The Virgin Suicides | Style

The Virgin Suicides Style

Point of View

The novel is written with an unusual plural first person point of view. The "we" that tells the story is the collective voice of a group of teenagers whose exact identity is at best imprecise. Indeed, the group composition appears to be shifting subtly as the story progresses. Interestingly enough, the voice evolves along with the timeline and that "we" slowly involves the reader as part of the voice, as if the narrators were addressing each other as well as the reader. This gives the reader the impression of belonging to the group and having been there, too.

The unique point of view eventually involves the reader as one of the boys. The feeling of being part of the story creates a haunting vision of the world. As they look backward and examine their childhood, the narrators discover they did not change very much as persons. They realize that...
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