The Death of a Young Girl Tragedy struck in the Lisbon household. The small, quiet, town of Detroit is rocked when the youngest of five sisters tries so commit suicide. A perfect society is no longer perfect, and the community is turned upside down. Teenage boys who live across the street from the family become infatuated with the girls and the events that take place, so much that they live their whole lives trying to understand why the girls ever did such a thing. The boys write a book called The Virgin Suicides, depicting the lives of the Lisbon sisters, their suicides, and the mysteries that are held about them. There are many literary devices employed throughout the book, some of which consist of conflict, symbolism, imagery which all pertain to the girls, the neighbors, and the community. First, conflict has a major role in the novel, saturating everything that goes on in the story. Readers notice the first form of conflict when Cecilia, the youngest of the Lisbon sisters, kills herself. The town and the boys who write the book are faced to deal with the hardship of teen suicide, which is …show more content…
People and neighbors try to cope with the tragedy, as does the school to help other children, yet it does not work. The community sweeps it under the rug and calls it quits. No one gets over what happened in the small town, as suicide and teen death is abnormal and looked down upon. The five boys who tell the story never fully recover from their past and put their whole lives away to try and figure out the reasons for the suicides. No answers are ever found leaving the boys absolutely troubled and unable to fit into real life. In writing this story Jeffrey Eugenides incorporates conflict, symbolism, and imagery to help readers really understand what is going on in the