Exploring The Theme Of Homelessness In Marilyn Robinson's Housekeeping

Housekeeping, published in 1980, was Marilyn Robinson’s first literary publication. It depicts the lives of two sisters, Ruth and Lucille who are growing up in Idaho under the care of their grandmother. After her demise, their aunt Sylvie claims the responsibility of the children. The novel is primarily based on these girls trying to cope with loss, abandonment, and insecurities in their lives. And interestingly enough, due to the expanded time frame of the novel, different themes can be illustrated such as the theme of loss, abandonment, transience and the social construct of family and domesticity. From the history of these girls, as told and narrated by Ruth herself in the book, we get that their grandfather died in a train accident by

Both the sisters have repeatedly been abandoned throughout the novel. Especially Ruth, as she was first abandoned by their mother Helen, who left both the sisters with their grandmother’s before fleeing off in her car, and later when Lucille leaves her with Sylvie after she’s had enough of Sylvie’s lifestyle. Lucille’s abandonment was the most tough out of all as she had always spoken for Ruth. “When Lucille closed the door behind her the house seemed very empty” (Robinson. P.273). Ruth is also disowned and rejected by the townspeople when both Ruth and Sylvie leave town after burning down their house, because the townspeople did not support the idea of self-sufficient homeless women. This acknowledgment of relinquish is further adorned when at one point Ruth imagines an alternate history where her mother doesn’t abandon her, doesn’t drive off a cliff into the lake. She said that if her mother had returned that day, they never would have known the depths of her sorrow and how close she came to the edge. “But she left us and broke the family and the sorrow was released and we saw its wings and saw it fly a thousand ways into the hills, and sometimes I think sorrow is a predatory thing because birds scream at dawn with marvelous terror…” (Robinson.