Objectification In The Virgin Suicides

The Virgin Suicides is a novel about five young sisters named the Lisbons. Cecilia, the youngest, was 13, Lux (14), Bonnie (15), Mary (16) and Therese (17). The novel was written in 1993 by Jeffry Eugenides. The story follows the suicides of each sister starting with Cecilia at the beginning. The rest of the sisters decide to make a suicide pact they end up following through with by the end of the book. The neighborhood boys loved to watch the sisters and fantasize over them because of their beauty but no one ever really knew because of their strict religious parents, they were very sheltered. The Virgin Suicides explores the theme of the male gaze and the objectification of women through the narrative device of the Greek chorus of neighborhood

When they arrive they meet Lux while she tells them to go wait in the living room while they finish packing. Lux tells them she's going to go get the car ready. They boys get suspicious after waiting for long so they go look around the house for the girls. They find Bonnie hanging dead in the girls’ basement. The boys run home after finding her and are terrified. They had then later realized all the girls had killed themselves. Lux by asphyxiation, Bonnie by hanging, Therse by pills and Mary attempted by putting her torso into their oven. Once the paramedics came 3 of the sisters were already gone but they saved Mary. Everyone had assumed Mary was good as dead and although she did survive that night, a month later she had overdosed on pills. “With most people suicide is like Russian roulette. Only one chamber has a bullet. With the Lisbon girls, the gun was loaded. A bullet for family abuse.” No one ever really understood the girls or really truly tried to help so their mind was already made up that night. By the end of the book, the boys still didn’t understand the girls. It was just their male gaze and them thinking loving them was