raeanna74

One thing I don't quite understand - IF the girls were planning their mass suicide when they were communicating with the boys then why did they persist in communicating? Did they see hope there? They knew the boys were coming later? Had they lost all hope? If they boys had come sooner would that have changed things? And lastly - Why did they pack a trunk, leading the boys to believe they wanted to leave? Did they want the boys to find them and be witnesses? Maybe they were afraid their parents wouldn't tell what had happened if no one actually found them.

I found the parallel between the Elm trees and the girls interesting. Here the trees were "denuded" of their branches. The Lisbon family was denuded of it's branches before the parents, the truck of that family tree, finally left. Were the girls protecting their parents in any way as they protected the tree? They never complained to anyone else about their parents. The could have. Cecelia could have explained to the psychologist how smothered the girls were and how confined. Also they tied YELLOW ribbons (a warning color) around the tree instead of red (a final color). Was that a suggestion of maybe saying that it was a last chance for the Lisbon family to come to life again, to come "home."

I also found it interesting that there is the suggestion of abuse when Lux came home after the prom.

In a way I found this a portrayal of how "benign" abuse can seem from the outside. It can simply seem like strict parenting and close protection of the child. A child who has grown up in it becomes accustomed to it and perhaps afraid of the "outside" and it's unfamiliarity. Abuse can have a pattern, life can be more unpredictable.

These are just some things I thought of while reading.

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