In the book, "The Virgin Suicides", five sisters kill themselves in a small suburban town. These deaths are not consecutive, as months go by after the first death. While these deaths are a tragedy and everybody has their own reactions to it, their parents cope with it by being in denial. They refuse to acknowledge that their daughter killed herself. They tend to see their family life as happy, when evidence and the suicide seems to suggest otherwise.
One very notable piece of evidence is the actual suicide. The doctors that looked after her seemed to ask her parents to lighten up on their strict rules. They considered the first suicide attempt as a cry for help, even though later they never talk about the attempt.Then after that, she attempts to kill herself again, and succeeds, the family has that death, and all the others, considered accidents. These aren't the actions of parents that have accepted the deaths.
Another piece of evidence that seems to contest the fact that they hade a happy life is the oppressiveness of the parents. They don't allow their daughters to date and when a boy came over, he had to sit in front of a TV for 2-3, which is an extremely boring date. These girls don't have enough freedoms if they aren't even allowed to date with anyone and just have to sit around. Also, they are only allowed to go with church and school. As we plainly see, this causes the girls, especially Lux, to act out with promiscuity and cigarettes.
In conclusion, the children seem to be repressed and sad, yet the parents don't want to admit that. When interviewed, though, the mother says that they had a happy family, but all signs seems to suggest that they were anything but.
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