https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59 Based on The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides en-us 2022-05-17 15:56:17 UTC 2026-03-17 08:20:17 UTC hello@padlet.com ljagger2022 https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2187907900 This poem presents yet another answer to the problem of isolation. The speaker urges the lonely to "put down the weight of your aloneness and listen to the conversation" of life all around them. As relating to The Virgin Suicides, this poem is interesting because it frames isolation as a mental condition, not necessarily a physical one. Much like the boys of the neighborhood, who believe "the essence of the suicides consisted not of sadness or mystery but simple selfishness”, David Whyte proposes that "to feel abandoned is to deny the intimacy of your surroundings". Of course, a mental illness that drives someone to end their life might not be treated by just a change in outlook, but the perspective of this poem frames the Lisbon sisters' end in a more critical light. Even alone, there is always the "swelling presence" of everything all around you, if only you are willing to reach out.]]> 2022-05-17 16:08:00 UTC https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2187907900 ljagger2022 https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2187921425 Jeffrey Eugenides is a 62-year old American author who has published three novels: Middlesex (2002), which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, The Marriage Plot (2011), and The Virgin Suicides (1993).
He has also published a number of short stories. 
Eugenides grew up in Detroit, Michigan and studied English at Brown, before graduating with an M.A. in Creative Writing from Stanford in 1986. Today, he is a tenured professor within New York University's Creative Writing program.]]> 2022-05-17 16:15:51 UTC https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2187921425 ljagger2022 https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2191354725 The theme of isolation and disconnection from the outside world obviously became painfully familiar to almost everyone over the past two years during the height of the pandemic. This article describes the effects of prolonged quarantine on the anxiety levels of a number of different teenagers, particularly those who had to take on additional responsibilities to help their parents and siblings. For kids who usually filled their days with clubs and activities, the drastic shift to online learning and no extracurriculars was almost insurmountable. One boy who was interviewed recalls how exhausting remote schooling felt, and that it became difficult to even get out of bed and attend class. 

The hopelessness of a prolonged isolation such as quarantine is shared by the Lisbon sisters in The Virgin Suicides. As their house becomes decrepit and the parents stop ordering food and collecting the mail, the very presence of the daughters in the neighborhood fades away. The boys narrating can hardly remember their faces, and without any way to contact them it's almost as if they had already been dead for a long time before the suicides. ]]> 2022-05-19 13:34:14 UTC https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2191354725 ljagger2022 https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2191362522 2022-05-19 13:39:00 UTC https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2191362522 ljagger2022 https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2191387077 This short film examines the close relationship between twins Wyatt and Fletcher Shears, whose ostracization from their high school's social scene allowed them the freedom to become incredible artists. The twins were 21 at the time "Twinheads" was made. Together, they make up a rising punk duo called The Garden; one on bass, the other on drums. This source illuminates another angle to teen isolation; due to their closeness and deep interest in alternative music, they were often excluded from their Orange County teenage community, and the twins were able to grow into artists completely unique from anyone else. So their isolation from others was actually freeing; they never felt beholden to the expectations of others since they were always going to be on the outside anyways. In the film, the twins share that they "like being home, staying home, for the most part" in the bedroom they still share, creating art and music in an imaginary universe called Vada Vada.
In The Virgin Suicides, the girls long for normalcy. They are ecstatic to go to their school's dance with boys like regular teenagers and resent their mother's conservative ways. Once Cecelia Lisbon dies and the girls are pulled out of school, they communicate with the boys of the neighborhood using Morse code with a paper lantern. But in the case of the Shears twins, they enjoy isolation because the absence of other people frees them from judgment. While the Lisbon daughters can't wait to get out, and even pack suitcases before the final suicides as a symbol of their "escapes", Wyatt and Fletcher resent society's urging teenagers to grow up, and stay firmly in touch with the fantasy world of their childhood as a source of creative inspiration.]]> 2022-05-19 13:52:57 UTC https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2191387077 ljagger2022 https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2191647114 The Virgin Suicides is set in the suburb of Grosse Point, Michigan in the 1970s. The Lisbon sisters' town is typical of the "white flight" of affluent white families to idyllic suburbs in the midst of the Detroit race riots of the 1960s. Although their street is eerily tranquil, there are references throughout the novel to the National Guard rolling into the slums of Detroit, and grave diggers striking at the local cemetery. The Lisbon daughters are trapped not only by their zealot mother but also within a heterogenous neighborhood that refuses to acknowledge the horrors occurring around them.

