Two Last Burning Questions?!

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

1) Could the author not have the girls, trip's point of view in the book?


2) Why do stories like this always have to take place in small rural towns?

Sometimes I wonder if the story would have been different if the author had put the views of the girls' and various others. I think that would have sparked more debate over who's right and who's wrong. Also, it would have made the story more interesting to read about everyone's opinions rather than an outsiders.

I have read many various books and saw one movie last semester and it was about Truman Capote. In that movie a whole family was killed and it also took place in a small town. Why do murders, suicide books always take place in small towns. That is something I hope to figure out soon.  

Last Character Reflection!

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

Now that I am officially done reading it is time to reflect and do an overall analysis of some important characters such as Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon, Lux, Cecilia and Trip Fontaine.

Trip Fontaine: 

Trip Fontaine

Oh the heartthrob! Trip Fontaine is the symbol of masculine and of a heartthrob in the book. Ever since Trip came back from the trip of his to Acapulco he went from baby fat to every woman's dream. He came back as a man who lost his virginity to a 30 plus year old woman. Ever since then, he changed his physical appearance and started wearing better clothes, which helped him, get woman in his bed everyday. Every girl wanted to be with him and every guy wanted to be him. He is the symbol of an American playboy. Trip being a playboy is probably the best reason to understand why he just left Lux Lisbon on the field after they had sex. Trip spent an endless amount of time trying to take her on a date, and tries so hard to convince her dad to take Lux to the dance to which Mr. Lisbon eventually agrees. However, Trip said that after they had sex on the football field, he just left her and did not even care how she got home. His excuse-- "I just got sick of her." Although, before he described her as "The still point of the turning world, man." To him maybe, Lux Lisbon was something that was hard to achieve, a challenge. Trip Fontaine probably wanted to solve the challenge and when he did he saw no reason for sticking around. He left Lux heartbroken and with hatred in her heart. On the contrary, one good thing about Trip is that he does not speak of his one-night stands with anyone else. He hardly revealed anything about his time with Lux to the boys. 

Lux Lisbon:

She is probably hands down one of the most important characters in the book. She is rebellious, mischief, bold, sexy and is the narrator's dream. She was the one that went against her parents the most. For instance, the first time when Trip Fontaine came to the Lisbon home to ask Mr. Lisbon if he could take Lux out on a date, the first sign of Lux's boldness was shown. After indirectly being told no and to leave, Trip goes back to his car only to find Lux already there and she gropes him and has a quick make out session with him. So that means, when the girls were told to go upstairs to bed, Lux snuck out of the house, into Trip's car. That right there shows she was willing to disobey her parents for just a taste of the playboy's lips. Her second rebellious act was her smoking. Her parents are strict Catholics and smoking is a huge NO! So the fact that Lux smokes shows she does not care about her parents' rules and will smoke behind their backs continuously. At one point in the end of the book, Lux was smoking in the family room while her parents were asleep upstairs. Another rebellious act of hers was when she drank at the dance and shared many make out sessions with Trip despite the fact that both her dad was chaperoning the dance. At one point she was making out with him right in front of his sister. Then comes the most rebellious act of the night-- sex with Trip Fontaine on the football field. That was a huge risk considering anyone could have seen them and her dad was at the dance. Afterwards, Lux turns into the female version of Trip and has sex every night on the rooftop with faceless men. To add to that, she had sex with them in the middle of the night while her parents were asleep! Talk about guts! Yet she seemed bored of sex because she would pick zits on the back of her sexual partners. Lux Lisbon was a difficult person to read and it was hard to tell what her real emotions were. If she was every boy's dream, then she was every parent’s NIGHTMARE! Out of all the sisters, Lux also wore the boldest clothes. The boys were so infatuated with her that they remembered a yellow halter-top she wore one July but was told to take it off by her mom. "Tied behind her neck in a bow, the halter descended on two thin straps over her pale shoulders and sculpted collarbones, swelling finally into two yellow slings. The halter was slightly askew on the right side, revealing a soft white plumpness as she stretched. '' July, two years ago,'' said Joe Hill Conley, identifying the last time we'd seen the halter" (pg 201). Her choice of clothing represented her personality and coincidently she wore that same halter top that her mom told her to take off when she committed suicide. She was the only one who had the audacity to go against her parents. 

