Chapter Two
Chapter two starts off with the boys confusion as to why Cecilia killed herself. They said that she had a journal, which the police investigated. It contained many drawings in many colors, but not much more. Dr. Hornicker said is showed that she was emotionally unstable.
The same paramedics from Cecilia's first attempt at suicide arrive after she jumped off her roof. After they take her away on the stretcher, the boys go home. They say that there had never been a funeral in their town during their lifetimes, so the didn't think about the worker's strike hitting its sixth week the day Cecilia died. People weren't buried, only placed beside their undug plots.
Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon chose to have her funeral at a nondenominational church in between two freeways. We learn that Cecilia's death was recorded as an accident in the church's records, and the other sisters would follow suit when their time came.
After all of the girls kill themselves, Mrs. Carruthers, a neighbor, said that the girls weren't upset at Cecilia's funeral. It even looked like they were winking at their sister, even though the whole town expected them to be terribly upset by their sisters' death.
The boys rummage through their memories of Cecilia. They were happy memories of all of them growing up together, with some of the boys falling in love with her. They couldn't admit it thought because they all knew that Cecilia was the weird one, but the narrators knew that there were other boys who loved Cecilia.
The boys examine Cecilia's diary thoroughly, learning a lot about the Lisbon sisters. They discovered that Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon didn't really take Dr. Hornicker's advice in relaxing a little and allowing the girls to be normal teenagers. Even though he said privacy was incredibly important at Cecilia's age, her parents made her crack her bathroom door open when she wanted to take a bath, which was one of her favorite things to do. Her mom or dad would stand outside the door and wait to hear a splash before moving away from the door, but one of them always came back a few minutes later.
When the boys review Cecilia's behavior the night of her death, Mrs. Pitzenberger, a neighbor, said that she was carrying a suitcase to the backyard. The boys reveal that luggage will play an important role in the sisters' suicides.
This chapter is when the hypocrisy of the neighborhood was most apparent. They would gossip about the Lisbons' business and pass judgment, even though they didn't really know what was actually going on in that house, and then they would go to Mrs. Lisbon and pretend that they weren't judging her. This is hypocritical, but it also shows that the neighborhood is kind of in denial and wants everything to be perfect. This is the first chapter where this occurs, but it is evident in the rest of the book how the neighborhood wants everything to be perfect.
The same paramedics from Cecilia's first attempt at suicide arrive after she jumped off her roof. After they take her away on the stretcher, the boys go home. They say that there had never been a funeral in their town during their lifetimes, so the didn't think about the worker's strike hitting its sixth week the day Cecilia died. People weren't buried, only placed beside their undug plots.
Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon chose to have her funeral at a nondenominational church in between two freeways. We learn that Cecilia's death was recorded as an accident in the church's records, and the other sisters would follow suit when their time came.
After all of the girls kill themselves, Mrs. Carruthers, a neighbor, said that the girls weren't upset at Cecilia's funeral. It even looked like they were winking at their sister, even though the whole town expected them to be terribly upset by their sisters' death.
The boys rummage through their memories of Cecilia. They were happy memories of all of them growing up together, with some of the boys falling in love with her. They couldn't admit it thought because they all knew that Cecilia was the weird one, but the narrators knew that there were other boys who loved Cecilia.
The boys examine Cecilia's diary thoroughly, learning a lot about the Lisbon sisters. They discovered that Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon didn't really take Dr. Hornicker's advice in relaxing a little and allowing the girls to be normal teenagers. Even though he said privacy was incredibly important at Cecilia's age, her parents made her crack her bathroom door open when she wanted to take a bath, which was one of her favorite things to do. Her mom or dad would stand outside the door and wait to hear a splash before moving away from the door, but one of them always came back a few minutes later.
When the boys review Cecilia's behavior the night of her death, Mrs. Pitzenberger, a neighbor, said that she was carrying a suitcase to the backyard. The boys reveal that luggage will play an important role in the sisters' suicides.
This chapter is when the hypocrisy of the neighborhood was most apparent. They would gossip about the Lisbons' business and pass judgment, even though they didn't really know what was actually going on in that house, and then they would go to Mrs. Lisbon and pretend that they weren't judging her. This is hypocritical, but it also shows that the neighborhood is kind of in denial and wants everything to be perfect. This is the first chapter where this occurs, but it is evident in the rest of the book how the neighborhood wants everything to be perfect.