Previous
Similes
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Religion:
In a scene saturated with situational irony, the novel satirizes the superficial religious faith of Mr. Lisbon. When a paramedic hands Mr. Lisbon the card bearing the image of the Virgin Mary that Cecilia clutched in the bath during her suicide attempt, Mr. Lisbon responds to Ceclia's apparent faith disdainfully:
Mr. Lisbon thanked the paramedic for saving his daughter’s life. Then he turned the picture over and saw the message printed on the back:
The Virgin Mary has been appearing in our city, bringing her message of peace to a crumbling world. As in Lourdes and Fatima, Our Lady has granted her presence to people just like you. For information call 555-MARY
Mr. Lisbon read the words three times. Then he said in a defeated voice, “We baptized her, we confirmed her, and now she believes this crap.”
The Lisbons regularly attend a local Catholic church, though the novel suggests that Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon are not motivated by genuine faith, but rather, a sense of duty and propriety. Here, Mr. Lisbon is shocked to discover that Cecelia is, apparently, a genuine believer. With great irony, he complains that “we baptized her, we confirmed her, and now she believes this crap.” Though he is, on some level, suggesting that the specific form of faith reflected in the card's message does not match the beliefs and practices of their own church, his ambiguous phrasing also suggests that he did not truly expect his daughters' religious upbringing to stick and actually impact their worldview. He dismissively refers to the card's message of "peace in a crumbling world" as "crap," reflecting his own lack of faith.
Related Themes:
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Too Much Therapy :
In a passage marked with situational irony, the neighborhood boys conclude that the teenagers interviewed on local television for a show "focused on the subject of teenage suicide" had received "too much therapy to know the truth" of their own suicide attempts:
Television crews came by to film the increasingly dreary exterior of the Lisbon house, first Channel 2, then Channel 4, then finally Channel 7. We watched to see the Lisbon house on TV, but they didn’t use the footage until months later [...] Meanwhile, a local television show focused on the subject of teenage suicide, inviting two girls and one boy to explain their reasons for attempting it. We listened to them, but it was clear they’d received too much therapy to know the truth. Their answers sounded rehearsed, relying on concepts of self-esteem and other words clumsy on their tongues.
After Cecelia's death, most local reporters ignore the story, either out of respect of the family or because it hardly seems newsworthy. One local reporter, Ms. Perle, references Cecilia in a story about teenage suicide that the neighborhood boys regard as clumsy and ill-informed. Increasingly, the Lisbon family attracts the unwanted attention of local media as the news begins to cover the topic of teenage suicide. One local channel interviews a few teenagers who had previously attempted suicide, but the neighborhood boys feel that they have little insight. Ironically, they claim that these teenagers no longer understand their own motives because of the therapy they received, concluding that their answers "sounded rehearsed." The neighborhood boys, then, feel that the explanations offered by therapy cannot sufficiently account for the complexities of teenagers' actual feelings.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—The Day of Grieving :
In a passage saturated with situational irony, Eugenides satirizes the attempts by high schools to address issues surrounding mental health through the "Day of Grieving" held at the Lisbon Sisters school following the death of Cecilia:
The Reverend Pike spoke of the Christian message of death and rebirth, working in a story of his own heartrending loss when his college football team failed to clinch the division title. Mr. Tonover [...] let his students cook peanut brittle over a Bunsen burner. Other classes, dividing into groups, played games [...]The Lisbon girls, stranded in separate homerooms, declined to play, or kept asking to be excused to go to the bathroom. None of the teachers insisted on their participating, with the result that all the healing was done by those of us without wounds.
The teachers at the school feel that they must try to do something to address mental health following Cecilia's suicide, which leaves her sisters in a state of social isolation at school. Though their intentions are good, Eugenides presents these efforts as clumsy and insufficient in a satirical fashion. The school reverend "spoke of the Christian message of death and rebirth" but speaks of a trivial matter—the loss of a football game—as an example of "heartrending loss." The chemistry teacher, finding no easy way to work the theme of grief in to a chemistry lesson, allows the students to "cook peanut brittle over a Bunsen burner," and other teachers allow their classes to play games, which the Lisbon sisters skip. Ironically, then, only those students who were not grieving experienced "healing" on the Day of Grief.
Related Themes:
