The Fence

The fence is a prominent image throughout the first part of the novel. It becomes so important because it is the key factor in the suicide of Cecilia Lisbon. Cecilia jumped from the second story window onto the spikes of this steel fence below and died. Mr. Lisbon went out the fence where his youngest daughter’s dead body was laying and he struggled to get her off, but it was useless. After the funeral, the fence became a burden to look at for the Lisbon family and for the rest of the neighborhood. The removal of the fence became a uniting factor for all of the families in the neighborhood. Everyone in the neighborhood except for the mourning Lisbons, joined together to remove the fence; “It was the greatest show of common effort we could remember in our neighborhood, all those lawyers, doctors, and mortgage bankers locked arm in arm in the trench, with our mothers bringing out orange Kool-Aid , and for a moment our century was noble again.” The fence symbolizes how neighbors unite when times get bad. Even though the Lisbons were usually secluded from the other neighbors, it was still a noble and neighborly thing to do by removing the burden of the fence. The fence was a constant reminder of the suicide of the youngest Lisbon daughter. Every day the Lisbons and the rest of the neighborhood were reminded of the tragedy because of this fence. Therefore, it was crucial to remove it in order to move on with life. Although the fence was an image of tragedy and gruesome death, it later became a source of the noble deed of the neighborhood. In times of tragedy people tend to unite, and in this novel the neighbors united through the removal of the fence.