The central motif of death by suicide serves as the story’s catalyst and later its climax. The story begins with the boys’ memories of Cecilia’s first attempt, which is followed shortly by a second, successful attempt. Her gruesome death, which they describe in graphic detail, is symbolic because she represents purity in and of herself, in the Virgin Mary photo that she holds, and in the dress that she wears. Theories surrounding her death arise, but none can quite pinpoint exactly why she chose it. Cecilia, at age 13, likely felt burdened by the state of the world and by the expectation of adolescence that remains to this day a confusing and isolating experience: “The extended childhood American life has bestowed on its young turns out to be a wasteland, where the adolescent feels cut off from both childhood and adulthood” (92).

After Cecilia’s death, a stigma immediately attaches to the Lisbon family and never wears off. It only sends them further into isolation and further feeds the fire of the boys’ unquelled obsession. When they find Bonnie in the basement, already gone to the next world, they feel a sudden guilt over their lack of action toward the girls, who so clearly needed them: “The

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