Responsibility and Proximity

Shostak brings up an excellent point that the proximity of the boys implies some level of responsibility for Cecilia's suicide while more explicitly signifying violence against her:

"Although the novel in no way represents the boys as directly responsible for Cecilia's death, their proximity--and thus the pressure of a construction of her as an object of desire--signifies violence against her. If nothing else, the boys' entrance across the threshold of the house that otherwise closes off the Lisbon girls seems, by the fallacious logic of narrative sequence, to provoke Cecilia to violence against herself."

Yet, I would have liked to see her expand on this idea. There are other, possibly more significant, instances when the involvement of the boys in the girls presence coincides with the Lisbon girls' harm. Almost every time something significantly bad happens, at least one of the boys is close by. Cecilia's first suicide attempt is discovered by Paul Baldino stumbling onto her in the bathroom not shortly after she slit her wrists. In this instance, it seems hard to directly place any responsibility on Paul's presence. But in the first instance of suicide (attempted or successful), it seems important that one of the boys is present.

When Mrs. Lisbon withdraws the girls from school and begins their imprisonment because Lux returns home past curfew, the boys are more directly involved. Spearheaded by Trip, the Lisbon parents are convinced to let the boys take their daughters to Homecoming which leads to their confinement. Like the party before Cecilia's death, the boys cross the threshold into the Lisbon house, and yet this time they seem to play a more explicit role. Once again, the proximity and involvement of the boys coincides with a major negative event for the Lisbon girls. In what seems to be a significant factor leading to the girls' suicides, the boys are not only involved, but seem responsible.

The boys are also present when the remaining Lisbon girls collectively commit suicide. After Lux distracts the boys, they discover the other girls' suicide attempts. It is harder to pinpoint direct responsibility in this instance, but just like Cecilia's suicide the boys cross the threshold of the Lisbon household, projecting their view of the girls as objects of desire. Once again, the boys' presence is marred with misfortune for the Lisbon girls.

Many criticize the boys for their lack of involvement, but whenever they are involved things seem to go horribly wrong. In Cecilia's successful suicide attempt and the punishment after homecoming, the boy's proximity precedes the girls' misfortune. As Shostak points out, it would be fallacious logic to say that because the boys were present, the girls then committed suicide. In the discoveries of Cecilia's suicide, and the girls' collective suicide however, the boys arrive either during or shortly after the event. Yet, their proximity seems more than coincidence.

-Andrew T