The stigma of mental health is very prevalent in the communities that the girls live in, and as a result the empathetic incapability of the town leads to impassiveness and a social negligence towards the decaying mental illness of both the Lisbon sisters and Esther Greenwood. This stigma demonstrates just how far removed from society the Lisbon’s have become, and forces Esther Greenwood to feel even further isolated and withdrawn from society, and while it is too late for the Lisbon’s, Esther feels the full force of the negligence and abandonment. Quickly becoming dehumanized in the wake of their deaths, "the Lisbon girls [become] a symbol of what was wrong with the country," and the town does not know how to react besides "[donating] a bench,"
