Mr.

Gates Housekeeping Unit Schedule and Introduction

FRI Nov. 13: Introduction/Read Chapter 1 qsts DUE

MON Nov16: Chapters 2-3 qsts. DUE

FRI Nov 20: Chapters 4-5 qsts DUE

MON Nov23: Chapter 6 qsts DUE

MON Nov30: Chapter 7 qsts DUE

FRI Dec 4: Chapter 8 qsts DUE

MON Dec7: Chapter 9 qsts DUE

FRI Dec 11: Chapters 10-11 qsts DUE

MON Dec 14: Discuss end of the novel, prepare for test/essay

FINAL EXAMS: DEC 15-18: 2 Hours: 50 gst. TEST/ 50 point in-class ESSAYafter.

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (1947-)

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Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (1947-)

Ms. Robinson has been a creative writing teacher for several decades at the prestigious University of
lowa’s Writer’s Workshop program. While her writing is “strongly influenced by her ownfaith, Raised as
a Presbyterian, she becameinterested in Congregationalism while studying about 19" century American
writers.” However, Robinson is an inclusive writer, a deep and interesting storyteller; she once stated, “I
wouldn’t necessarily start to write booksthat are ‘Christian’ in the sense that they wouldn’t be
meaningful to any other category ofpeople...” Indeed, while she certainly explores Biblical allusionsin
her novels, she also conveys thematic messagesthat dig deeperinto the natureof spirituality and
humanity's responsibility for one another, She also explores the natureof small townlife, where one has
to contend with neighbor’s who know one’s family history etc. She explained this aspect of her work in
an interview: “I think people forget in the metropolitan areas of the county that the country Is largely
made up of small towns that function well for the most part.” Robinson also writes about some common
themes in American literature, such as the consequencesoffailing to conformto societal expectations
that writers such as Kesey explored, as well as gender roles of both men and women and howfamily is
essential aspect of American culture.

Despite gaining national critical recognition for this novel—Housekeeping—in 1980, she won the
Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her novel Gilead in 2005, and her writing has been described as “poetic,
beautiful, shimmering and precise,” among other descriptions; indeed, she is a unique writer who tends
to focus on complex thematic ideas about people whotend to be marginalized in contemporary society,

ons
but she has also noted that she Is uncomfortable talking too much “morality”: “It is, she says, a word
that can be easily misused.” Thus, one has to read her work s/owly and carefully in order to truly
ascertain and interpret her symbolic and thematic objectives. Some questions to ponder as you read the
novel include the following:
*There are very few men in the novel. Why? Howare the men portrayed?
*Does the novelexplore the challenges women face in a patriarchal culture? Explain.
*The novel is not really about housekeeping but “unhousing,” or tearing down the notion of keeping
house. Whatare the symbolic meaningsof this? .
*How is the novel about boundaries and the breaking of boundaries, between light and dark, nature
or society, water andice, school and the woods etc.? How doesthe lake help conveythis idea?
*How Is the novel focused on the idea that all things are impermanent, that nothing lasts forever, as
well as the pain associated with loss, especially of one’s immediate family?
*How do the religious allusions In the novel function? (Christ, Noah, Lot, Cain and Abel, Lazarusetc.)
*The novel is set In Fingerbone, a fictional representation of Sandpoint, Idaho, and loosely follows the
Book of Ruth from the Bible: Sylvie, a woman whohasrejected societal valuesto live a transient
lifestyle is called back home to take care of Ruth andLucille, two sisters who are orphaned when
Sylvie's sister, the girls’ mother, Inexplicably kills herself by driving into the same lake her own father
died In during a train derailment years earlier. This is the central event that conveys the mystery and
pain of loss Robinson explores in poignant andlyrical prose.

Charles Gates, 2018

Housekeeping Name
Quiz Chapter 1

Answerin complete sentences.

l. Describe the following characters: Sylvia and EdmundFoster, Molly, Helen, Sylvie
Whatis the Ruth’s relationship to these persons?

The novel begins with the line “My name is Ruth,” which has biblical implications.
If you know the Book of Ruth, commentonthis line. If not, what other biblical
references did you find in Chapter 1?

What was the nameofthe train that crashed into the lake?

Water is a prominent element in this novel. Cite severallines that relate to water and
comment on their significance.

How would you characterize Sylvia and Edmund Foster’s relationship?

