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Foreshadowing
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis:
The Virgin Suicides is a coming-of-age novel, though it approaches the genre in an unusual and somewhat macabre way. It explores the impact of the Lisbon sisters’ short lives and eventual suicides on a group of local adolescent boys who narrate the story. Initially, the boys idolize the sisters, who appear to them both alluring and remote.
As they get older, the boys learn more about the difficult realities of the world around them as they continue to closely follow updates in the Lisbon household, though they are never able to "solve" the mystery posed by the sisters. In one notable scene, the boys realize how little they know about the adult world when Mr. and Mrs. Bates permit a contractor, hired to remove a fence from the Lisbon household, to drive over their lawn, leaving tire marks:
We were amazed our parents permitted this, when lawn jobs usually justified calling the cops. But now Mr. Bates didn’t scream or try to get the truck’s license plate, nor did Mrs. Bates [...] —they said nothing, and our parents said nothing, so that we sensed how ancient they were, how accustomed to trauma, depressions, and wars. We realized that the version of the world they rendered for us was not the world they really believed in, and that for all their caretaking and bitching about crabgrass they didn’t give a damn about lawns.
Previously, the Lisbons' neighbors attempted to remove the fence themselves, as the fence serves as a painful reminder of Cecelia's suicide. When they find this task more difficult than expected, they hire a contractor, who removes the fence but does a "lawn job" on the neighboring Bates family property. Though the neighborhood boys expect Mr. and Mrs. Bates to throw a fit, as most homeowners in the neighborhood seem to care deeply about their lawns, Mr. and Mrs. Bates "said nothing, and our parents said nothing." For the first time, the boys "sensed how ancient" their parents were, "how accustomed to trauma, depressions, and wars." What they learn, then, is that their parents "didn't give a damn about lawns," despite frequently complaining about lawn maintenance. "The version of the world they rendered for us," the boys conclude, "was not the world they really believed in."
This passage, then, reflects their growing awareness of the difficulties and pressures their parents face. Lawn maintenance, seemingly an urgent priority, is presented in this scene as an almost comforting distraction from real problems, as is tacitly acknowledged by the adults in their muted response to the damaged lawn. Though the boys gain awareness of the adult world throughout the novel, their unhealthy obsession with the Lisbon sisters, which continues well into adulthood, blocks their personal development and prevents them from fully moving on with their lives.
Related Themes:
