Virgin Suicides - Essay Example

It is the uncertainty of darkness that drags us to the unknown. The overwhelming notion which looms in the corner of our minds is a constant reminderof our mortality and how easily everything could change and how swiftly everything could end. It pulls us to examine the extent of what we can fathom to the reality of our existence and our subsequent purpose to which we follow through these inherent complications in what we call life. In a world of constant search, the indefinable is often identified as failure. The governance of reason over everything is what keeps minds at ease. The thought of knowing beforehand or eventually the answers to who, what, why, where, when and how ensures the serenity by which the continuation of relative normalcy is attained. The motif of apparent death and quest for answers thereof reverberates throughout the ‘The Virgin Suicides.’ In all the swift conclusion and shattering of disillusions, Jeffrey Eugenides was able to capture a sophistication in his delivery of the theme of the story. The almost steady pace for which the novel goes along in the plot engulfs us into the fact of knowing of the characters’ destiny yet it intrigues us and leaves us helpless both at the same time. We live through the characters. We grew up in the same place with the same people. We aspire the same ambitions they have. And sadly we may have reacted the same way as they did. Looking for the most probable explanation. Removing fences, giving away statistical leaflets and putting away the tools but not truly asking the right questions for the reason behind. Asserting that everything is all right because we could not grasp how to deal with a loss of that magnitude. The lack of courage to be able to look at the face of young death and search for the truth. We live under the guise of happiness when the fact reamains that there will be ghosts that will hunt us forever. The setting marks out much of the mystery in the novel. The typical suburban place to where the deaths occurred begs the question of why an unpleasant event of that scale could happen. Attempts at explaining of where such an idea could stem from divulge the need for answers among the neighbors. Among them, the Dominic Palazzolo incident became the most popular. As the story of how the immigrant boy fell in love with Diana Porter and constantly self-professed his love for the girl to the moment when he jumped from an upstairs window whispering ‘I love you’ but walked on afterwards unhurt. This scene was witnessed by Cecilia in their front yard and recorded in her diary at the same point in time as the boys watched in awe. This, though absurd in nature is the most accepted rationalization for Cecilia’s suicide attempt. The necessity for validation of reason reigns as a relentless desire. Newscaster Linda Perl’s investigation for something that could differentiate Cecilia from all the other girls and thus explicate her suicide yielded nothing. Her inability to find an inkling of justification later on regarding the suicides further proves the point of the lack of sufficient reason for the steps they took to end their own lives. This requisite of enlightenment which lead to the chronicling of the events is what instigated the plural voice of the narrative to go back in time and re-examine the past events that became a large part of how their characters are defined in the present. As they said, in times when they consciously seek each other in their undying quest to find answers, the unspoken bond for which they would forever be gravitated towards one another was that of the Lisbon girls. They will perpetually be entwined to the events of their childhood and their fascination and pursuit of juvenile curiosity and pubescent longing would always bring them back to that pivotal and undoubtedly re-occurring time in their lives. It is apparent that their adolescence was extensively shaped and defined by the suicides they have witnessed and surrounded them. “We didnt understand why Cecilia had killed herself the first time and we understood even less when she did it twice” (Eugenides, p.13). These thoughts as well as the facts will haunt them and remind them of their transience. Characters of the greatest tragedies die when they are at the height of their potentials. There is no tragedy in dying of old age. This is what becomes palpable in the novel. No one could wrap their heads to the death of five teenage girls who, besides their reclusion after Cecilia’s death at the age of 13 showed much promise and eluded such beauty. Fourteen-year old Lux, fifteen-year-old Bonnie, sixteen-year-old Mary and seventeen-year-old Therese seem doomed thereafter. The grief that enveloped the family became the ultimate transgression of their lives. It left none of them unscathed and they were bound to suffer an unpleasant fate and the reader acknowledges this from the beginning. The absence of a coffin that could fit Cecilia is testament to the outrageousness of the event in the suburbs that they belong to. The almost nonchalant delivery of the deaths of the girls gives away to the significance of the suicides. It was seemingly understated and the reader becomes expectant and thus prepared for what ensues in the story. “Given Luxs failure to make curfew, everyone expected a crackdown, but few anticipated it would be so drastic. When we spoke to her years later, however, Mrs. Lisbon maintained that her decision was never intended to be punitive. ‘At that point being in school was just making things worse,’ she said. None of the other children were speaking to the girls. Except boys, and you knew what they were after. The girls needed time to themselves. A mother knows. I thought if they stayed at home, theyd heal better” (Eugenides, p.60). This becomes another proof that for the most part it wasn’t entirely their parents tight hold of them that pushed them overboard for if it ever was it was never intentional. When Lux was unable to follow her curfew, their enforced seclusion was their parents’ way of keeping better tack of them and hoping that they would be better off in the process. It was the start of the end of their lives. There was little to nothing that anyone can do to help them rid of the unpleasant contemplations that goes in their minds. Bonnie used stockings to hung herself from a beam in the basement. Therese took sleeping pills even before the boys came to the house. Lux gassed herself in the garage by letting the car run continuously. Bringing them all together when Mary, the last to commit suicide, who same as Therese overdosed on sleeping pills. Cecilia, who was the first to go cut her wrists indifferently the first time and successfully completed her deed by jumping to a fence. It was in a way poetic. The end of Cecilia’s life was simultaneous to a party where all the boys were present and the death of the other four girls completed the circle with an invitation for a party from the girls. The boys had the same reaction they had the same night. Fleeing from horror from what they have witnessed. Running away from death as swiftly as they could. The incidents that occurred on June 15 marked the end of four girls supposed to be at the height of their young adult life. It was almost a refusal to grow old and a commitment to remain forever within the embrace of innocence. This concludes the motif of the novel and sheds light to what was bound to happen from the beginning of the novel. The audience merely bear witness to what was to come. Works Cited Eugenides, Jeffrey. The Virgin Suicides. New York: HarperCollins, 1993. Read More