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.
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