Adolescent Suicide in Suburbia

Suicides are a grave display of human discontent with life that is especially disheartening when enacted by youths. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) measures the occurrence of suicides in the country using a ratio that expresses the number of suicides per every 100,000 people in the population for which the rate is being reported. According to the CDC, death by suicide amongst younger groups is significantly lower than those of older groups, yet it is the third leading cause of death amongst those ages fifteen to twenty-four. Additionally, CDC has gathered statistics that estimate suicides amongst males are nearly four times higher than females – 19.95 and 5.15 respectively. Certain studies have even shown that urban dwellers are at increased risk of suicide than those in rural areas. In Jeffrey Eugenide’s novel, The Virgin Suicides, he writes about a group of sisters (the Lisbon sisters) who are basically confined to their suburban home by their overly protective and oppressive mother and eventually, following suit of their youngest sister, commit suicide. There are many factors that may have lead up to the group of girls taking their lives such as a lack of sufficient social opportunity due to their mother nearly completely isolating them from the world outside their home or their exposure to the suicidal behavior of their sister, Cecilia. Furthermore, heir suicides could even be due to a mental disorder such as depression and bi-polar disorder, Schizophrenia, conduct disorder, or anxiety, or an unknown past family history of suicide – even though Eugenides didn’t mention it – but the real reason for their suicides are never disclosed. What is left is a group of girls who both follow and challenge the statistical evidence that has been gathered today regarding suicides; that is, they were less likely to take their own life being adolescents