This was the last meeting of the book and I had to admit I'm incredibly mad for how the ended the book, and yet I have really appreciated the ending. With my group, we've tried to understand the reason behind the girls' suicides, nut we have specially tried to understand why they would have decided to end up their lives right when the boys were there to help them and bring them away. We were unable to find a conclusion we are completely satisfied with, but we believe that the girls killed themselves because of their family's strict rules and also because they felt like they needed to rejoin their little sister Cecilia (who instead has killed herself because she was the "weird" one). However, we still do not understand why they chose that right moment, and this is what drives me crazy. Still, the ending of the book is incredible:"it didn't matter in the end how old they had been, or that they were girls, but only that we had loved them, and that they hadn't heard us calling, still do no hear us now..".
Today's meeting was incredible. Listening to the songs the boys exchanged with the girls with my group was not just helpful, but also very interesting: the melody and the lyrics of the songs in fact, help us understand more, not only about the girls' feelings for the boys, but also about this strong relationship they had with them, even if they had barely ever talked to each other. Also, being able to discuss about it with my group, has helped me realize little details I hadn't even notice (one of the sisters telling the boy, while at school ,that she perfectly knew who he was).
Today we discussed about the girls new life and their isolation: they stop going to school and the neighborhood boys start describing and trying to understand every movement they can see from their house of the sisters. They focus on Lux who no enters a period of rebellion: she starts having sex on the roof, which shows, specially because it is winter, her state of desperation and her lack of love she tried to receive from this random guys.In our group we discussed a lot on the little details that the boys manage to report of the girls attitudes.
However, I would have liked to know more about the article William L. Hamilton’s New York Times article “How Suburban Design Is Failing Teen-Agers.” Throughout this meeting, we focused on the importance of the exhibits and the symbols (house - trees). Towards the end of the meeting, we concluded that the house falling apart, trash being everywhere, nobody cleaning it up, the leaves being left on the stairs, all reflect the mood of the family, falling apart. Our house in fact, reflects who we are: if it is clean and in order, it means that we are confident and in order. The house of the Lisbon family is a complete disaster and forgotten, reflects the family's feelings: sadness, frustration and indifference.
I wasn't at school on Monday again, but my group told me that they went over what they had already discussed in class during the last meeting, and therefore I don't need to add much to the notes I already had. They discussed the reaction of the community to Cecilia's death. People had contrasting opinions: some believed that the community really tried to help the Lisbon family (for example, when they took off the fence), while others believed that the community was only criticizing the family's life all the time and staring at every move of the members (for example, the reason why they took the fence off, was simply that they were scared that it might have caused other people to die).
I wasn't at school for today's meeting so I can't tell much about what has happened in class; however, Beatrice had the link to my website and was able to read what I had prepared for today. I have asked some classmates to send me some of the notes they've taken in class in order to incorporate them on the blog and I will do so shortly.
Today's meeting went much better: my group and I, have had the opportunity to discuss in more depth about the different aspects of the story and what's going on. This was done also by discussing with the other group of 3 which has helped us to further our knowledge and understanding of the book. Also, I went to Gabe's group and explained them how Cecilia's suicide has influenced the Lisbon family as they hadn't this role. I found this helpful as I've had the opportunity to again, get new ideas and point of views on the role I was covering and to add them here on my blog.
Today's meeting was more difficult than I had expected. The first part, in which I met with the people that had my same role, carried out smoothly, but the second part, where I met with my actual group, was a bit harder. We had little time and apart from showing our work to the other members, we didn't have time to discuss on what had happened in the book.We tried to answer some questions: why was Cecilia holding a postcard of the Virgin Mary? Why
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