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Isolation In The Virgin Suicides

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Isolation
Isolation is a significant theme of all three texts. Throughout The Virgin Suicides, Mrs. Lisbon believes that she is protecting her daughters from the dangers of the world by isolating them from civilisation. Due to her losing one of her daughters by her impalement of the garden fence, it seems that Mrs. Lisbon is keeping the girls within the confines of the home so she can keep a watchful eye on them. However, the real danger is within the home as the girls seem to become mentally unstable with the lack of normality and human interaction outside of their own immediate family. This is clearly portrayed through Lux, who “A few weeks after Mrs. Lisbon shut the house in maximum-security isolation, the sightings of Lux making love on …show more content…

The nature of the storm represents the characters’ isolation from one another, but also the deterioration of relationships and family structures. The storm emphasises the isolation that is already present in the characters lives. As a result of the dismemberment of the family unit, it is evident that Elena, Paul and Wendy try to counteract and find comfort for the feeling of isolation through traditional media forms. For example, Elena finds comfort from isolation through reading books in the library: “Reading was a brave spiritual journey for Elena Hood, and little piles of books were for her like the stacks of rubble—the Tibetan prayer walls—that marked the progress of pilgrims” (Moody, 52). Paul finds comfort through his comic books by comparing his family to characters he so often reads about. Wendy finds comfort through the television, watching programmes and films late at night. As a contrast, Ben tries to find emotional comfort and a sexual connection with another woman to fill the void. Similarly to The Ice Storm, the Lisbon girls in The Virgin Suicides find comfort through communicating with the boys on the phone by playing records that explain their emotions. Lux is similar to Wendy in The Ice Storm as they both experiment sexually to deal with their feelings of

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