The Virgin Mary Cards Symbol Analysis

Cecilia’s laminated Virgin Mary cards, which her sisters later hide around the neighborhood, symbolize the mystery and uncertainty surrounding the Lisbon suicides. The cards themselves are like a puzzle piece that the neighborhood boys never figure out how to fit into the larger picture. Instead of providing insight into Cecilia or her sisters’ thinking, the cards only add more confusion, as it’s never made clear why Cecilia was holding a Virgin Mary card during her first suicide attempt (nor is it clear why her sisters hide them in odd places shortly before their group suicide). What’s more, the Virgin Mary (the mother of Jesus) is, in some ways, a quite mysterious figure, or—at least—she might have appeared so at first. After all, the whole concept of divine conception would have seemed quite astounding and befuddling at first, and though Christian teaching has normalized the idea that God chose to conceive Jesus with Mary through the Holy Spirit, the story is still full of wonder and—to a certain extent—ambiguity, since the Holy Spirit itself is a rather complex theological idea that can be hard to fully grasp. In turn, the mere presence of the Virgin Mary in the novel brings an element of wonder to the tale, imbuing the laminated cards themselves with symbolic relevance, ultimately representing the neighborhood boys’ inability to ever know what really drove the Lisbon girls to suicide.