How does the author makeit clear that Syvie was alwaysa little different?

Whois Reginald Stone?

How does Helen upset her mother? How doesshe resolve the dispute?

Whatis ironic and disturbing about Helen’s death?

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10. How long do Ruthie and Lucille live with their grandmotherafter their mother dies?
Whotakescare ofthe girls after their grandmother dies?
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Housekeeping a Name
Quiz Chapters 2-3

Answer in complete sentences.

l. Describe the little present that Lily and Nona bring the girls. What’s the significance of this?

2. What do the women imply about Sylvie?

3. Commenton the following quote: “Lily and Nona, I think, enjoyed nothing except habit and
familiarity, the precise replication of one day in the next,”

4, How do Lily and Nonaadjust to raising the girls and living in Fingerbone?

5. What did Sylvie receive in her mother’s will? Why?

aetenine ~

Chapter 3

6. Describe Sylvie, What’s your initial impression of her?

7. What is important about the following quote: “Our grandmother never spoke of any of her daughters,
andwhen they were mentioned to her, she winced with irritation.”

8. How long had Sylvie been away from Fingerbone? Why do you think she and hersisters all left?
Housekeeping Chapters 4-5 Study Qsts,
Name

Answerin complete sentences. Typeif this a take-home assignment.

1, The opening of Chapter Four describes a flood in Fingerbone. What symbolic significance can
you identify in the lines “so at the end of three days...the houses of Fingerbone werelike so many
spilled and foundered arks”?

Whatliterary device is apparentin the following quote: “That was the first Lucille or | had heard
of the interest of the state in the well- being of children” (68)

How does Ruth describe the family?

WhydoesLucille say “! want to find some other people”?

Why doesSylvie say “You must know that some questions aren’t polite’?

How doesLucille like school? Explain.

in Chapter 5 Ruth states, “Clearly our aunt was not a stable person,” Analyze the girls’ view of
Sylvie in Chapter 5,

Explain the significance of Sylvie’s notes excusing Lucille from school.

What is the significance of Sylvie’s view of housekeeping?

10. Which song Is mentioned several times In the novel?
11. Why do the girls go down to the lake?

12. Explain “Apparently it had been decided that our circumstances were special” (84)

13, Explain the “sinking boat” metaphor on page 92.

14. Why does Ruth describe Lucille as of “the common persuasion’ ?]

Housekeeping Chapter 6 Study Qsts. Name

Answer in complete sentences. Use quotes to support half your answers.

1, Comment on the opening paragraph. Whatfs the “other world,” and what does Ruth’s use of
the phrase suggest about her separation from Lucille?

Whatare the girls’ reasons for going to the woods every day?

What does Ruth mean in the followinglines: “Sylvie was moreorless like a mermaid in a ship’s
cabin. She preferred in sunk in the very element it was meantto exclude’?

Whatdo thegirls discover when Lucille turns on the light in the house? Whatis the symbolic
significance?

What magazine doesSylvie use to put out a fire? Explain the irony of this.

How doesSylvie respond when Lucille doubts she has a husband? How doesthis action create a
further separation between Lucille and Sylvie?

Discuss several examples of Sylvie’s strange behavior. What thematic point is developed?

The idea of the transient nature of both the human and natural world isa major thematic
aspect of the novel. Ruth desperately seeks a sense of permanence,yetSylvie is clearly nota
model of stability. What examplesofthis idea are developed in Chapter 6?
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Housekeeping Study Qsts Chapter 7 Name

Explain the following quote: “sometimes we would try to remember our mother, though more
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and more we disagreed and even quarreled about what she had been like”

Whatis Lucille’s version of how Helen ended up in the lake?

Explain the significance of the following quote: “As we sometimesrealized, we were now in
Sylvie’s dream with her. In all our truancles, perhaps, we never cometo a place where she had
not been before us. So she needed no explanation for the things we could not explain.”

Describe Crip. What happensto her?

What is symbolic about the lake being described as a place of “distinctly domestic disorder,
warm andstill and replete”?

Whatdoes Lucille decide to do when sherealizes Sylvie’s lack of concern over the girls staying
out all night?

. Why do the girls have fight?

._ .What does Ruth find that makes her say, “it was a reminder of.her transient’s shifts and habits
‘which distracted my attention from Lucille”?