Cecilia Lisbon:

Cecilia with her cintage 1920 wedding dress

Cecilia was not in the book too long but yet she left an impact on the reader and her family. Cecilia was known to be the shy girl with low self-esteem and the one who survived her first attempt to kill herself. Cecilia never spoke much. However, one important moment of hers is when she has a conversation with the doctor. The doctor says, "What are you doing here, honey? You're not even old enough to know how bad life gets." Cecilia responded with saying "Obviously, Doctor, you've never been a 13-year-old girl." That one life basically summed up her character. She was having a hard time and did not like her parents or her environment. Her sisters liked her so much that in order to preserve her memory they stood in front of Cecilia's favorite elm when workers came to chop it down. The sisters stood around it, holding hands and they did that until the workers gave up and left because that tree was their last memory of their deceased sister.

Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon:

Anyone who will read this book will absolutely despise the parents. Their lack of sympathy, love and emotion just makes you want to slap them senseless. The parents do not let their daughters date, wear revealing clothes and socially interact with other or go to parties. The one time they let the girls out, Lux comes back home past curfew and drunk. The parents were so harsh that they pulled the girls out of school and put the girls on house arrest. That is inhuman! Is that a way to treat your children? However, it seemed as if the parents were in denial of their lack of love. Mrs. Lisbon was quoted saying "My girls did not lack of any love. We had plenty of love in our home." You obviously did not have enough love in your home because the neighborhood said so, you put your children on house arrest, pulled them out of school and news flash-- ALL of your girls committed suicide because they were sick and tired of abiding by your senseless rules. Let your girls live a life. Protection is good but overprotection gets you nowhere though. One part I would have to say I was pleased with the parents and that was when the workers came to cut the tree and they tried convincing the Lisbon girls to move aside and let them cut down the tree. However, the girls refused to budge and the workers ended up going to the parents but Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon refused to help them. ''I don't want to call the police'', said the worker. '' The police?'' Mrs. Lisbon asked. ''The girls are just standing in front of their own front yard. Since when is that a crime?'' I loved that! It shows that the parents still care about Cecilia and want to protect and preserve the last memory of hers that they have. That was her favorite tree and the Lisbon’s' do not want to forget that. On the contrary, the award for best parents definitely does not go to them. 

The parents of the deceased girls

Musical Conversations

Friday, April 15th, 2011

During one part in the end of the book the boys across the street and girls have musical conversations. They call each other but instead of talking they play songs of their current emotions. Here are some lyrics to each of the songs.

Lisbon girls: "Alone Again, Naturally" by Gilbert O'Sullivan
In a little while from now,
If I'm not feeling any less sour
I promised myself to treat myself
And visit a nearby tower,
And climbing to the top,
Will throw myself off
In an effort to make it clear to who
Ever what it's like when your shattered
Left standing in the lurch, at a church
Where people 're saying,
"My God that's tough, she stood him up!
No point in us remaining.
May as well go home."
As I did on my own,
Alone again, naturally
The boys: "You've Got a Friend" by James Taylor

When you're down and troubled and you need a helping hand
and nothing, whoa, nothing is going right.
Close your eyes and think of me and soon I will be thereTesti Canzoni
to brighten up even your darkest nights.

You just call out my name, and you know where ever I am
I'll come running to see you again.
Winter, spring, summer, or fall, all you have to do is call and I'll be there, yeah, yeah,
you've got a friend.

The girls: "Where Do the Children Play" by Cat Stevens

Well I think it's fine, building jumbo planes.
Or taking a ride on a cosmic train.
Switch on summer from a slot machine.
Get what you want to if you want, 'cause you can get anything.

