For some individuals, life is seemingly static and unchanging. Marilynne Robinsons 1980 novel Housekeeping heartily challenges this belief, portraying the fragility and impermanence of each passing moment. The books theme of transience is clearly realized in many characters and in some passages that initially do not appear notable. The world and its inhabitants are constantly in a state of flux; Robinson understands this and imparts the theme to the observant reader. At a very simple level, the novel is a commentary on how everythingfrom people and relationships to weatherpasses in and out of existence, often very quickly.
The novel opens focusing not on any of the main characters, but on Ruth and Lucilles grandmother. Much of the back story in itself does not appear to directly relate to the rest of the story in terms of plot, but instead very subtly introduces the theme to the reader. When their grandfather died suddenly in a train derailment, the theme of sudden change and of impermanence is set out. Life for the family goes on, and eventually, One year my grandmother has three quiet daughters and the next year the house was empty. (pg. 15) Here it is obvious Robinson is pushing the sudden way in which life is inevitably transient, as children will eventually leave home.
Transience is introduced to Ruth and Lucille firsthand when their mother drops them off at their grandmothers and promptly kills herself by driving off of a cliff. While Ruth never directly mentions being significantly affected by her mothers death, it is both hers and Lucilles first taste of transience, as they were not in their mothers care for very long. They are then taken care of by their grandmother, but after almost five years, my grandmother one winter eschewed awakening, [their great aunts] Lily and Noma were fetched from Spokane and took up housekeeping (pg. 29). Thus the children go to yet another guardianor rather a setin only five years time. However, the two great-aunts serve only as supplements to the strengthening of the theme. Ruth and Lucille again experience impermanence in caretakers, and Lily and Nonadecided they must leave (pg. 43) The aunts leaving additionally serves as a way to introduce Sylvie.
Aunt Sylvie is certainly the embodiment of the theme of transience in the novel. She is quite literally a transient, a drifter. Studying Sylvie, Ruth notices clear habits of her constant transience. She kept her clothes and even her hairbrush and toothpowder in a cardboard box under the bedshe always slept clothed, at first with her shoes on, and then, after a month or two, with her shoes under her pillow (pg. 103) Sylvie is essentially a transient at heart and by habit, who has by circumstance come to be in a more permanent situation. As a result of her transient lifestyle, Sylvie had no awareness of time. For her, hours and minutes were names of trains (pg. 166)
Ruth is initially a normal child, but with the arrival of Sylvie, both she and Lucille become much less interested in school and slowly become accustomed to Sylvies way of living. Ruth, however, is the child that latches on to Sylvies transient ways; both enjoyed eating in the dark and from plates that came in detergent boxes, and we drank from jelly glasses. (pg. 100) One day, the two girls find Sylvie lying on a bench, her ankles and her arms crossed and a newspaper tented over her face. (pg. 105) Ruth sees nothing appalling about their aunt clearly appearing like the transient she is, which clearly reflects how she has embraced the transient culture. She knew she was more the image of Sylvie with every day that passed, and makes a choice in the end to be a transient with her, therefore cementing her acceptance of transience in life (pg. 133).
Conversely, Lucille hated everything to do with transience. (pg. 103) As a younger child she is not actively opposed to it, but as she grows and matures in age, she rejects transience in her life and favors more conventional ways. While Ruth was unconcerned about finding Sylvie on a bench, Lucille becomes agitated and embarrassed. She tells Ruth one day, We have to improve ourselves!, which points to her opposition to Sylvie and her transient habits (pg. 123). Ruth eventually makes a choice much like Ruth does, and leaves the house secretly one night. She effectively excommunicates herself from Ruth and Sylvie, and consciously chooses not to have any part in their transient habits by living with her teacher; In effect, she adopted her, and I had no sister after that night. (pg. 140) Paradoxically, by growing up, changing, and leaving the household to deny or escape transience, Lucille in fact supports the theme, as she again shows that life is in a constant state of change.
The house the three characters reside in appears to be the only thing that defies the entire idea of transience or impermanence for almost the entire length of the book. Though Ruth and Sylvie go through many caretakers, Through all these generations of elders we lived in one house, my grandmothers house (pg. 1) When floodwaters rise in Fingerbone, the house becomes flooded like the other nearby houses, but when the water recedes, the house is left more or less the same. Ruth notes, Two weeks after the water was gone people began to believe that our house had not been touched by the flood at all, (pg. 75) unlike others which were destroyed completely. In essence, it represents the one true constant in the story. However, when the house meets its opposite theme of transience, the latter wins out. Sylvie and Ruth put an end to the housekeeping (pg. 209) by burning it down. In this way, impermanence, or transience, becomes all encompassing, applying to even the most constant of all things in the novel.
Housekeeping is certainly multi-themed: those of family, loss, and growing up are all explored, but all these themes are secondary. In fact, a few of these themes simply reinforce the idea of the novel. Loss and growing up both indicate change and the impermanence of life and of childhood: transience. It can easily be argued that this is the main theme, as it is strengthened by both characters and events that affect them. Transience is expressed in numerous ways in the novel Housekeeping, in both metaphorical and literal ways.
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