Sylvie and Ruth

Even though we’ve officially finished reading Housekeeping I want to dedicate at least one post to it to. So for this post I wanted to consider one of the bigger discussion question that we’ve been talking about in class. Basically it was whether or not Sylvie is a good guardian Ruth.

Out of the entirety of the book, I would have to say that, based on the circumstances that Ruth is in, Sylvie is the one of the best guardians for her. Helen wasn’t very present in Ruth’s life at all, with Ruth’s recollections of her mother being that she was very distant and emotionally disconnected with her children. Sylvia did take care of the girls, but she held herself back a little emotionally. One of Ruth’s childhood memories was even if she flinched during an embrace, her grandmother would stop and pull back. Up to that point, she was, as much as I can discern from the reading, the most significant mother figure for the girls, but sadly she died. Then there’s Lily and Nona, and even from the brief time they were there you could tell that they honestly didn’t want to be there whatsoever, and they fretted too much over everything. Although the circumstances there less than optimal for her needing to take over, and right off the bat you can tell that she’s not ideal, Sylvie genuinely seems to care for the girls and wants to be there.

I think the biggest reason why Sylvie is the most well-suited guardian for Ruth they are both so similar. Sylvie and Ruth are introverted and don’t fit into society that well, but Sylvie kind of taught Ruth to be okay in her own skin. Just the scene with the park bench shows that Sylvie is above caring what other people might think about her. Like Ruth was articulating when she noticed that her sister was pressuring her, she doesn’t want to change. Sylvie respects that, and they feel comfortable with one another. Towards the end of the book we see that Ruth is content having followed Sylvie, and we see that that was possibly the best choice for Ruth’s happiness, given the other choices, like having to lead a forced, unnatural life as a town girl, that made her feel awkward and alone.

In terms of physical well-being, though, I think Sylvie does take a lot of risks with Ruth. One of the couple of times that this is demonstrated is when she lets the girls wander off and doesn’t come searching for them. It honestly shocked me when Sylvie was calmly reading, waiting for them to come back, disregarding the fact that they hadn’t slept at home. It could have been a potentially dangerous scenario because the girls could’ve hurt themselves. If anything had happened, no one would’ve been there to help them out or help would have gotten there at least a couple hours later. Sylvie is still adjusting her day to day, and subsequently Ruth’s, as if she were still living the transient lifestyle, but she needs to keep in mind that Ruth is still a kid. My biggest issue with Sylvie is that she’s reckless and kind of needs to be more mature in general. I understand her “free-spirit” pursuit of life, but there comes a limit when people’s lives could be at risk. She seems to take precaution to the wind.

Overall, although her approach to caregiving is considerably unorthodox, Sylvie is the best possible person to take care of Ruth, given the situation. She really understands Ruth, and doesn’t force her to be something that she doesn’t want to be. In my opinion, Sylvie still needs to be more responsible when it comes to the physically well-being of her protege, but at the end of the day, Ruth chose to follow Sylvie, and who better than yourself to decide who makes you the happies?