Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson is a story of two sisters whose lives were corrupt by their closest relatives. Very early on in Ruth and Lucille’s lives their father deserted them, their mother committed suicide, their grandmother died, and their two aunts abandoned them at their earliest opportunity. These events as well as the overall setting of the story shaped their attitudes and behaviors.
To begin with, the narrator, Ruthie, possesses a more solitary and detached personality. She is much more sensitive and reserved than her younger sister, Lucille. The reason for her insecure nature could very well have much to do events that occurred during her early life and even before she was born. Ruthie is haunted by the fact that her mother killed herself for reasons not specified, therefore she feels as if the suicide could have been caused in part because of something she, personally, did. Who is to say that her mother’s deep depression wasn’t a repercussion of her children's existence. There is no guarantee that it did have to do with the two girls at all, but there is a very good possibility that the girls feel as though
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Their family has lived in the same town since anyone could remember. Fingerbone is a small town that was greatly affected by an accident that the girl’s grandfather was killed in. “The train… had pulled more than halfway across the bridge when the engine nosed over toward the lake and then the rest of the train slid after it into the water…” (Robinson 6). This tragedy set up the fate of the girls’ lives. Ever since the accident, the family was “stuck in the town.” Their grandmother lived in the same house, which is where their mother and her sister had been raised and also where they themselves (Ruthie and Lucille) were raised. The house is almost like a symbol for being stationary in one spot, unable to move forward in life and experience things for