Whois Mr. French What doeshetell the girls? Whyis it significant that he is a man?
10.. ‘How is it suggested that one of Ruth’s main problems is the trauma associated with
abandonment?

11. WheredoesLucille go when she leaves home? Whatis symbolic about the occupation of the
person she chooseslive with?

12. Explain the symbolic significance of the end of the chapter (pages 141-142),
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Housekeeping Naine
Quiz: Chapter 8

Answerin complete sentences, TYPE if this is a take-honte quiz.

1. Whatis significant about the following quote: “I-walked after Sylvie down the shore, all at peace, and
at case, and I thought, We are the same, She could as well be my mother.”

Loneliness is 2 major themein this chapter, What is Ruth's philosophy about being lonely?
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.’ How does Ruth make a connection between water and our thoughts?

Quote several lines from Chapter 8 that show how Ruth is haunted by hermother’s death,

How doesthe following quote help convey one of the novel’s major themes! “...just when I had got
used to the limits and dimensions of one moment, I was expelled into the next and made to wonder
again if any shapes hid in its shadows”?
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6, Characterize Ruth and Sylvie's reactions to the lake and the train they watch go over them.

Explain the references to Noah and the Flood in this chapter,

Speaking of water, Ruth says, “below is always the accumulated past, which vanishes but does not
vanish, which perishes and remains,”

9. Whatis significant about Ruth’s passing by Lucille and her friends?

10. Discuss the importance ofthe last two paragraphs ofthe chapter.
Housekeeping Chapter 9 Study Qsts. Name (O
Answer in complete sentences, Use quotes in HALF your answers.

1. Who comestovisit Sylvie and Ruth? Why?

Whatdoes the followingquote say about the waysociety viewstransients (homeless): “So every
wanderer whose permanence suggestedit might be as well to drift, or it could not matter much,
was met with something that seemedatfirst sight a moral reaction, since morality is a check
upon the strongest temptations”?

How does Ruth suggestthat the transients who pass through Fingerbone symbolize the reality
thatlife itself in transient?

Whydid the Sheriff come to the house after Ruth andSylvie’s night on the lake?

WhatdoesRuththink is the reason Sylvie has all the newspapers andcansin the house?

Whatis the problem with Sylvie telling the church ladies who bring some goods to them: “She’s

oN
[Ruth]is like her mother all over again?

What doesSylvie mean when she says, “Well, she is sad.”

How doesSylvie change after the church ladies leave?

How doesSylvie respond when Ruthasksif she should stay home to help her-work?

10. Explain the following quote: “There'll be a hearing, Mrs. Fisher.”

11. At the endof the Chapter Ruth says, “I went up to my room and left my fate to workitself out,
since | had no curiosity about what was destined for me, and no doubt,” What does she mean?

12. Whatdoesthe following quote mean: “salvation was universally considered to be much more
becoming in women than in men”? How doesit address both religious hypocrisy and feminism?
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Housekeeping Chapters 10-11 Study Qsts, Name

Type, using QUOTESin half of your answers. Write in complete sentences.

1, Whatis your interpretation of the Cain and Abel allusion at the beginning of Ch. 10?

“| cannot taste a cup of water but | recall that the eye of the lake Is my grandfather’s...”
Interpret the significance of this passage. What themeis conveyed?

“Memory Is the senseof loss, and loss pulls us afterit.” Explain this quote.

Discuss the significance of the long passage where Ruth imagines whatlife would have been like
if Helen choseto live.

How doesSylvie try to change beginning on page 198? What causes this change?

Explain the game Ruth plays and howit causes serious trouble.

Quote a line that shows that Ruth has learned to accept Sylvie’s wayoflife.

Whydo Ruth and Sylvie try to burn the house down? Explain the symbolism.

Explain the following quote: “For we had to leave. | could not stay and Sylvie would not stay,
and Sylvie would not stay without me. Now truly we were cast out to wander, and there was
an end to Housekeeping.”

10, What do the townspeople think happened to Ruth and Sylvie? Is it possible they are correct and
that they do not survive. Look for evidence toward the end of the novel that suggests they are
dead.

11. Describe Sylvie’s life after they leave Fingerbone. Does it seem realistic?

12. Ruth asks, “When did | become so unlike other people?” How would you answer this question?

13. How does Ruth convey the pain of being separated from Lucille?

14, Analyze the significance of the last paragraph of the novel.