“‘I just want to go home,’ I said, and pushed the door open. Lucille grabbed me by the flesh above my elbow. ‘Don’t!’ she said, pinching me smartly for emphasis. She came with me out onto the sidewalk, still grasping the flesh of my arm. ‘That’s Sylvie’s house now.’ She whispered hissingly and looked wrath. And now I felt her nails, and her glare was more pleading and urgent. ‘We have to improve ourselves!’ she said. ‘Starting right now!’ she said. And again I could think of no reply."
"‘Well, I’ll talk to you about it later,’ I murmured, and turned away toward home, and to my amazement, Lucille followed me—a few paces behind, and only for a block or two. Then she stopped without a word and turned and walked back to the drugstore. And I was left alone, in the gentle afternoon, indifferent to my clothes and comfortable in my skin, unimproved and without the prospect of improvement. It seemed tome then that Lucille would buys herself forever, nudging, pushing, coaxing, as if she could supply the will I lacked, to pull myself into some seemly shape and slip across the wide frontiers into that other world, where it seemed to me then I could never wish to go. For it seemed to me that nothing I had lost, or might lose, could be found there, or to put it another way, it seemed that something I had lost might be found in Sylvie’s house,” (Robinson, 123-4).
This passage stuck out to me because it is the first time that we see Lucille and Ruth have a significant argument and physical struggle ending in a separation rather than a solution. They are arguing because Ruth wants to go home but Lucille wants her to stay with her. Lucille is angered because she feels as though the house has been taken over by Sylvie and no longer belongs to her and Ruth. With the notion of home no longer being present in Lucille’s life, she looks for comfort in other things. She becomes consumed by her appearance and fitting into social hierarchy. Lucille tries to drag Ruth along on her journey towards socialization without ever considering if that was what she wanted or not. Up to this point we are used to Ruth keeping her opinions to herself and going with the flow so as not to causing tension. She said earlier (referring to Lucille), “I found…advantage in conforming my attitudes to hers,” (Robinson, 93). It had always been easier to simply agree with Lucille than to actually have to state her own opinion or have her own opinion. This passage is a major breakthrough for Ruth because she is realizing who she is and what she does not want to be. She is breaking away from her sister and paving a new way for herself for the first time.
Lucille has made a huge transition in not only her physical maturation but also her need to be integrated into her community. Ruth is feeling burdened with the pressure to encounter the same changes and fall in line with her sister. In this passage Ruth decides that this isn’t what she wants. She turns her back on the idea and immediately she feels the weight being lifted. She is able to feel comfortable with herself and not feel the need to change or conform anymore. One reoccurring topic in this novel has been movement and flow. When the flood took over the house, the house itself seemed to flow and take on a life of its own. Ruth wants to return to the house and be a part of the flow. As Lucille states in this passage it is now "Sylvie's house" which adds the element of nature to this flow and a state of being in harmony with the surroundings. Ruth is is called to this way of life rather than trying to keep up with the ever-changing standards of society. Ruth becomes independent of society and as a result, independent of Lucille.
Questions:
What caused the sudden change in Lucille’s outlook on life and society? Why does she feel the need to “improve” herself?
Why is the idea of living the life of Sylvie more appealing to Ruth than the living the seemingly normal or civilized life of Lucille?
"To crave and to have are as like as a thing and its shadow. For when does a berry break upon the tongue as sweetly as when one longs to taste it, and when is the taste refracted into so many hues and savors of ripeness and earth, and when do our senses know any thing so utterly as when we lack it? And here again is the foreshadowing-the world will be made whole. For to wish for a hand on one's hair is all but to feel it. So whatever we may lose, very craving gives it back to us again. Though we dream and hardly know it, longing, like an angel, fosters us, smooths our hair, and brings us wild strawberries." ( Robinson, 152-153)
ReplyDeleteThis passage to be is one of the most poetic and imaginative pieces I have seen in this novel. It stood out to me one because of its poeticism, and I think it is really true and beautiful, and also because it really highlights Ruth's imagination and how she has utilized it so well to heal. She obviously is craving her mother or a maternal figure in her life, and she begins her process of coping with the absence of her mother through her imagination. "To crave and to have are as like as a thing and its shadow." This, I think, clearly exemplifies her craving for a maternal influence, and she realizes that she has so badly wanted one, and maybe that want for one has created some sort of reflection of a mother. Sylvie could obviously be seen as that substitute for a mother, but she is not Ruth's imagination. I think Ruth's ability to use her imagination to live in a world where only she understands and can cope with, has in turn created a shadow of motherhood around her. Her imagination created a mother that she lost. "So whatever we may lose, very craving gives it back to us again. Though We dream and hardly know it..."
I see a strong similarity with Ruth and the Narrator from Surfacing. Both women have dealt with a traumatic experience in their life that has directly effected there role in society as a woman, and their way of coping with that is by living their own life through their imagination.
Do you think that this passage shows that similarity effectively? are the two character inherently different?
What do you think it says about women specifically coping in post-traumatic situations? Do they have a tougher time then men because of their expected role to be "civilized", which is why they have created alternate realities?