I know we've come a long way,
We're changing day to day,
But tell me, where do the children play?

The boys: " Dear Prudence" by The Beatles

Dear Prudence won't you come out to play
Dear Prudence greet the brand new day
The sun is up the sky is blue
It's beautiful and so are you
Dear Prudence won't you come out to play

The girls: "Candle In The Wind" by Elton John

Goodbye Norma Jean
Though I never knew you at all
You had the grace to hold yourself
While those around you crawled
They crawled out of the woodwork
And they whispered into your brain
They set you on the treadmill
And they made you change your name

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind
Never knowing who to cling to
When the rain set in
And I would have liked to have known you
But I was just a kid
Your candle burned out long before
Your legend ever did

Loneliness was tough
The toughest role you ever played
Hollywood created a superstar
And pain was the price you paid
Even when you died
Oh the press still hounded you
All the papers had to say
Was that Marilyn was found in the nude

The Boys: "Wild Horses" by the Rolling Stones
Childhood living is easy to do
The things you wanted I bought them for you
Graceless lady you know who I am
You know I can't let you slide through my hands

Wild horses couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses, couldn't drag me away
The Girls: "At Seventeen" by Janice Ian
I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens
In high school girls with clear skinned smiles
Who married young and then retired
The valentines I never knew
The Friday night charades of youth
Were spent on one more beautiful
At seventeen I learned the truth
And those of us with ravaged faces
Lacking in the social graces
Desperately remained at home
Inventing lovers on the phone
Who called to say come dance with me
And murmured vague obscenities
It isn't all it seems
At seventeen
The boys: "Time In a Bottle'' by Jim Croce
If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
Till Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then
Again, I would spend them with you

The girls: "So Far Away" by Carole King
So far away, doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore?
It would be so fine to see your face at my door
Doesn't help to know you're just time away

Long ago I reached for you and there you stood
Holding you again could only do me good
How I wish I could, but you're so far away

These were some lyrics of each songs they sent to each other. It seems as if with every song the girls sent the boys sent a response back that said "I'll save you". Some songs I really loved were "At Seventeen" because the first two lines are I learned the truth at seventeen
That love was meant for beauty queens. The two lines basically say that they learned the truth about life rather quick and that love was never meant to be in their lives and that maybe someone who deserved love was somebody better than them--like beauty queens. "You've Got a Friend' is also a very sweet response by the boys because it is saying,  don't worry, we are there for you. However, the first song basically sums up their life becuase it has the lines "alone again, naturally". The Lisbon girls feel very alone in the world because their parents are not really there for them. 

Some of these songs made me want to cry because there was so much emotion in each one of them and gave you a harsher insight to the girls' lives.
 

Symbols!

Friday, April 14th, 2011

Throughout this entire book there have been many symbols. Some not as important as the others but they still sent out an important message about the characters, setting etc. 

The crucifix.

The first symbol is of Lux's Bra on the Crucifix. Lux's bra was found by Peter Sissen, who ended up stealing it. The bra represents the womanhood of Lux. Between the transition from adolescence to adulthood all of the girls are caught in between their innocence and their potential of becoming a woman. To the parents the girls were young innocent girls but for them they were women who were branching off to find their own identity. Lux's bra on the crucifix symbolizes Lux's sexual rebellion against Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon's strict Catholic rules and the family dynamics, which is most evidently shown by her habit of having sex on the roof with anonymous men everyday. Most importantly however, Lux's bra represents fertility and sexuality, meanwhile the crucifix represents sacrifice and death and they combine together to represent the sexual tension in chapter four. The most significant scene to demonstrate this is when Lux had sex with Trip Fontaine. That night by losing her virginity to him her innocence, her old self died and she was reborn as a woman. That was most evidently proven by Lux having sex reportedly afterwards with many men. , Lux's bra draped over Cecilia's crucifix can also symbolize the differences between the two sisters; Cecilia and Lux. Cecilia was shy, innocent, kept to herself kind of girl and Lux was bold, sexy, mischievous and rebellious.  

