Housekeeping By Marilynne Robinson And Middlesex, By Jeffrey Eugenides

What is a home? Many argue a home is the place where one resides. According to the Merriam - Webster dictionary, a home is “the place where someone lives or originally comes from: the place to which you feel most strongly attached.” In the books Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson and Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, home is an important aspect of the characters lives. Housekeeping is about a girl named Ruth who lives in an isolated town called Fingerbone. She grows up there with her younger sister Lucille and at the age of six, her mother abandons her to live with her grandmother. When her grandmother passes, Ruth is placed in two ladies custody who then flee and Ruth’s Aunt Sylvie is left to take care of her. All of this chaos takes place in
At this point, Ruth has gone through many caretakers and Sylvie is the one person who makes her feel comfortable. This leaves Ruth longing for stability and for Sylvie to stay in Fingerbone. Ruth mentions, “It seemed to [her] that if [Sylvie] could remain transient [t]here, she would not have to leave” (103). Ruth spends her whole life without a stable, reliable adult. Except for her sister, she only has people in her life for short periods of time. Now, Sylvie seems like the only option for someone that Ruth can look up to and Ruth does not want her to leave. Also, Ruth starts taking after Sylvie. By doing this, Ruth and Sylvie start forming a home for themselves. Jacqui Smith suggests “[Sylvie] transforms the house--the house does not transform her”. Sylvie makes a place that both she and Ruth feel comfortable and can be themselves in. Shortly after, in Ruth’s junior high school years, she becomes more like Sylvie. She is reserved, quiet, and unconventional. Lucille, who does not like the household, leaves to live with a teacher. As a result, Ruth and Sylvie living alone together. However, they then obtain a hearing about Ruth’s custody. Ruth thinks about Sylvie and says, “It seemed to me that we shared the house amicably because it was spacious enough and we had both felt at home there” (190). Ruth admits that the Fingerbone house feels like home. When Sylvie’s guardianship is threatened to the point where both Sylvie and Ruth know that they will be separated, they run away and stay together. Ruth knows that if she gets removed from her household, she will have a hard time feeling at home in a new place. Ruth only feels at home with Sylvie and knows they will can make a home again if they get out of Fingerbone. In the end, Ruth and Sylvie travel the country together and are each other’s