I think Lucille's view of life and society drastically changed because of the presence of Sylvie in the house. For example, earlier in the novel, Sylvie mentioned how she had a conversation with a lady at the train station, and Lucille became very upset over it. She was embarrassed that Sylvie would associate with such "trashy people". Following that incident, Lucille became angry again when she found that Sylvie had fallen asleep on a bench in the middle of town. She continues to get frustrated with Sylvie and her habits and lifestyle because they are starting to become viewable for the public. At first Sylvie's strange ways took place in the house and in nature where it would be rare for others to see her, so when she starts acting like this in public, Lucille starts to worry more about her reputation and position in society. It's almost like she feels the need to "improve herself "so that she will be separated from society's view of her aunt and look better. She doesn't want to be associated with outcasts and not fit in with everyone else. She starts caring more about her looks and the way people perceive her to escape from what she believes is not normal and to find her place in society.
ReplyDeleteAs we talked about in discussion today, I think that Lucille wants to "improve" herself so that she does not have to confront all of the sorrow in her life and by not doing this she is able to push it all on to the back burner. I do not necessarily think that Lucille means "improve", but rather to forget and move on. However, this is difficult for Ruth to do because of this intense sense of loss she is experiencing and she is not able to "improve" herself until she works through all of the negative events of her life. In the end, Ruth may be the one who experiences the most positive improvement by working through these issues and ultimately moving on. Lucille will just conform to society and never look beyond the broader scope.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Maggie's post, I agree with her comparison between Ruth and the narrator of Surfacing. I would say that they are a little different in that the narrator in surfacing has created alternate memories for herself that are completely not true so she takes it a step further than Ruth. In response the the second question I don't know if women necessarily have a tougher time dealing with traumatic situations but I do think society dictates that the sexes deal with their feelings differently. Women are expected to be "civilized" and thus must cope in certain ways however as we saw with Nick in In Our Time, he becomes more withdrawn and solitary. Men are expected to hide their emotions to seem more "manly."
ReplyDeleteLucille's change in attitude and outlook on society/the need to “improve herself” partially comes from Sylvie’s presence in the house as well as cumulated feelings of separation from “normal society.” This scene, like Christine points out, is crucial because it shows the divide between the sisters’ views on what they’re willing and not willing to conform themselves to. Lucille believes that to lead a happier life she has to live a more normal one, pushing away from Sylvie and Ruth and striving to meet cultural standards for young women her age. Ruth, on the other hand, begins to grow through Sylvie’s presence and is attracted to the idea of becoming freer from society and her sorrows.
ReplyDeleteI feel that Lucille's change comes out of loneliness and the desire for a closer connection with people. Housekeeping 1.0 is the embodiment of this standard of human attachment, so after being in the presence of Sylvia and her 2.0 lifestyle, she becomes embarrassed of this difference. It is at this point that she finds the need to completely break off from what Sylvie had "taught" them, and show that she is normal and able to carry out a social life.
ReplyDeleteRuth on the other hand has no desire to reach out and meet others, and it is at this point that they both feel strongly enough about their ways of life that they are willing to finally break off from one another and be separate entities. Until this point, they had not yet been so gung-ho in their beliefs, allowing them to calmly resolve matters solely due to indifference.
I do not think that this is a statement about post-trauma actions, as I think that men are less permitted by society to express emotion in traumatic situations. Men are not expected to cry in trauma, while women are stereotypically expected to be hysterical. In conflict however, society often permits men to be angry or violent, while women are expected to compose themselves.
In this passage as Lucille struggles to keep Ruth with her in the endeavor to “improve” herself, light is shed on the contrasting ways with which the two choose to manage loss. Lucille feels the need to physically improve herself in order to cover up the array of complex and confusing feelings she has inside. While on the other hand, Ruth is able to confront her inner sense of loss, Lucille copes with hers by struggling to seem normal. There remains nothing normal about the lives of Ruth and Lucille and the way they were raised and, in a way, I feel Lucille is compensating for this fact by reinventing herself to conform to society. Each character has their own way of coping with their personal losses and I feel Ruth’s method of taking a leaf from Sylvie will be more healthy and productive in the long run. Sylvie teaches Ruth to be perfectly aware to her surroundings and to find peace in the natural world. While Lucille chooses to turn to magazines and models of the “ideal” household for guidance, Ruth becomes able to use the tool of self-analysis, reflection, and observation to heal her sense of loss.
ReplyDeleteI think Lucille sudden desire to "improve" herself was not actually as abrupt as it seems. She and Ruth had obvious different focuses in life that it was only a matter of time before they became clearly defined. I think that her desire to turn towards society is her way of coping with her losses. Some people find peace and sense of worth through their relationships with other people. Ruth's desire to take Sylvie's path, I think, is neither the best route or the worst it is just opposite of Lucille. Ruth finds peace in living in the world of darkness from which her world was constantly surrounded by. Both girls are trying to "find" what they have lost, but ultimately neither of them will. Their desires are both the same and different. They are trying to cope with the trauma in their pasts and the isolated roots, but Lucille desires to fit in with society as a way to find herself and Ruth decides to venture out as a transient like Sylvie, in order to find peace with her past.
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