As aging men, the boys of the neighborhood realize in retrospect that the girls' suicides had come to repesent everything wrong with their age:
It had to do with the way the mail wasn't delivered on time, and how potholes never got fixed, or the thievery at City Hall, or the race riots, or the 801 fires set around the city on Devil's night. The Lisbon girls became a symbol of what was wrong with the country, the pain it inflicted on even its most innocent citizens...

This source describes precisely what was happening in Detroit during this time, particularly a riot between Black protestors and law enforcement in 1967 which resulted in the destruction of hundreds of Black-owned businesses in Detroit's poorest neighborhoods. When compared to Grosse Point, where the biggest concern is Dutch Elm Disease infesting the trees, it is clear that the setting of The Virgin Suicides is meant to highlight the bubble that the Lisbon daughters live in. From lipstick to cigarettes, in every normal aspect of adolescence, they have to sneak. Their household and community are absolutely stifling, and this environmental isolation could help explain why they felt there was no other way out but death.

The setting of The Virgin Suicides is extremely important to the telling of the girls' story. The novel is narrated by the neighborhood boys who were obsessed with the girls Lisbons while they were alive, and tortured by memories after the suicides. Every piece of their family's story has been gathered from the accounts of their nosy neighbors; this narrative format represents that a seemingly perfect neighborhood can be hiding dark secrets. ]]> 2022-05-19 16:31:55 UTC https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2191647114 ljagger2022 https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2193373896 "Graceland Too" is centered around the theme of becoming isolated in mental illness, and learning to free yourself. But rather than end her life as the Lisbon sisters did, the subject of Phoebe Bridger's song actually escapes her environment. 

At the beginning of the song, the speaker tells the story of a young woman who realizes she can do anything she wishes, "no longer a danger to herself or others". The narrative of this song follows the girl as she overcomes her illness, and finds comfort in being directionless after a long time of being under the surveillance of others. She delights in being "a rebel without a clue", merely picking a direction and driving towards warm weather.

This source ties in with the core struggle of the Lisbon sisters; that they felt there was no escaping their mother's watchful eye. When the boys discover Lux in the garage, they realize that "she had escaped in the car, just as we expected". The subject of "Graceland Too" has also been under supervision, presumably also for fear that she may kill herself, but she is finally able to find meaning in life once she can actually decide her own fate. Even though she is alone, she has never been happier to be alive.


]]> 2022-05-20 18:16:26 UTC https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2193373896 ljagger2022 https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2193669892 This painting by Edward Hopper depicts a woman, alone in her living room. There isn't a precise backstory available, but  the most striking aspect of this piece is that it feels as though the woman doesn't even know the viewer is there. It's clear she feels she is by herself, staring out her window. The woman being naked seems to represent that one cannot hide from their truest self when alone; the mask that everyone puts on around others comes off. 
Like the Lisbon sisters in The Virgin Suicides, the woman in Eleven A.M. is staring out the window. This detail brings up a dangerous facet of physical isolation from others: fantasizing. In the novel, the boys get a hold of Cecilia's diary after her suicide and realize that she had been barely holding onto reality. One boy drily remarks that Cecilia had become such a dreamer, she probably thought she'd fly after jumping out the window. When someone is so disconnected from the outside world like the woman in the painting or the Lisbon girls, it becomes less painful to exist in a fantasy than real life. But as the boys of the neighborhood witness, there soon is nothing holding the daughters to their actual lives. Eleven A.M. represents this disconnection from reality; it is daytime, the woman is naked in front of an open window, yet has shoes on as if she might be leaving at any moment.]]> 2022-05-21 03:07:23 UTC https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2193669892 ljagger2022 https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2198362637 2022-05-24 22:25:34 UTC https://padlet.com/ljagger2022/27newjk74o70bx59/wish/2198362637