The Guilt Of A Father

Thursday, March 8th, 2011
Unknown Words: idiosyncratic= a characteristic, habit, mannerism, or something that is peculiar to an individual.

The more and more I am reading this book the more obvious Mr. Lisbon's guilt is becoming. In the beginning of the book, when Cecilia slit her wrists and was being taken to the hospital, Mr. Lisbon seemed rather calm and collected. Not a single parent would be calm and collected if their child just slit their wrists and was being taken to the hospital. Instead of being frantic about the fact that his daughter is injured and bleeding furiously, Mr. Lisbon was driving the speed limit behind the ambulance. Now he seems guilty. I am starting to believe Mr. Lisbon had a big part in Cecilia's suicide. 

At one point in the boom (pg 57) Mr. Lisbon finds a boy retainer from the party the day before and instead of cleaning it or saving it until the boy comes to get it, he flushes it in the toilet. Except the retainer is not going anywhere. "Mr. Lisbon waited for the tank to refill and flushed again, but the same thing happened. The replica of the boy's mouth clung to the white slope." To me this particular scene seemed as if when Mr. Lisbon was flushing away the retainer what he was actually trying to do was flush away his guilt. His guilt could have been; being too strict on Cecilia, he did not show his affectionate side towards her, he did not care or that he could not save her. When we flush we are getting rid of something and that was exactly what Mr. Lisbon was doing he was getting rid of this "guilt" but it was simply not leaving. Then Mr. Lisbon says, " I thought I saw somebody, but when I looked, there was nothing there. So Mr. Lisbon saw a ghost only appear if something is unfinished or to haunt. Since Mr. Lisbon is guilty about Cecilia, he keeps thinking "something" is there. If Mr. Lisbon were not guilty then these feelings, emotions would not come up. I have a huge feeling that soon enough a big secret is going to come out regarding the actual relationship between the parents and the kids.                                     

"Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death." -Coco Chanel 


I thought this quote went well with my blog topic because Coco Chanel is saying that whenever death occurs, guilt follows. Someone is either to blame and someone takes the blame. In this case Ms. Lisbon is starting to have guilty feelings regarding his daughter's death. Guilt is never easy to deal with. When a death occurs, guilt is the hardest ordeal to overcome and can completely change a person and even make them insane. Hopefully I will soon figure out what exactly Mr. Lisbon is feeling regarding Cecilia's death.