Occasionally when I'm feeling the crunch of a coming deadline for a critical response paper I utilize a somewhat unorthodox strategy for deciding what I will be writing about. The method which I employ in this situation is that I take my book, I grasp it firmly with both hands, and I let the pages slide past my thumb in the manner most are accustomed to opening to a desired page. The twist here, however, is that I close my eyes and count to five as the I thumb past pages. With Housekeeping I had to be a little bit more brief with my counting, due to the short length of the book, however my method didn't fail to deliver results.
The spot at which I ended up landing on was that of pages 154 and 155. While this is fairly late in the novel it turned out to actually be a fairly crucial one concerning Ruthie's development towards Sylvie. The adventure that 154 details part of is that of Ruthie and Sylvie's trip together to the abandoned house in the woods. Specifically, pages 154 and 155 are the points at which Ruthie first arrives at the abandoned and dilapidated old house, within which Ruthie spends the next many minutes in alone. Indeed for some unmentioned reason Sylvie excuses herself from Ruthie's company, and leaves Ruthie alone to her own thoughts in this abandoned and broken down house in the woods.
Immediately Ruthie's thoughts begin to roam, certainly in part helped by Sylvie's mentioning of her belief that there exists wild children who inhabited the forest. She's not quite as convinced of their existence as Sylvie, but still says, "I knew why Sylvie felt there were children in the woods. I felt so too, though I did not think so" (154). A cryptic sentence, perhaps, but what Ruthie means is that she believes she can sense other human beings in the area around here--can feel them--but she simultaneously realizes that she won't be able to make any kind of actual connection with them. This freaks Ruthie out sufficiently that she decides to go into the house and see what's up in there. So here we are with Ruthie standing alone inside this abandoned house, with the consciousnesses of the ethereal wild children taunting Ruthie just outside of the house. This reminds me of different part of the story in which Ruthie is also stranded out in the wilderness.
Towards the beginner of chapter seven Ruthie and Lucille both decide to take a fishing trip down to the lakefront, and the two of them end up having so much fun that they lose track of time and end up letting it get so dark that they’re forced to stay the night. Immediately Lucille starts to assemble to materials needed for them to create shelter from the environments, and they create a precarious little abode. To say the least Ruthie doesn’t hold an especially high opinion of how good a job their structure does with concern to actually providing them with cover--they’re interrupted by the arrival of wild animals which they have to throw rocks at to keep away. Still there are some important similarities and differences to note here.
In both scenarios Ruthie finds herself in a dilapidated structure, which supposedly is meant to shelter her from the environments, but in her makeshift hut by the beach there is a crucial difference; Lucille is still there with her. Compared to her experience on the island Ruthie has a companion with her to stay with her and keep away the loneliness. Ruthie anchors more around Lucille as her shelter than she does towards any physical shelter and even says, “Having a sister or a friend is like sitting at night in a lighted house. Those outside can watch if they want, but you need not see them” (154). So in a novel titled Housekeeping the main character defines her own version of housekeeping as having a strong relationship with another person.
Now for a person like Ruthie--who has stated that for her the best shelter is a good friend--it would seem that being left alone by Sylvie in this strange place would be the scariest thing she could think of. She was first stripped of the shelter from loneliness that Lucille as to her, and now Sylvie has left her too, at least for a while. During this time Ruthie is certainly disturbed by the thought of the wild children outside of the house, and seeks refuge inside the house for a while, but before long she decides that the house doesn’t keep away her sense of loneliness. Instead of continuing to seek out anything in the house Ruthie decides that she would prefer to wait outside for Sylvie to come back and be with her. Indeed this moment is very symbolic of Ruthie’s greater decision concerning her relationship with Sylvie--instead of remaining in the broken down house that is her relationship with Lucille she instead decides to forge a new relationship with Sylvie.
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