Image Study

Tree – The neighborhood where the Lisbon family resides has incredibly strict guidelines concerning overall outer appearance of residences’ houses, and the neighborhood committee is very proactive in keeping each house looking uniform and nearly identical. Each yard has an elm tree planted in it, but the trees in the neighborhood suffer from an illness that can be spread from tree to tree. To prevent the death of multiple trees, the Parks Department routinely comes through to cut down any sick trees.  The year following Cecelia’s death, the Parks Department comes to cut the elm in the Lisbon’s yard. Since the neighbors have never objected to the removal of the sick elms, everyone is surprised to see the four remaining Lisbon sisters rush outside to form a circle around their doomed tree. In their minds, the tree represents the memory of Cecelia. As their neighbor, Mrs. Scheer, recalled, “That particular elm had been Cecelia’s favorite. Its tarred knothole still retained her small handprint. Cecelia often stood under it in the springtime, trying to catch the whirling propellers of its seeds. The girls weren’t saving it. They were saving her memory.” Though the image of the elm to the Lisbon sisters represents the joy and memory of Cecelia, to the audience, it stands for something much more powerful. Although the tree appeared healthy to the girls on the outside, it was the inside that was sick with no hope for returning to a healthy state; just as the sisters appeared to be thriving on the outside, it was on the inside that they were consumed with depression and grief over the inexplicable loss of their sister that ultimately led to their suicides. The girls fought a losing battle to save the dying tree, and in the end, the image of the tree stump that was formerly Cecelia’s favorite elm represents the losing battle the girl’s fought for themselves to overcome the loss of their sister, when in the end they knew they saw no other way out but death. In addition, the image of this one elm, Cecelia’s elm, spreading a sickness to the surrounding elms can be linked to Cecelia’s depression and suicidal thoughts being spread to her sisters, as it was literally believed in the novel and can be figuratively perceived by reader.

Light – Both the presence and absence of light provide a strong image throughout the novel. Following the death of Cecelia, the boys frequently comment on the darkness that has overcome the Lisbon household. The image of the blackened house represents the figurative death of the rest of the Lisbon family in the wake of her suicide. It was as if they ceased functioning after Cecelia killed herself. Mrs. Lisbon secluded herself in the home refusing to do any sort of household chore or even care for her remaining daughters. Mr. Lisbon became a shell of his former self, carrying out his job at the school with the monotony of a robot. The remaining Lisbon sisters, however, provide the image of the presence of light. Their light represents the fight to overcome the depression they suffer from and the longing they have to escape the pressures of their mother. One scene in the novel describes the girls flickering on their lanterns at the boys across the street in some sort of pattern to convey a message for help. In between flashes the boys detect a much dimmer, flickering light coming from Cecelia’s former room. Only upon later investigation do they learn it was the candle set up in the vigil the girls had made in memory of their sister. The image of the bright lights emitted from the rooms shows the girl’s desire to overcome the grief and break free from the inescapable pressures of their mother, while the image of the flickering candle conveys the dwindling of said desire. Ultimately the girl’s will to live fades just as the flame of Cecelia’s candle does. The boys explain the struggling image of the candle one night as they watch Bonnie tend to its flame by saying, “Most often she watched the candle as if the outcome held her own, the flames almost extinguishing themselves, but, by some greed of oxygen, persisting.” Eventually, the lack of light comes to represent the figurative death of the Lisbon parents and the literal death of their five daughters.

Virgin Mary cards – From the very first pages of the novel, when Cecelia is found lying in the bathtub with slit wrists, clutching a laminated image of the Virgin Mary, the image of the cards holds strong meaning. The back has been printed with the statement that, “The Virgin Mary has been appearing in our city, bringing her message of peace to a crumbling world.” After discovering the card, Mr. Lisbon explains, “We baptized her, we confirmed her, and now she believes this crap.” By the end of the novel, however, this “crap” is believed by all five Lisbon sisters. The notes delivered to the boys are inscribed on the back of these cards, and the neighborhood often awakes to find the images scattered upon lawns, stuck in bushes, and left in mailboxes. The significance of the image of the Virgin Mary conveys the idea that the girls likened themselves to the Virgin. They too saw the world as crumbling; their idea of peace and escape was death.

Makeup – Under the very strict guidelines of Mrs. Lisbon, the girls are forbidden to wear any sort of makeup; however, their use of it throughout the novel, specifically lipstick, represents their unified rebellion against the rules imparted upon them. The boys discover in the bathroom one night while having dinner with the family, a “secret cache of cosmetics tied up in a sock under the sink: tubes of red lipstick and the second skin of blush and base. [They] didn’t know whose makeup Peter Sissen had found until [they] saw Mary Lisbon two weeks later on the pier with a crimson mouth.” Later in the novel, as an ambulance arrives to take Lux to the hospital for alleged appendicitis, she appears from the house, writhing in pain, yet she took the time to apply “the forbidden pink lipstick that tasted of strawberries”.  Finally, when Mary’s body, the last of the five sisters, is discovered “with so much makeup that the paramedics had the odd feeling she had already been prepared for viewing by an undertaker.” It seems that the image of the makeup allowed the girls to represent their individuality and separate themselves from the unified grouping of all five sisters they were so often subjected too. The makeup allowed each sister to express herself, whether it was Lux’s daring choice of lipstick on the ambulance ride to the hospital where she would await the answer to her pregnancy test, or Mary’s message that she intended to die and therefore left her body in a state that expressed just that.