Vidas por um fio: histórias de desistência em As virgens suicidas, de Jeffrey Eugenides
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13102/cl.v26i2.12254Keywords:
Virgens Suicidas; Detroit; American Way of Life; American Dream.Abstract
“The Virgin Suicides” is a novel by Jeffrey Eugenides, published in 1993, about the suicides of five sisters between the ages of 13 and 17. They belong to a middle-class family living in a Detroit suburb during the 1970s. This article discusses the suicides as an aesthetic and narrative device used by the author to address the collapse of the “American Way of Life” and the “American Dream”. The analysis of this novel takes as research material the depth of its characters, settings, and events recounted by the author. Specifically, it aims to understand (i) the historical connections established in the book between the family of the five teenagers and the economic and social context that marked Detroit in the 1970s, and (ii) the characteristically psychological interpretations highlighted in the novel.
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