. "but only we had loved them," (Eugenides 249) only show that the boys had always loved the girls and that we feel the same attachment.Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Structure
Structure
Structure: Section 1.
In section one it begins with a flash forward unknown to the audience. "On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide- it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Therese-" (Eugenides 1). Starting off near the end of the story gives the reader an idea of what the plot will be about. Then going into a flash back. "Cecilia, the youngest, only thirteen, had gone first," (Eugenides 1). The dialogue is written in past tense because it's in the past where you see how characters feel (Mostly Cecilia.) in this chapter. "Obviously Doctor, you've never been a thirteen year old girl." (Eugenides 7). This helps revile Cecilia's character develop in a different way by others. Mostly used character develop is used in descriptions. Telling physical descriptions blatantly (Eugenides 8) of Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon and of the girls. Cecilia's is told subtlety and that you can't tell what her actions will be. "Through all this Cecilia remained on her stool." (Eugenides 28). The vagueness of her actions keep the reader wondering what she'll do.Structure: Section 2.
Through detail and physical description, we can see how the characters feel. "hands with bitten nails, her rough elbows, the twin prongs of her hips, and even her knees." (Eugenides 39). All of these details show stress Cecilia was under when she was alive by not saying directly how she felt. He always compares the girls to different things instead of people themselves. "mythical creature" (Eugenides 42). Saying that they're some being supports the structure by character development.Structure: Section 3.
Eugenides starts to indirectly describe how the Lisbon girls feel with details. "They were having some kind of slumped party. They had pillows all over." (Eugenides 51). After Cecilia dies, you see they want to be alone with each other, isolated. And that they are depressed from the death by not going anywhereStructure: Section 4.
Structure: Section 5.
Now with the resolution, it tells of the girls bodies (Eugenides 210) description on when they killed themselves. Making the mood very gloomy and sad. Telling how the parents were able to get over the deaths easy with a flash forward. "Our parents seemed better able to do this, returning to their tennis foursomes and cocktail cruises." (Eugenides 23). And at the end showing the last thoughts of the boys, using run- on sentance. "It didn't matter in the end how old they were, of that they had been girls, but only that we had loved them, and that they hadn't heard us calling, still do not hear us, up here in the tree house, with our thinning hair and soft bellies, calling them out of those rooms where they went to be alone for all time, alone in suicide, which is deeper than death, and where we will never find the pieces to put them back together." (Eugenides 249)
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Monday, November 24, 2014
Point of View and Culture.
Point of View and Culture.
In the story, Eugenides uses third person limited. But other people say it's an odd form of 1st person, but I'm saying its third.Using a very vague neighbor boy who only looks at the girls along with this group of also undescribed boys in the neighborhood. Using the narrator as a an advantage of just showing the boys thoughts overall. Saying "we" (Eugenides 10) "they" (Eugenides 44) and "us" (Eugenides 120). Set in the 1970's starting in "June 13" (Eugenides 5).
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Theme
Theme
Theme: Section 1.
Now the main theme in most of the sections is the theme of freedom. That it's okay to be a spiritual person and that you're allowed to live your life at a certain aspect. If you are caged and held back, there is no point in having a life if you can't experience it. I'll explain why.When Cecilia comes to the hospital after her attempt, she tells the doctor "Obviously, Doctor. You've never been a thirteen year old girl." (Eugenides 7). Even at a young age, Cecilia can tell her life is going nowhere. At thirteen, most of us did feel that we were on a leash, that we were never going to do what we wanted. Cecilia feels like she wont grow out of it. It has to go with how she dresses after the suicide attempt. "She always wore a wedding dress and her bare feet were always dirty." (Eugenides 17). After her failure, she tries to play- what I think- is playing dress up. Pretending she is someone else, maybe in her own world somewhere else. Even when the Lisbons' throw a party for Cecilia she is "Though all this Cecilia remained on her stool." (Eugenides 28). Even though everyone is having fun, she sees nothing enjoyable. Because she sees it as a façade, that its only temporary that her parents are making for her. "Mr. Lisbon kept trying to lift her off, gently, but even in our ignorance we knew it would be hopeless and that despite Cecilia's open eyes and the way her mouth kept contracting like that of a fish on a stringer it was just nerves and she had succeeded, on the second try, in hurling herself out of the world." (Eugenides 31). Saying she " hurdled herself out of the world," just shows she tried to get the freedom she couldn't get out f her world.