Cecilia Lisbon with her 1920 vintage wedding dress.

The second symbol is Cecilia's wedding dress. When I first read about her wedding dress I thought what is the big deal about it but then I thought if it wasn't a big deal then the author would not have described it with so much detail.  Cecilia's 1920 dress is actually a representation of herself in a way. The dress is not very fitting and is out of place with other dresses at the time just like Cecilia it self. Cecilia is not very fitting with the other sisters it seems and is out of place at school and even socially. That was most evident when the Lisbon sisters had a party and all the other sisters seemed to blend in expect for Cecilia who obviously committed suicide that night. The vintage dress and her old taste in classic music represent her taste in old, vintage things. The dress is white or cream colored, which represents pure and virginal. Cecilia is exactly that. She is pure and she died a virgin. The wedding dress is obviously a very mature look for Cecilia, which could represent her desire to become more mature and take on new roles.

Lux Lisbon

Is Seeing Believing or Is Believing Seeing?

Thurs, April 14th, 2011

The question remains is seeing believing or is believing seeing because through the entire book we are only told the story by the boys across the street and not from any of the people inside the Lisbon house. So all of the sceneries that we were told, all of the things the girls did and how the parents behaved, how the girls' behaved can actually be wrong because the boys were not in the Lisbon household. Like they say "Nobody knows what goes on behind closed doors." So what makes this story so believable? How can we believe the story the boys across the street have told us? It could be that what happened behind closed doors was not exactly as bad as the boys told us. Maybe behind closed doors, Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon treated their kids differently than what they were told to be by the boys. There is also a difference of knowledge and understanding that plays out. The boys understanding, knowledge and maturity for certain events might not be the same for somebody who is older, has more knowledge and is more mature. An adult may view a scene differently such as the scene when Lux begins to take boys to the roof and have sex with them. The boys viewed this scene with shock as to how she could do this without being caught and scared whereas an adult might be angry, frustrated and disgusted at how a young girl can go behind her parents' back and have sex with guys on the rooftop. So can we believe what the guys say and see it occurring or do we have to see the events actually unfolding in front of our own eyes to believe it? My answer is I would have to see it to believe it because my interpretation would be different than the boys and most importantly nobody knows what exactly happened other than the Lisbon sisters and the Lisbon parents. 

 

 The Lisbon parents.

The Lisbon sisters. 

Sad, Sad, Sad!

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

I have just finished reading the book and it was so sad and emotional. It was a cry of help from girls of were suffering emotionally from the hands of their parents. Although, I must say that this book was a fantastic book! I said this in my first blog that I often have trouble sticking to one book for a long period of time but there was something about this book that I just could not stop reading it. Maybe it was the emotional aspect of it, or the curiousty of how the other girls would kill themselves or generally how the book was wrote but one thing I have to say is this book exceeding my expectations! After a very long time I read a book that I absolutely loved and adored! One thing I would have liked was having to read the book from the girl's point of view. I wish at times the story was told by the perspetives of Lux, Cecilia, Mary, Bonnie or Therese to make the book even more emtional and in depth. Overall, a fantastic book by Jeffrey Eugenides.

A Possible Theme

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

I think I have come to find one of the themes in the book and that is parent/child relationships. The Lisbon parents are too harsh on their kids and that is affecting their relationship with their kids. I think the girls do not respect their parents too much because of how they treat them. For instance, normally parents would let their kids go out to a dance and date. However, the Lisbon parents are a unique species. Mr. Lisbon did not allow Trip to take Lux to the dance and matter of fact, never let any one of his daughters go to any dance, ever! Mr. Lisbon only allowed Trip to take Lux on certain conditions, such as: Trip must find boys for the other girls to go with and be back by a certain curfew. The most important detail was that Mr. Lisbon was going to be chaperoning that dance. So Mr. Lisbon might as well have said "Good luck having fun at that dance because my eyes will be on you at all times!" TRUST your daughters and they will trust and love you. For the dance, Mrs. Lisbon did not even dress her daughters’ great. Kevin Head, one of the guys who took one of the Lisbon girls' to the dance described their outfits as "choir robes" (pg 117). That just goes to show that Mrs. Lisbon had never let her girls' go out before, hence they did not have any fancy dresses to wear. 

