The Virgin Suicides

by Jeffrey Eugenides

We knew, finally, that the girls were really women in disguise, that they understood love and even death, and that our job was merely to create the noise that seemed to fascinate them.

ofc this is how a man would see girlhood. cant understand someones motives unless its to serve another

Added to their loveliness was a new mysterious suffering, perfectly silent, visible in the blue puffiness beneath their eyes or the way they would sometimes stop in mid-stride, look down, and shake their heads as though disagreeing with life.

the image of the perfect victim. Pitiful. But silent. Ur able to conjure up ur own story to placate whatever guilt u have toward them

“None of my daughters lacked for any love. We had plenty of love in our house.”

Love or control?

Mrs. Lisbon thought the darker urges of dating could be satisfied by frolic in the open air—love sublimated by lawn darts.

Purity culture killed their girls in the most violent , "sinful" ways ever