Theme: Section 2.
Section two is more about learning about people instead of judging them and we see this when the boys find Cecilia's diary. "We knew what it felt like to see a boy with their shirt off, and why it made Lux write the name Kevin in purple magic marker all over her three-ring binder and even on her bras and panties, and we understood her rage coming home one day to find that Mrs. Lisbon had soaked her things in Clorox, bleaching all the "Kevins" out." (Eugenides 43). How this conveys the theme, is that the boys saw the girls a beautiful creatures, as something made to be analyzed and looked at. But after reading about the girls and actually getting to know them is some way, the start to understand the girls. "We felt the imprisonment of being a girl, the way it made your mind active and dreamy, and how you ended up knowing what colors go together." (Eugenides 43). You now see that they empathize with the girls, that they have feelings, that they do think, and not that they're just breathing and passing by life.Theme: Section 3.
For section three, the theme is more about trust and who you should trust. Mostly by introducing Trip into the story and when Trip and Lux engage in sex. "I walked home that night. I didn't care how she got home. I just took off." Then: "It's weird. I mean, I liked her. I really liked her. I just got sick of her right then." (Eugenides 139). Lux had loved Trip, and Trip got bored of her and stopped being with her. Lux liked him and trusted him so much, she gave her virginity to him, and what he did was walk away.The effect that happens after that, is that there is now trust issues with Mrs. Lisbon. "The old bitch had locked them up again." (Eugenides 139). Because of Lux missing curfew after her mother let her have a bit of freedom and trust her with this freedom, her trust is destroyed. And that's what causes her to lock up all her girls in the house.
Theme: Section 4.
Section four brings back the theme of freedom again. "She had post cards taped up inside. Weird stuff. Couches and shit." (Eugenides 142). In Mary's locker when they clean it out, they see different places inside. Showing that she wants to leave and visit, minimum. When Lux pretends to be sick to get a pregnancy test, you can see the strictness that she is under and the only way she could leave. "Why all the commotion? Why the ambulance?""Only way I could get out of the house." (Eugenides 153). It shows how strict the house is, how the only way she can leave is to act sick. Asking people why wouldn't you want to leave? "Unable to go anywhere, the girls traveled in there imaginations to gold tipped Siamese temples, or past an old man with a bucket and leaf broom tidying a moss- carpeted speck of Japan." (Eugenides 169). Pretending to be somewhere else, just shows that they can not leave so they've made themselves believe they were in these places they could never visit. They also use the boys obsession to their advantage to leave. "We understood that we were only pawn," (Eugenides 212) They know the Lisbon girls are just using them in their plan to leave. And since they love they girls, they'll let this happen.
Theme: Section 5.
Since the girls killed themselves. The last section talks more about how you shouldn't forget as the theme. That you don't always move on from things that affected your life so greatly. "Many of us continued to have dreams in which the Lisbon girls appeared to us more real than they had been in life, and when we awoke certain that their scent of the next world remained on our pillows." (Eugenides 238).Even though the girls are dead, they still think about the girls. Or even still love them. Unable to forget.Character
The Virgin Suicides Characters.
Characters: Section 1.