There is one quote that stuck through me while I have read this book and it is Mrs. Lisbon saying, "None of my daughters lacked for any love. We had plenty of love in our home" (pg 113). I think that is something she liked to say to herself and make herself believe that she gave her daughters plenty of love and that that was not the reason they died. However, if she stepped out of her own "personal bubble" she would realize that she never gave her daughters' a true mother-daughter bonding experience. It seemed as if the dad ran the whole family. Although, nothing can be said for certain because this story is being told by outsiders (the boys across the street). What Lux, Cecilia, Bonnie. Therese and Mary needed was a mom who would give them dating advice, ask and solve their problems, make them treats in order for them to feel better but instead they were locked within the house and both parents never really opened up to their kids. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs we need security of the body, of family something that the Lisbon parents' did not provide for their kids otherwise the girls would never have killed themselves. Maslow's hierarchy also states a person needs the sense of love, of belonging and esteem. Esteem was one thing the girls lacked in terribly. They did not seem to have any self- esteem because their parents cut off their socialization with others and socialization is extremely important in the world. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon are authoritarian parents. Authoritarian parents are parents who are very strict and what they say goes. Either the girls are too scared to rebel against their parents or that is just how they were brought up and told, "Never question my authority and orders." If the girls had all rebelled, it might have been difficult for Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon to handle and they would have given in to their daughters because then it would have been 5 against 2. Sometimes it takes a change in attitude to give someone a wake up call. Or like they say, if you cannot take something out with a straight finger, then make sure you crooked your finger because then it will definitely come out. It just takes a different approach to send an effective message and keep on doing it till your message is heard.   

                                                     Maslow's hierarchy of needs. 

Favorite Pictures!

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

I was just browsing through some pictures of the movie The Virgin Suicides just to see who plays the roles and how some scenes look lik etc. Then I came across two pictures that really made me smile and that I think shows the Lisbon girls emotions really well.

This picture I find can really display all of the emotions of the Lisbon girls. From the outside looking in everyone thinks of the Lisbon girls as shy, no self-confidence, low self-esteem girls but this picture shows a different side of them. This picture shows their care free side--a side which their parents probably do not see. Their smiles reflect what they want people to think about them. They just want to be normal if anyone would let them. They want to show everyone that they can be fun to hang around with but importantly that they are like any other normal teenager. They do not want to be judged by their parents' behaviours and attitudes. Their smiles show how happy they are to be with each other and outside. This picture reflects the girls true selves.

I absolutely love this picture. The background and Lux's facial expression catptivate me. Lux is in an open field and wandering about aimlessly. I love she has in her hand reminds me of the time when people go "he loves me, he loves me not." Her facial expressions reminds me of someone who is trying to get lost within themselves. Like she wants to forgot about everything that is going on in her life and just relax. The background is of a haystack field and I think the reason Lux chose to go to a field is because nothing and nobody is around you. Also, fields like this hide a person and it becomes difficult to find them. I think that is the main reason Lux Lisbon came to the field. To get some peace, and hide away from the world for a while. She certainly can't get peace at home and not even at school with her father being there. To me this is a PERFECT picture of Lux and her personality.

