56 pages • 1 hour read
Jane HamiltonThe Book of Ruth
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1988A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary
Ruby shares intimate moments with Ruth, which makes her feel special for recognizing his vulnerability.
May, on the other hand, treats Ruby worse and worse. On one occasion, they go to the market to buy apples, and May publicly humiliates Ruby for not being able to pay for his family’s food. After dinner that night, Ruby walks into Honey Creek, and Ruth assumes that he is going to watch a movie with Randall. Later that evening, Ruth hears sirens leading to the river. Ruth learns that Ruby jumped into a river, where he had to be rescued by paramedics. Ruth is distraught with fear for her husband, and May disingenuously tries to console her while driving them to the hospital. Ruth is irked when May pays the hospital bill, in part because she knows that May will make Ruby feel guilty about this later.
Ruth is promoted to the role of spotter at the Trim ‘N Tidy, which makes her feel self-conscious in the presence of May, who still works as a spotter. Aunt Sid continues to write to Ruth, who feels more distant from her aunt because she doesn’t have time to read with both her husband and her new role at work.
May continues to belittle Ruby, including by telling him that his job building birdhouses is ridiculous. In response, Ruby goes into the basement and destroys his birdhouses while weeping. Ruby insists on going for a walk with Ruth, and he leads them to the house of his former girlfriend, Hazel, who is a scantily clad older woman who lives with her sister, Isabel. When Ruby and Ruth arrive, it is obvious that both have been drinking. Hazel takes Ruth downstairs to her basement and shows her her menagerie of pet snakes, birds, and mice, intimating that she and Ruby had many sexual experiences that border on abusive.
After they leave, Ruby explains that he only took Ruth there because he likes her birds. The following day finds Ruth and Ruby sick, and May surprises Ruth by cooking them chicken soup and nursing them back to health. When Ruth’s nausea does not abate, she goes to the doctor to learn that she is pregnant. Ruby reacts enthusiastically. May is at first silent for several days, but she eventually congratulates the couple, bringing tulips from the garden, certain that she will have a boy.
Chapter 14 Summary
Ruth enjoys all the attention she receives while pregnant. Even May is willing to cook special vegetables and fried chicken for her, which Ruth struggles to keep down. Ruth starts to feel better around September, and she takes a birthing class for which May willingly pays $25. Ruth’s experience at the class full of well-dressed professional parents-to-be, however, reminds Ruth of the feelings of inadequacy that she felt in high school. Ruth reduces her hours at the Trim ‘N Tidy after December when her energy wanes. Though Ruth insists that she wants to work after the birth of her child, her boss Artie, delighted at her pregnancy, claims that he will accommodate her and May with a part-time schedule. Ruth tries to stay busy at home painting the baby’s crib, but she finds even basic tasks too taxing to complete.
Ruth’s labor lasts 16 hours, during which time she thinks about her experience pulling a baby lamb from its mother. When the baby is born, Ruby jokingly says that the doctor would make a good outfielder.
Ruth chooses the name Justin, which she has kept to herself up until this point. She is incredulous at the baby’s instinct to suck at her breast, and she also remarks at his perfect eyebrows. When May greets the baby, Ruth recognizes a tone in her mother’s voice that she has never heard before. Ruth knows it is because the baby, though he physically resembles Ruby, does not have any of their imperfections and represents another chance for May.
Chapter 15 Summary
Ruth delights in raising her “Justy” and cannot believe how intuitively mothers know what their child needs. Being a mother makes her feel like a normal human being, and Ruth and Ruby delight in playing house while May is at work.
Ruth finds herself giving more credence to the Reverend in church. She suspects that Justy, as her progeny, will pick up where she left off on earth. Though Ruth considers herself enlightened enough not to believe the literal stories of Jesus, she admits to wanting to believe the Reverend's promises. May insists on getting Justin baptized, despite the appreciable expense.
Ruth takes so much pleasure taking care of the baby that she routinely refuses invitations to go out with other housewives, whose monogrammed sweaters she cannot stand. Ruth also remarks that May was an ideal grandmother, insofar as being a grandmother was easier because one could offer advice without doing as much of the work. May enjoys holding Justy and speaking to him in a high-pitched voice. Meanwhile, Dee Dee continues to visit May and reports that Daisy is a top student at beauty school. Ruth misses Daisy’s friendship and supposes that Daisy must be sober, since otherwise she would cut people’s hair crooked.
Ruth ends her three-month maternity leave a week early when Artie calls and explains that many of his staff have succumbed to the flu, and he is desperate for help. Ever good-natured, Artie offers Ruby a part-time job bagging clothing, though Ruby complains about the feeling of the plastic on his hands. The three adults rotate working shifts so that at least one of them is home with the baby. Ruth’s maternal bliss dissipates slightly when she returns to work, and one night, she wakes up from a dream in which Justy has died, and she is frightened to see May tending to him in his cradle.
Chapters 13-15 Analysis
These chapters witness Ruth’s transition to parenthood. She takes immense joy in being a mother, to the extent that she doesn’t want to return to work at the Trim ‘N Tidy, despite her promotion. She feels that motherhood is the only thing she is good at, stating, “I wanted to stay home for the rest of my life and have about ten babies. Here was something I was good at, finally. I was never good at any subjects or sports at school. Besides bowling and dry cleaning, having handsome babies was the job I could do with the hope of success” (232). She remarks that Justy, though he resembles Ruby, does not bear any of his parents’ flaws: “It was as if Ruby and I weren’t poor ugly people but, actually, in our blood and bones and seeds, royal monarchs” (225). In this way, having a child redeems Ruth of her imperfections.
Ruth’s baby changes May and Ruby’s relationship. Ruby rakes leaves to help out May, who in turn is increasingly tolerant of Ruby’s household messes. The improvement of their relationship mirrors the improvement of the weather, which transitions from winter to spring. Ruth herself suspects that the weather contributes to their “better attitude about living together on the planet” (211). Once the baby is born and Ruth returns to work, she, May, and Ruby fall into a busy but copacetic schedule wherein they rotate caring for Justy, too. This allows the threesome to get along in a way that they hadn’t before experienced. Justy’s presence brings a sense of order and collaboration to the family that didn’t exist before, giving the reader a false sense of security and hope for the previously hopeless characters.
Ruth also has a sort of religious epiphany as a result of becoming a mother. Though she does not ascribe the Reverend’s religious zealotry, she recognizes the purpose of religious teachings, stating that she also wanted to believe in the various promises that the Reverend told in his sermons. Ruth’s religious sensibilities at this point in the novel are not especially strong; however, Ruth’s attitude toward religion brings her a new peace of mind. She senses that she belongs “to a special club because [she] made a human being to do the work of man” (226). Herself a mother, Ruth recognizes a certain divinity in the act of procreation.
