In our discussion in class today of Marilynne Robinson's novel Housekeeping, many comments were made supporting the idea that Ruthie was given no choice to follow Aunt Sylvie, but rather Aunt Sylvie took Ruthie under her wing and forced her to be a part of the unconventional lifestyle. Teachers questioned Ruthie's ability to stand on her own two feet without the guidance of another person, commanding her that she is "going to have to think for [her]self"(Robinson 135). Yes, it did appear that Ruthie hid behind the shadow of her sister Lucille and Aunt Sylvie, but as Lucille put it, "[Ruthie] has her own ways"(135). Ruthie's evolution as a woman was in her way; she would sit by the lake instead of going to school, refuse caddy discussion over Coca Cola's, and enjoy adventures with Aunt Sylvie. Ruthie was not reading "books that were to be improving" as Lucille did, nor did Ruthie desire to sew a "a skirt and a small jacket" alongside Lucille--she wanted to be a kid, to not have to face the fears of growing up, the fear that she may fall into the depression that forced their mother to commit suicide in the opening of the novel (125). Ruthie chose to be a young lady, her development would come, but not at the same moment as Lucille was 'maturing' into a proper young lady.
Ruthie was given a choice when it came to becoming the characteristic and acceptable women of the 1980's. Although it was a method for Aunt Sylvie to keep custody of Ruthie, the two of them "polished the windows...washed the china...burned the boxes of magazines in the orchards" to prove that they were capable of being proper women, to prove that they could be together (199). In these actions, Ruthie had a choice to participate or not. She could have allowed Aunt Sylvie fail in her efforts to have perfect housekeeping and in the court of law, Ruthie would be taken from Sylvie, but Ruthie obviously did not want that. She was much more content amidst the frazzled life together with Aunt Sylvie then be the women Lucille, and all other women of that time had become.
Returning to the idea of Lucille and Ruthie's mother's death, it seems that Ruthie's mother was driven to complete insanity by perfect housekeeping and Ruthie learned this early, escaping this fate. Ruthie described her mother in the painful rant on page 197, "I remember her standing with her arms folded, pushing at the dust with the toe of her pump while she waited for us to finish our sundaes"(197). She was pushing things into order, but this 'housekeeping' was an acquired ritual, for Ruthie described her in the "eccentricities" that defined her mother most, her eccentric-nature that did not really care about having a floor clear of dust (196). Her mother sunk into society, sunk to the level society wanted her to be at: a perfect women; being a perfect woman was what killed her. Ruthie and Lucille, even at the young age, could recall how she was filled with "bitterness...fell silent from time to time...she would soften and shrink in our hands and become infirm" (197). Ruthie and Lucille watched their mother die--watch society take hold of her and Ruthie refused to have a parallel fate, of driving her car into the "smothered, nameless, and altogether black" lake in Fingerbone because she was being forced to live in the constraints of society (9). It is in this notion, that Ruthie's choice to leave with Sylvie and cross the bridge, securing that her life would be surely unconventional from that moment is made.
No comments:
Post a Comment