Houskeeping Discussion

During today’s discussion, there were many interesting ideas brought up. One that struck me the most was Rebecca’s idea that Ruth and Sylvie reached their final destination and in doing that they reached death because it is impossible to find a final destination. When she said that I agreed with her, but then Ms. Parrish asked, “What was there final destination?” and Rebecca said the other side of the bridge, away from Fingerbone. I had a different idea of what their final destination could be. Going along with the idea that Ruth is in fact dead through the novel, I went back and looked through for textual evidence and I found this quote; “We would make a circle, and never reach a shore at all, if there were a vortex, I thought, and we would be drawn down into the darker world, where other sounds would pour into our ears until we seemed to find songs in them. And the sight of water would invade our bowels and unstring our bones, and we would know the seasons and customs of the place as if there were no others” (Robinson 150). To me this seems as if their final destination is the lake. Any body of water, including a lake is always moving somehow, just like a transient, so it makes sense that Ruth says she becomes a traveler, because she is always moving with the water. The lake would be a suitable place for her to die because her mom and her grandfather both died in it. This would all make sense if she was actually dead. She had always been surrounded by water living on Fingerbone, so for her to finally be completely encompassed by water seems  right.