The New Lux

Sunday, April 3rd, 2011

Have you ever heard of the saying "The only way to get over a man is to get under another?” Well this saying reminded me of Lux's new behavior during this part of the book. It all starts with the girls going to the Homecoming Dance and right away I could tell of Lux behaving differently. She seemed to have more confidence than usual. Meanwhile, her sisters seem normal at first but soon they all start opening up as well. The first sign of Lux being different was when she said "Hold on a sec, I want a cig before we go in" (Eugenides 120). It shows how bold and carefree she became when she was given freedom. Lux did not even care when the other girls warned her that their dad might find out. All she said was "I've got mints. Just tell him some kids were smoking in the bathroom" (Eugenides 120). Then when all of the girls were in the bathroom Hopie Riggs said they were being really loud and acted as if they owned the place-- certainly not the same behavior I have grown accustomed to from previous chapters. The next defining moment of the changing attitude had to do with the alcohol/kiss scene. Lux and Trip had sneaked away and Bonnie and Joe were right behind them. Then Trip took out a bottle of peach schnapps. "You have to taste it with a kiss," he said. He held the bottle to Lux's lips saying, "Don't swallow." Then they kissed each other and exchanged the alcohol and an intense make out session right in front of their friends! Now that could be something Trip does regularly and his friends have seen before but for Lux do it right in front of Bonnie says a lot about her daring and bold attitude. Then Trip handed the bottle to Joe who held it out to Bonnie's mouth. However, being a good girl Bonnie said, "I don't want any." Lux responded by saying, "Don't be a goody-goody." Those were the last words I expected to hear out of her mouth but what Bonnie did afterwards, was the last reaction I expected out of her. Bonnie also shared an intense make out session with Joe. You would think that the girls would not do anything that their parents would not approve of especially if their dad was chaperoning the dance. On the contrary, the fact that they did just proves how thirsty they were to have freedom and how much they lusted to try new things. Then Lux sleeps with Trip on the football field and she appears to be drunk at home. No surprise that both Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon were extremely furious at their daughter's outrageous behavior. Because Lux failed to make her curfew Mrs. Lisbon took a dramatic step and pulled all of the girls out of school and locked them up at home. Afterwards, Lux begins to sleep with guys regularly. Lux tells Bob McBrearley that she couldn't live without "getting it regular." Which means she could no longer go without having sex everyday. Hence why she had a pregnancy scare a little while after which turned out to be negative. 

It would be a wise guess that Lux sleeps with guys on a regular basis because she has lost her virginity to Trip and is locked inside a house so if she sleeps with boys and men on top of her roof everyday what does she have left to lose? It was revealed that Trip treated very badly after they had slept together. He became heartless. He hinted at it when he said, "This is it. We danced. We got ribbons. It only lasts for tonight" (Eugenides 178). Although, Trip is referring to the Homecoming Dance his words seem to foreshadow what is about to happen next because after he slept with Lux he just left her on the football field not even caring how she gets home. Then there was the typical reaction from Trip regarding his actions "It's weird, I mean I liked her. I really liked her. I just got sick of her right then" (Eugenides 179). Or in other words, he got what he wanted which was sex and afterwards he could care less about what happened to her. This odd behavior from Trip was confusing because when he was first introduced it seemed as if he really liked Lux and that she had changed him and had tamed the school player. Now even I am confused about Trip's honest motivations. 

Lux sleeping around with men everyday could represent her wanting to forget about how she was treated by Trip, the adrenaline rush of her knowing she is getting away with it when her parents are sound asleep, trying to forget about Cecilia's death or even trying to rebel against the family rules. 

One thing I learned from reading the second half of the book was the Lisbon girls are actually different from what they appeared to be at first or how they were presented. From the dance you could tell the girls were fun, care free and sweet but got judged because of Cecilia and their dad. Therese asks Kevin at the dance that ''Do we seem as crazy as everyone thinks?" 

''Who thinks that?” he replied.  

''Cecilia was weird, but we're not.'' And then: ‘‘we just want to live. If anyone will let us" (Eugenides 128). The girls are different then what they are perceived to be and they just want a chance to prove that. They are tired of being judged and they want to let everyone know that they normal just like everyone other girl but they get judged because of their crazy parents and Cecilia's choice to die. 

The only question I have regarding this second half is if Mrs. Lisbon has locked the girls at home where is Luz finding all of these boys and men to have sex with on the roof?