The whole story usually is only focused on the Lisbon girls and Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon. Never really focusing on the neighbor boys nor anyone who adds to the story. Later you'll see the drastic changes in the Lisbons. The first description that is direct towards us, is the Lisbon girls age. "The Lisbon girls were thirteen (Cecilia), and fourteen (Lux), and fifteen (Bonnie), and sixteen (Mary), and seventeen (Therese)." (Eugenides 7) this is directly told to us to see how different ages deal with their situations ahead. The descriptions "They were short, round buttocked in denim with roundish cheeks that recalled that same dorsal softness." (Eugenides 7) they're described as cute ordinary girls. Lux, however is shown to have more of a provocative side. "...she checked each daughter for signs of make up before allowing her to get in the car, and it was not unusual for her to send Lux back inside to put on a less reveling top." (Eugenides 8) She is also know to be the prettiest out of the Lisbon girls. "Lux Lisbon was the only one who accorded with our image of the Lisbon girls. She radiated health and mischief." (Eugenides 26) This also adds that she is more risky than the other girls.The book describes Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon when the boys wonder how they made these beautiful girls. Starting with Mr. Lisbon "He was thin, boyish, stunned by his own grey hair. He had a high voice, a d when Joe Larson told us how Mr. Lisbon cried when Lux was rushed to the hospital during her own suicide scare, we could easily imagine the sound of his girlish weeping." (Eugenides 8) This also shows that Mr. Lisbon is a person who is easily over powered. Mrs. Lisbon is a religious women "Paul's Catholic Church on the Lake." (Eugenides 8) and "Mrs. Lisbon we looked in vain for some sign of the beauty that must have once been hers. But the plump arms, the brutally cut steel-wool hair, and the librarian glasses foiled us every time" (Eugenides 8) Her description showing she's a strong women I believe.
Cecilia is shown to be a spiritual person rather than religious. "...laminated picture of the Virgin Mary she held against her budding breasts." (Eugenides 4) instead of having Christ or a bible or something, she has the Virgin instead, adding that she drifts more away from the norms. "She came back still wearing the wedding dress." (Eugenides 15) and "She always wore the wedding dress and her bare feet were always dirty." (Eugenides 17) shows that she wears the same thing, like she's playing dress up all the time. showing that she is a dreamer.
There is a small description of the narrator and the neighbor boys at the party. "In blue blazers, with khaki trousers and clip- on neck ties." (Eugenides 24) But that's really it. There's no other names or anything to that.
Cecilia is very distant and quiet during the party. "...she acted as though no one were there." (Eugenides 27) and "Through all this Cecilia remained on her stool." (Eugenides 28) showing she does not want to be there, that maybe she is thinking she's somewhere else.
Character: Section 2.
In section 2, after Cecilia dies, this where we see that Cecilia was stressed before she died. "...hands with their bitten nails, her rough elbows, the twin prongs of her hips, and even her knees." (Eugenides 39) People who usually bit their nails show sigs that they have stress. When the boys get ahold of Cecilia's diary, they start to examine it, saying she's "Emotionally unstable." (Eugenides 41) The boys try to look to see if they were every mentioned in it "Cecilia had stared at everybody all the time, but she hadn't thought about any of us." (Eugenides 42). They seem like they're desperate to be noticed by any of the Lisbon girls. We find out that all the girls seem to want is to be matured- which they seem to be (I'll get to that later). "We never understood why the girls wanted to be mature," (Eugenides 43) I believe why they want to be matured is because they want to grow up, that they want to be able to live their lives however they want.The boys also believe that in someway they are connected with the girls, but also know nothing about them by reading the diary which shows the boys are very contradicting. "We felt the imprisonment of being a girl, and how it made your mind active and dreamy, and how you ended up what colors went together." and "We knew the girls were our twins, that we all existed in space like animals identical skins, and that they knew everything about us though we couldn't fathom them at all." (Eugenides 43). The girls are also shown as being complex people saying "We knew, finally, that the girls were women in disguise, that they understood love and even death, and that our job was merely to create the noise that seemed to fascinate them." (Eugenides 44). The complex events of love and death, are said that the Lisbon girls already knew, also showing that the boys were just there for the girls. That everyone was nobody if they weren't in the Lisbon group.
"Little is known of Cecilia's state of mind on the last day of her life." (Eugenides 45). I think this shows that Cecilia was out of the norm, that this shows she was somewhat crazy.
