The Trees

“After denuding the trunk, the men left to denude others, and for a time the tree stood blighted, trying to raise its stunted arms, a creature clubbed mute, only its sudden voicelessness making us realize it had been speaking all along.”

This passage, from the middle of Chapter Four, describes the Parks Department's standard procedure for dealing with a tree that has caught Dutch Elm Disease. Throughout Chapter Four, the boys hear saws, as the officials cut down infected trees in an attempt to prevent the disease from spreading. Nonetheless, by novel's end, this process resulted in the loss of all the neighborhood's trees. This destruction of the suburb's physical environment mirrors its less tangible disintegration, which the boys feel began with the Lisbon deaths. Furthermore, the rapid spread of the elm epidemic symbolizes the neighborhood's fears about suicide.  Dr. Hornicker publically discusses and states that suicide is an infectious disease, just like the Ditch Elm Disease. The boys, who narrate the story, don’t realize what they have until it is taken away from them. After the removal of the trees the neighborhood seems bleak and empty. They experience a similar feeling when the kills are taken away from them. Both the girls, and the trees, are taken for granted by the boys until they are suddenly removed by forces beyond the boys' control.

In my opinion, the “denuding of the trunk” symbolizes the effects of society and the Lisbon parents had on the five girls. After the first suicide, the remaining girls were forever more linked with suicide in the eyes of society. They were isolated because of their neighbors fear that they had caught the “suicide disease” and would pass it on. Also the girls were further isolated from society at the fault of their parents. After the failed attempt at allowing the girls to be normal and attend homecoming with boys, the Lisbon parents cut off all communication for the girls and confined them to the house. They were taken out of school and were very rarely seen outside of the house. They had no way of seeking help. Lux had to fake an illness in order to see the doctor about a personal matter. Just like the trees the girls were “clubbed mute” and could not “raise their stunted arms” for help. Even the boys who studied there every move could not understand or help them. The boys were too entranced in their idea of the girls, and in return they didn’t realize the girl’s attempt at communication. The boys were continually blind to the present as it happened and had to reconstruct the girls past by means of the unseen, the invisible, and the forgotten, signs which—like the tree's silence in this passage—serve to convey the immensity of what has been lost. The novel continually focuses on what is missing by emphasizing unknown details, lost time, and the inaccessible girls.