"We spent the whole of that week at the lake. At first we tried to decide how to get ourselves back into school--for the difficulty was no longer just Lucille's. The problem of inventing excuses for us both baffled us, and after the third day, when, in theory, both of us would need doctor's excuses, we decided that we had no choice but to wait until we were apprehended. It seemed to us that we were cruelly banished from a place where we had no desire to be, and that we could not return there of our own will but must wait to return under duress and compulsion. Of course our aunt Sylvie knew nothing of our truancies, and so there would be her to face. All of this was too dreadful to consider, and every aspect of the situation grew worse with every day that passed, until we began to find a giddy and heavy-hearted pleasure in it. The combined effects of cold, tedium, guilt, loneliness, and dread sharpened our senses wonderfully.
"The days were unnaturally lengthy and spacious. We felt small in the landscape, and out of place. We usually walked up a little sheltered beach where there had once been a dock, and there were still six pilings, upon which, typicaly, perched five gulls. At intervals the gull on the northernmost piling departed with four cries, and all the other gulls fluttered northward by one piling. Then the sojourner would return and alight on the southernmost piling. This sequence was repeated again and again, with only clumsy and accidental variations" (Robinson, 79).
To me this passage speaks volumes about the girls as they search for personal identities as children. Both young women find themselves uncomfortable in school (which ultimately lead to their extended absences) having few friends and relying on each other for "protection". Despite spending their days in a familiarity of the lake, the girls are incredibly unhappy with the situation they have found themselves in. Ruth mentions that "every aspect of the situation grew worse" because neither is confident enough to face one of the multitude of problems they eventually must face. The first paragraph almost exclusively describes their fear and for obvious reasons many of the adverbs/adjectives are very negative. Only at the end of the paragraph does Ruth appear to find any sort of consolation in the situation, yet they are still somewhat contradictory. The concept of "a giddy and heavy-hearted pleasure" seems rather awkward and strange. My personal favorite statement from the first paragraph comes in the last sentence when their nervousness and apprehensiveness is labeled as a reason for sharpened senses. This of course is a significant moment for Ruth who has learned from Sylvie that sometimes it is important to not just see the world, but experience it; especially listen to it, which is the most relevant sense for avoiding punishment.
The explanation for such behavior is explained symbolically in the following paragraph. Immediately we are reminded of the girls discomfort in the large, complex, and indifferent world; indifferent because they continued to skip school without immediate consequence and they found no sense of purpose with all of this free time. All of this stems from the fact that their childhood has been far from normal which is symbolized in the actions of the gulls. Their repetitive actions suggest that the girls' lives have been a confusing sequence of loss and replacement. The gull on the northernmost post occasionally rouses the group before it moves elsewhere and a different gull finds its place on that particular post. Marilynne Robinson's vocabulary is superb and she finds the perfect word, sojourner, to identify that gull. Sojourner is defined as a temporary resident which is far more relevant to the girls' lives than one who temporarily leaves. "The sequence was repeated again and again, with only clumsy and accidental variations."
Why are the girls uncomfortable in school? Is it not one of the few constants in their lives.
What, if any, is the significance of the lake and nature in this passage?
I think that the girls were uncomfortable in the school setting because it represents the society that they are not yet a part of. At school, people are tested, graded, and judged, and the girls can't handle it. They're past and lack of a constant mother figure has left them on the outside of society and its institutions like school. Ruth recalled how she didn't mind the academic aspect of it, but the social things like being judged on the cleanliness of their fingernails were too much for them to handle. They were not raised the same way as others and it is therefore unfair to them to be judged and tested in the same way.
ReplyDeleteThe girls were uncomfortable at school mainly because of how they were raised completely different than most students in school and also with the two very different worlds and pathways the girls seemed to revolve around. In discussion, we made those lists about Ruth and Lucille, how Ruth's pathway was more towards the natural world, the darkness, the wild, unconscious world and Lucille was more part of the social world, the inside, the light and focusing on the future. Even with Lucille's more school typical pathway, both girls were not used to the surroundings they had seen at school and they wouldn't know how to change their lives.
ReplyDeleteThe girls are uncomfortable at school because the environment is much different than what they’re accustomed to at home. The social interactions that school requires are foreign to both Ruth and Lucille and cause the girls to judge themselves based on different standards than they were raised with. This causes the two of them to feel anxious and like outsiders. It’s interesting to note that the theme Housekeeping embodies about the contrast between the “inside” and “outside,” is prominent even in the girls’ childhoods.
ReplyDeleteThe significance of the lake and nature passage relates to the girls’ natural tendencies/their upbringings. The way that Ruth describes the school scenes versus how she describes nature exemplifies just how much more comfortable she feels without the constraints of typical society. How Ruth describes the nature of the seagulls is also interesting because she notices a formulaic pattern and a sense of familiarity with them, foreshadowing her later actions in the novel.
I agree that this passage displays the life of a transient in a negative light. This is a passage from the novel that exemplifies the difficulties that someone who attempts to lead a life outside of a normal “household” faces. While neither of the girls are comfortable with school, perhaps because of their abnormal upbringing, this experiment with the world of wondering leads them to different conclusions about how their lives should be arranged. Although Ruth realizes that the pleasure from this lifestyle is “heavy-hearted” she still chooses to live outside the norm while Lucille makes an effort to “improve herself” and be a part of the structured “household”.
ReplyDeleteThe girls were uncomfortable in school for obvious reasons of their urbringing and the trauma they have experienced that has set them so far apart for most kids their age. Their uncomfortableness speaks a lot about their isolation from society, but it also speaks about the time in history where women were expected to act a certain way and society was not able to accept people who have experienced things such as Ruth and Lucille have. The lake is significant because it represents what is most real to Ruth and Lucille. Since they were not able to relate at school, they were obviously looking for something to fill that void in their lives, and I think the lake represents a truth for the two girls. It is nature, and nature can be found in simple ways. A lake also represents their connection to the unknown and the outside world. Ruth is more attached to the idea of the outside world, but because of their traumatic past, they are both connected to it.
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