Your Bridges are Burning Down

To say the least, the last two chapters of "Housekeeping" really threw some important events at us, whether they were expected or not. Ruth running away with Sylvie, being presumed dead, leaving all behind and moving on a truly transient lifestyle as well as finally cutting off all ties with Lucille. What really struck me though was in chapter 11 with the burning of possessions and the house before leaving Fingerbone for good. It's mentioned that they do it because the things they would be leaving behind were personal and either weren't good for anything when they were gone (they were sentimental things) or they just couldn't let others have them. Afterwords, they were forced to cross the bridge in order to leave Fingerbone without anyone finding them. Taking the visible parts of both of the acts, you get burning possessions and crossing a bridge, but in my mind, they both come together as one thing: "burning bridges".

They literally didn't burn down the bridge (that would be a plot twist!), but in the metaphorical sense that they are eliminating all ties to something. With the house, they are burning all of their belongings, which included family sentiments and memorabilia. These are all reminders and ties to the past and to their life there, while the house itself is the anchor. By burning it all, they are effectively severing all ties with Fingerbone as a place. The house not actually ending up burning down is besides the point; it's the act that really counts. The second part of "burning the bridges" is the crossing of the bridge. By crossing the bridge, they go to a place where the inhabitants of Fingerbone will never go, leaving them behind. With this, Ruth and Sylvie cut all ties with the people of Fingerbone. Their supposed deaths only solidify this truth; to Fingerbone, Ruth and Sylvie are now ghosts, taken away by the lake never to be found again like many before them. At this point Fingerbone has no more ties with Ruth and Sylvie apart from it being a place where they had once been, all bridges burned down now free to do whatever they want.

 (Side note, couldn't help but think these lyrics fit the post and moment perfectly, so here they are)

"Gather in the ashes (Your bridges are burning down)
Everything thrown away (They're all coming down)
Gather in the ashes(It's all coming round)

Scatter as they blow away" 

- Foo Fighters, "Bridge Burning"      

Beneath the Bell Jar

I’ve been noticing lots of people writing about Esther and her views as being trapped under a bell jar and I decided to throw in some things I've noticed as well. In post, after reading Esther’s feelings of her depressed state and feeling trapped beneath a bell jar, some of her interactions and descriptions make more sense. For starters, in class we talked about how Esther’s descriptions of other characters seem more like caricatures than reliable, realistic descriptions.

This could be a side effect of Esther looking at the outside world as if she were looking though a bell jar as they are made of glass and when looking through glass (especially curved glass) features of things on the other side get distorted and exaggerated which is exactly what happens to Esther’s caricature descriptions of other people. Doreen has a massive puffball head of hair as her defining physical characteristic, Dr. Gordon has his smile, and Dodo looks like two eggs stacked to Esther to give a few examples. This also extends to their personalities, but given Esther’s state it can be more difficult to tell just how true those are but for the most part they just seem exaggerated but true.

Esther also had some memorable interactions with this sort of distortion or at least the “observer/observed” dynamic that goes along with the concept of a bell jar. With bell jars normally being used in scientific fields for observation and killing, the concept fit extremely well. The tour of Yale with Buddy can be seen as an observation sort of interaction where Esther was observing, with the placid and critical eyes at the moment, the medical facilities. She was unfazed by the cadaver, babies in jars, and the facility itself and the only thing that tripped up that view was the birth. On the more grim side, Esther’s attempts at suicide could be seen as the “killing of the specimen” aspect of bell jars as she is trying to kill herself beneath the bell jar of her life. Of course it can’t be ruled out that Esther herself is being observed, literally, by doctors when she is being treated by both Dr. Gordon and Dr. Nolan. This makes the observation aspect of the bell jar go both ways and creates an interesting dynamic where Esther views the world from inside the glass and describes it to the reader and the outside observers seem like monsters, not understanding or caring explicitly what happens to the specimen (not applicable to all characters). Esther’s mother, as one of the observers, can’t quite grasp the totality of Esther’s situation and therefore thinks that when the bell jar is lifted from Esther’s life, she can return to it like nothing has happened. For Esther, that’s impossible, she’s experienced the feeling of being trapped and watched as well as the freedom on the outside, being able to also observe herself now that she is not in the midst of the bell jar. The stark contrast of the environments creates a memory for Esther that can never be forgotten.