Character: Section 3
Father Moody is a priest at the Lisbon's church, he's very 2D and doesn't effect the story much but tells us the state of the Lisbon girls and their parents. Mr. Lisbon seems to be in denial, acting somewhat normal I believe. "Mr. Lisbon welcomed the cleric as he had other men, ushering him to a seat before the baseball game." (Eugenides 49). As you can see, he's not mourning the loss of his daughter and acting like nothing has happened. But on the next page we do see Mr. Lisbon start to crack and see the reality of what is happening but still tries to play it off as nothing had changed. "His eyes were watering. "Father," he said. "Double play ball, Father."" (Eugenides 50) Him crying and then talking about the game, only shows he knows he cant play this casual anymore. The girls, however, show their loss. "A half eaten sandwich sat atop the landing where someone had felt too sad to finish." (Eugenides 50) Showing that they're so struck with sadness that they cant even eat. ""They were sitting on the floor together, and I could tell they'd been crying. I think they were having some sort of slumber party. They had pillows all over. I hate to mention it and i remember scolding myself for even thinking it at the time, but it was mistakable: they hadn't bathed."" (Eugenides 52) The girls are so struct with grief they hadn't bathed, they probably hadn't been eating properly or rarely even left their room. That they just wanted to stay close to each other so they wouldn't lose anyone else.
Trip Fontaine, a minor character and an admirer of Lux, is added to the story. Said to have "...had emerged from baby fat to the delight of girls and women alike." (Eugenides 69). Say in fact, Trip is a ladies man. Along with the example "We weren't on the lookout for handsomeness appearing in our midst, and believed it counted for little until the girls we knew, along with their mothers, fell in love with Trip Fontaine." (Eugenides 69). Trip shows to be manipulative towards girls because of his looks and charms. "The girls came bearing typed and footnoted term papers, "Chick Notes" they'd compiled so the Trip could read a single page on each book." (Eugenides 73). It is shown, however, that he did love Lux using a flash forward. "Ive never gotten over that girl, man. Never." (Eugenides 75) It says directly that when Trip comes up the Lux that "No boy was ever so cool and aloof." (Eugenides 77) Basically, Trip is the coolest guy ever.
It's shown that at first Lux has no interest in Trip Fontaine. "For a long time her resorted to his time-tested methods of attracting girls, brushing his hair back as Lux pass,or clomping his boots up on the desk top, and once he even lowered his tinted glasses to give her the boon of his eyes. But she didn't look." (Eugenides 80). Later Trip does come to the Lisbon house, with Mrs. Lisbon being a protective mother. "He sat on the couch beside Mrs. Lisbon, with Lux on her other side." (Eugenides 84). Her parting and not wanting Trip to sit by her daughter makes you think she wants to protect her daughter from boys.At home coming, Trip and Lux leave and have sex on the football field
Characters: Section 4
After Lux misses curfew, the whole Lisbon home is put on lock down. Because of this imprisonment, you see the effect of isolation even if you cant see the girls. "A cloud always seemed to hover over the Lisbons' roof." (Eugenides 141). Also, we see that Lux has become more sexually active to cope with the cage their in. "A few weeks after Mrs. Lisbon shut the house in maximum- security isolation, the sighting of Lux making love on the roof began." (Eugenides 141). I see this as her trying to get through being alone and since Trip left her, to feel love. She- and along with the other girls- start to become thin from (what I suppose) the depression they're under. ""She had weird postcards taped up inside. Weird stuff. Couches and shit."" (Eugenides 142). Mary deals with her depression and showing that she wants to leave where she lives. "Lux had lost weight, though we couldn't tell through the binoculars. All sixteen mentioned her jutting ribs, the insubstantiality of her thighs, and one, who went up to the roof with Lux during a warm winter rain, told us the basins of her collarbones collected water." (Eugenides 147). Saying how much she's lost in weight, shows that she no longer cares about keeping her body healthy, that she doesn't care for herself. You also see Lux is a needy person for human touch. "Put it in. Just for a minute. It'll make us feel close." (Eugenides 149). Lux sees sex as love, like showing care for anyone, she needs that. She craves and thrives on it to cope with the isolation she's under,We see how the boys still praise Lux and still "believes" in her. "Though some of us saw Lux as a force of nature," (Eugenides 150). We see Mr. Lisbon start to feel bad for the state of his daughters, maybe even blaming himself. "His puffy red eyes that hardly opened anymore to see his daughters wasting away." (Eugenides 160). The boys still see themselves connecting with the girls. "We could share their headaches from wolfing down ice cream." (Eugenides 163). and you can see they care for the girls. "Our concern increased when we visibly saw Bonnie wasting away." (Eugenides 164). The boys still show obsession for the girls. "No matter how religiously we meditated on them in our most private moments, lying in bed beside two pillows belted together to simulate human shape." (Eugenides 180). "Our songs, for the most part, were love songs." (Eugenides 197). The boys are in love with the girls..
