Jeffrey Eugenides Research Paper

Jeffrey Eugenides was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1960.After spending his adolescence there, he attended Brown University in 1983 and Stanford University somewhere around 1986. Jeffrey Eugenides wrote novels like, "The Virgin Suicides","Middlesex", and "The Marriage Plot". Jeffrey Eugenides has received many awards for these novels which had brought him success. For example, he won the Pulitzer Prize, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award twice, won the Prix Fitzgerald and The Madame Figaro Literary Prize. However, one of these novels has been considered to be one of the most memorable ones. That is the "The Virgin Suicides", this novel was written in the 1990's and published in 1993 by FSG. The readers are amazed by the
He wants to keep the reader interested on what is going to happen.However, in this part of the novel, the narrator also mentions a crucial symbol. When the narrator is describing the paramedics finding Cecilia after her first attempt, he says, "She didn't say a word, but when they parted her hands they found the laminated picture of the Virgin Mary she held against her budding chest" (Eugenides 2). It is quite odd that they would find such a thing with Cecilia after her first suicide attempt. As a reader, one questions why would she have it? This is exactly what the author wants. Eugenides wants the reader to question and realize that the Virgin Mary is a symbol. As a reader one does not find out why exactly Cecelia had the image of the Virgin Mary on the day of her suicide attempt. Yet, as a reader, it is obvious that Virgin Mary Cecilia has symbolized Cecilia's purity. With the laminated picture, Eugenides is able to show how Cecilia was pure and innocent at the moment. Another way Eugenides uses the symbol of the Virgin Mary in the novel is to kind of show the actions of the Lisbon girls throughout their extreme isolation. This extreme isolation began after the girl's night out at homecoming.The