"Lucille would tell this story differently. She would say that I fell asleep, but I did not. I simply let the darkness in the sky become coextensive with the darkness in my skull and bowels and bones. Everything that falls upon the eye is apparition, a sheet dropped over the world's true workings. The nerves and the brain are tricked, and one is left with dreams that these specters loose their hands from ours and walk away, the curve of the back and the swing of the coat so familiar as to imply that they should be permanent fixtures of the world, when in fact nothing is more perishable. Say that my mother was astall as a man, and the she sometimes set me on her shoulders, so that I could splash my hands in the cold leaves above our heads. Say that my grandmother sang in her throat while she sat on her bed and we laced up her big black shoes. Such details are merely accidental. Who could know but us? And since their thoughts are bent upon other ghosts than ours, other darknesses than we had seen, why must we be left, the survivors picking among flotsam, among the small, unnoticed, unvalued clutter that was all that remained when they vanished, that only catastrophe made notable? Darkness is the only solvent. While it was dark, despite Lucille's pacing and whistling, and despite what must have been dreams (since even Sylvie came to haunt me), it seemed to me that there need not be relic, remnant, residue, memento, bequest, memory, thought, track, or trace, if only the darkness could be made perfect and permanent."
--Housekeeping, pg. 116
I read this passage as implying that darkness is a state of being or acceptance that is natural and in tune with the way the world works (as opposed to light, which is a sheet 'dropped over the world's true workings'). We see that darkness is a state of passive, peaceful acceptance by the way Ruth 'simply lets' the darkness outside to join with the natural darkness inside of her body. The fact that darkness is an acceptance of the world's transience is reinforced by way light is described as a trick, that it fools us into believing that everything we see is permanent when, as Ruth has learned (especially with her family) everything changes or fades away. This idea is carried out in several other places in the book, from the way Sylvie (a transient person) continously sits in darkness to the way houses (a symbol of humans trying to create order and permanence) are lit up at night in the darkness. What our author is trying to suggest is that this representation for light is not reality; she presents us with two images of people that have died and ultimately faded from Ruth's life to express this idea. Although Ruth remembers images from her mother and grandmother, ultimately those small details the light revealed to her are not meaningful, much as when Sylvie tried to describe Helen to Ruth using small details she failed to convey any sense of Helen's essence to Ruth. We then hear that "their thoughts were bent upon other ghosts than ours, other darknesses than we had seen", suggesting that loss is universal (Helen lost her father to the lake and Ruth's grandmother lost her husand and her daughter). Ruth asks, if such terrible loss destroyed her mother and grandmother, why should she continuously search through her sorrow, through the 'flotsam' that was all catastrophe left Ruth of Helen and her grandmother. She then suggests that only darkness can act as a 'solvent', something to dissolve away the wreckage, this new state of being that she has entered. While Ruth is in this dark solvent, all of her ghosts, the essences of people she knew or knows (even Sylvie, who hasn't died or left her), visit her, suggesting that she is able to remember the essences of her loved ones without the pain and sorrow of loss.
Questions:
1.) What religious connotations do light and dark invoke? How might these religious ideas relate to the idea of darkness as described in the above passage?
2.) This scene takes place on the edge of the lake near Fingerbone. What does the lake represent in this story, and is its meaning similar or different from the meaning given to darkness?
3.) How is this passage significant to the character of Lucille? Why might it be important that she would tell this story differently than Ruth? What does her reaction to their situation say about the differences between them?
To question three, I believe it describes Lucille as one who is afraid or unable to let go of the past. Ruth described the darkness as a solvent, and because of that she was at ease. Lucille on the other hand was very uncomfortable. It is important that she told the story different because it shows that each character has very different views of the same situations, which has been shown throughout the book (ie. the numerous Rosette Brown incidents.)
ReplyDeleteWhen Ruth states, "I simply let the darkness in the sky become coextensive with the darkness in my skull and bowels and bones", I agree with Paul that darkness is a state of passive, peaceful acceptance, and Ruth is embracing that.
ReplyDeleteTo answer question number two:
I believe that the lake in this novel represents loss. Ruth's Grandfather was killed in the lake, and her mother committed suicide in the lake, and because of these losses that have encountered, Ruth feels almost abandoned and lost in the world.
To deal with this, I think Ruth embraces darkness as a sense of peace and acceptance to the things she has lost in life. She uses darkness as a solvent to "dissolve away the wreckage". On page 159 Ruth states, "It is better to have nothing, for at last even our bones will fall. It is better to have nothing." To deal with her grief, Ruth turns to nature and darkness to deal and forget about the sorrow of losing things in her life.