Sylvie's Effect

I wrote part of this blog post during Spring Break when we were more than half way through Housekeeping. At this point we began to broach the topic of coming-of-age, but the most important developments of the story had not happened yet. Now having read the entire novel, I am able to form a complete opinion on Sylvie and her role in Lucille and Ruth's coming-of-age.

When Sylvie first appeared in Ruth and Lucille's life, I felt a sense of calmness and fresh air. It was as if she was offering a fresh, nurturing start after the unfortunate and brutal deaths of family members. Sylvie instead offers a very unusual twist on the typical coming-of-age scenarios we have encountered thus far. In all of the novels we have read this semester, no one person influences another character as much as Sylvie influenced Ruth. One starts to question whether or not Ruth actually comes-of-age. Is practically blindly following a role model finding your true identity? Stephen Dedalus, Holden Caulfield, and Esther Greenwood all become more worldy-wise and self aware after a personal revelation and the influence of the collective.

While finishing Housekeeping, the idea of transience and coming-of-age continued to boil. As many of us have said, the idea of leading a transient lifestyle is practically foreign. This leads to the question of right and wrong. We discussed at the beginning of the semester the definition of coming-of-age, particularly who and what determines when we have officially become adults. When each of us applies our own personal definitions of coming-of-age to the development of Ruth in Housekeeping I'm sure we will all have different levels of satisfaction with the ending of the novel. Personally, I think that Sylvie does a terrible job in nurturing Ruth and Lucille. Yes, she has moments of motherly concern, but she creates chaos within Ruth and Lucille's already painful and chaotic life.