Character: Section 5.
Section five is more about how the boys can not move on from the girls killing themselves. "It didn't matter how old they had been, or that they were girls, but only that we had loved them," (Eugenides 249) they still love the girls even though they're dead. Which in it's own way, the boys had loved the Lisbon girls more than anyone else had.Thursday, November 20, 2014
Would You Suggest This Book?
Would You Suggest This Book?
I would totally suggested this book for a mature reader and a young adult. It uses language in the most beautiful way, describing everything so powerful. When I read every paragraph in this book, I felt something whether it was angst, happiness, joy, despair, I felt it. The characters are develop so well even when all its dialog was set in interview or past form, you could see how they evolved. Telling the actions of all the characters were so relatable even in the extreme situation in the story, we felt like we knew the Lisbon girls. That we've seen a Trip Fontain walk our halls, that we've seen strict parents like Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon. That we are the neighbor boys spying on the girls like we've grown up with them. And in a way, we have.This book constantly makes you think, you already know that the girls kill themselves in the beginning of the book. But, during the whole book, we have no true facts on why they killed themselves. The narrator never tells us the real reason, in the book they say the cant put the pieces together. Just like we cant, so it lets you have your own opinion on the mater and you can be wrong. Which makes you think about and wonder more about the book. It gets its edge and makes it more enjoyable as you try to solve the story like the boys do.
We also see- in a way- we are the Lisbon girls. We have felt trapped before by someone who wants to keep us away from the dangers of the world. But all we want to do is live and experience life for ourselves. Some how, we can see why the Lisbon girls committed suicide. Understanding how they felt because we have been in their shoes before.Overall, its an amazing book with an original plot, characters we rarely see come together, and we feel as if we're part of the story itself.
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Language
Language: Section 1
In The Virgin Suicides its told in the past when all the boys are older. Basically, the whole story is told in a flash back. But, the first scene is a flash forward to start off with. Starting with " On the morning the last Lisbon daughter took her turn at suicide- it was Mary this time, and sleeping pills, like Therese- two paramedics arrived at the house knowing exactly where the knife drawer was, and the gas oven, and the beam in the basement from which it was possible to tie a rope." (Eugenides 1.) The flash forward is helpful at introducing a few characters, making us think that this is the time when the story takes place. But, we are then able to see that the story takes place in the past saying "Cecilia, the youngest, only thirteen, had gone first, slitting her wrists like a Stoic while taking a bath," (Eugenides 1.) By doing this it shows that it's a memory from the narrator.
The first section uses great description of the party- said to be the only Lisbon party- and the inside of the house and clothing of the girls. (I'll talk about character description in character). They say that Cecilia's dress resembles a "vintage 1920's wedding dress" (Eugenides 26) I think this adds to her dream like state she's in before she kills herself, like she's playing dress up and pretending she's out of life. That small description itself is a powerful thing that adds to the story. The description of the house (which does change over time) has personification when the boys approach the house, saying "the yellow bricks retained their look of a church-run orphanage and the silence of the lawn was absolute." (Eugenides 24) makes you think the house is alive that it's trying to find its style. The simile used to describe Cecilia's suicide, "Cecilia's open eyes and the way her mouth kept contracting like that of a fish on a stringer it was just the nerves and she had succeeded, on the second try, in hurling herself out of the world." (Eugenides 31). This helps add to how Cecilia looked, saying "hurling herself out of the world," was like saying she was running to get away and comparing her to a fish out of water was like saying how she really was. A fish out of its home, a place where she wouldn't want to be.
