The Lisbon Girls By Eugenides: An Analysis

Eugenides writes a powerful novel pertaining to many aspects of being a teenager, and his purpose for writing the novel is exemplified in the way he writes about life, sex, love, and death surrounding the Lisbon girls. Throughout the novel, Eugenides makes a commentary on the different attitudes towards the suicides, and how none of them are really correct in terms of the girls. For the families of the town, “the Lisbon girls became a symbol of what was wrong in the country,” and they did not know how to deal with the suicides other than “[donating] a bench in their memory (226).” Eugenides makes it clear that while everyone had their own ways of trying to understand and deal with their suicides, they never truly understood the motives of the girls. While no one understood their suicide, the boys never really understood the Lisbon girls as a whole, despite being so obsessed with them.

They “never dreamed that the girls might love [them] back,” and Eugenides even goes as far point out that the girls were interchangeable (192). Before the dance, “the boys weren’t even sure which girl was which (117).” Finally, Eugenides chooses his words carefully, to show the connection between life, sex, and death as a teenager. This is most apparent in Lux and her trysts on the roof. She displayed a sort of “derangement, desperation, [and] self-destructiveness,” thinking sex on the roof would make her feel alive even though she was surrounded by death, but, “she was only a girl in danger, or in pursuit, of catching death of cold (144-145).” Lux cannot separate the three at this point, which Eugenides makes clear at this