Week 4!

       "He hadn't suffered the eternity of the ring about to be picked up, didn't know the heart rush of hearing that incomparable voice suddenly linked with his own, the sense it gave of being too close to even see her, of being actually inside her ear" (pg 80).

       In this passage, the author is referring to Trip's emotions as he calls Lux on the phone for the first time. The word eternity is a hyperbole to represent how anxious he is to finally hear her voice on the phone. He doesn't know why he feels this way, but all he wants is to be inside her. Throughout this novel, the Lisbon Girl's have represented the forbidden fruit. There is nothing desirable about them, yet everyone wants them, because they know they can't have them. This passage represents a type of spell that Lux has over others. Her voice is incomparable, better than all the rest, and he hasn't even heard it yet. 

Week 3

"We realized that the version of the world they rendered for us was not the world they really believed in, and that for all their care taking and bitching about crabgrass they didn't give a damn about lawns." (pg 55) 

This passage from the novel represents a potential theme. The narrator is in his teenager years and based on this section, has been told since childhood that life would be free of hardships. After witnessing Cecilia's death and having to cope, he has realized that his parents and society have created a vision of the world that does not exist. The idea that the negatives in life are hidden beneath false happiness has been a motif. Cecilia had always come off as a happy girl but deep down she was yearning for a better life, and could not bear to live the one she was leading. Lawns is an example of something that people in society don't care about, but pretend to care about to hide the emotions they are truly feeling. 

Week 2

"Cecilia's diary begins a year and a half before her suicide. Many people felt the illuminated pages constituted a hieroglyphics of unreadable despair, though the pictures looked cheerful for the most part." (pg 41)

As I continue reading this novel, Cecilia's mental instability becomes very clear. It is almost painful to read about her downfall. As an outsider, I was able to see her despair, but the ones around her could not, and this lead to her death. In this passage, the tone is a little dismal as the narrator discusses what is in Cecilia's diary. He describes it as "a hieroglyphics of unreadable despair." In other words, there was a deeper meaning to the words on the page. Underneath it all, Cecilia was clinically depressed, but her family could not break down the "hieroglyphics." Ironically, they describe the pages as illuminated. How could the pages of a suicidal girl's diary be bright and decorated? The author could be referring to the words as clarifying why she killed herself. However, the original reading of the word illuminated makes Cecilia's death seem bright.

Week 1

"In the trash can was one Tampax, spotted, still fresh from the insides of one of the Lisbon girls. Sissen said that he wanted to bring it to us, that it wasn't gross but a beautiful thing, you had to see it, like a modern painting or something, and then he told us he had counted twelve boxes of Tampax in the cupboard" (pg 10).

The Virgin Suicides is clearly a modern novel based on the way the author, Jeffrey Eugenides, writes. Personally, I don't know who the narrator of the novel is, but this passage helps to characterize him or her. For example, by explaining in detail what he knows about one of the Lisbon girls menstrual cycles, gives the reader insight as to the level of interest the narrator has in this family. The tone of this passage is very curious, and the words are beautifully descriptive, when normally a discussion such as this is more repulsive. By describing a used sanitary product as beautiful the author characterizes the Lisbon girls as almost societies best kept secret. What is so fascinating about 12 boxes of Tampax? and why aren't the narrator and his friends so fascinated with other girls in this society? These are questions that hopefully will be answered as I continue to read this novel.