Language: Section 2
In section 2. It starts with the ambulance coming, and the words used to tell how it comes helps set the tone with it's connotative words "EMS truck appeared at the end of the block, moving about fifteen miles an hour, without flashing lights or siren, as the paramedics already knew it was hopeless." (Eugenides 33) the word "hopeless" sets that this is sad and despairing, that tragedy had struck. The neighbor boys didn't go to Cecilia's funeral but, they wanted to believe she want dead, saying here body was an "optical illusion." (Eugenides 39) is a connotative word to say almost like it was fake and that no one wanted to believe she was dead. The boys soon find Cecilia's diary and look through it. It then tells about some scenes described that she had written in her diary.First telling about what they've eaten ("Monday, February 13. Today we had frozen pizza...") (Eugenides 42) I believe he started these out as normal diary entries to show Cecilia's character, that she acted like she was a normal girl. After the boys start really analyzing the story, they use connotative words to describe how they were learning the girls lives, living it through Cecilia's words. "We felt the imprisonment of being a girl, the way it made your mind active and dreamy, and how you ended up knowing what colors went together." (Eugenides 43) The words "dreamy" and "imprisonment" makes you believe the girls are trapped in their mind and the boys understand how they feel. Later saying they "twin." the girls. (Eugenides 43) like saying they feel the same way somehow.
Later, the dialogue is told in interview form. Starting with Mrs. Lisbon on how Cecilia acted during the party if there were any signs that she would kill herself. "'She always acted quiet with company," Mrs. Lisbon said. And perhaps their lack of socializing Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon remembered the party as a successful event. Mrs. Lisbon, in fact, was surprised Cecilia wanted to be excused. "I thought she was having a nice time."" (Eugenides 46) I'm not sure why he chose to do this, but I think he wanted it to look like they were gathering evidence like reporters.
Language: Section 3
In section 3 it basically has the same language going on used. They do bring up the fact that "exhibits" are used. They are what the boys collect from the girls. One is from the night the Lisbon girls went to homecoming. "One photo survives of that night (Exhibit #10)." (Eugenides 118) I'm not sure why he calls them "exhibits" but I believe it was supposed to be seen as if the boys were collecting information about the girls.Language: Section 4
This section is where powerful words about how the girls are kept at home like they're trapped. "A few weeks after Mrs. Lisbon shut the house in maximum- security, the sighting of Lux making love on the roof began." (Eugenides 141) the word "maximum- security" is saying that the Lisbon home is now a prison, and because of this Lux experiments with sex, adding to her character. Talk about the Lisbon house now becoming concealed using personification. "A cloud always seemed to hover the Lisbons' roof." (Eugenides 141) is showing the sadness over the house by using th word "cloud". There's a flash forward used when the boys talk to Mrs. Lisbon, we only know she's older but not sure how many years have pass. "Our interview with Mrs. Lisbon was brief. She met us at the bus station in the small town he lives in, because the station was the only place that served coffee." (Eugenides 142) Using this flash forward, it shows that Mrs. Lisbon has to leave from what happened in the past. Later, the description of the house changes because its deteriorating by using personification. "Now the house had truly died." (Eugenides 162). Saying the house is dead does notonly show how the house, but is what people are feeling on the inside of the house. The metaphor also used about the house: "...house now one big coffin" (Eugenides 163) is showing that the house inside is holding dead bodies of the Lisbon girls.
Language: Section 5
The imagery of the Lisbon girls dead bodies were fantastic in description. "The smell of bandages and oxygen masks" (Eugenides 218) Lux killed herself by carbon poisoning, explaining that the cops and EMT's had to wear masks to get her. The simile for Bonnie "...balancing one chair on another like a circus performer" (Eugenides 219) to show how it looked when she hung herself. After the girls killed themselves they say "... suicides came as predictable as seasons or old age." (Eugenides 220) They say the girls were "copycatting" (Eugenides 220) like saying people are saying the Lisbon girls suicides were falling into place.
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