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.