Critical Analysis of the Virgin Suicides

The Horror of the Mundane

Honore de Balzac once said, “We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never as bad off or as happy as we say we are.” Americans are so obsessed with happiness they would do anything to get to that point of bliss. In the book “The Virgin Suicides” by Jeffrey Eugenides, we are introduced to the men whose lives have been changed forever by their awkward obsession with five fated sisters: Therese, Mary, Bonnie, Lux, and Cecilia Lisbon. These mysterious girls don’t seem to really be known in the town, but when the youngest, Cecilia, kills herself, it establishes “the year of the suicides” and all eyes are on them.

The neighborhood boys narrate the story. They are a vague group of boys whose names are never mentioned entirely. All we know is that they are in high school, and live in the same suburb as the Lisbons, and have always been fascinated by the girls. They tell the story as if they are looking back on the suicides from an older age, and still are disturbed by the girls’ deaths. They narrate the story to describe the girls’ actions and motivations over the last year of their lives.

Cecilia Lisbon is very different from the other Lisbon girls. She wore the same old cutoff