The Book of Ruth

“We were the products of our limited vocabulary: we had no words for savory odors or the colors of the winter sky or the unexpected compulsion to sing. The language I had to speak to be understood is not the language of poetry or clear thinking. I only let on once to May that I had acquired other words for private use.”

This quote is Ruth’s imagined retort to her Aunt Sid’s questioning of why Ruth’s intelligence has gone unrecognized. This quote from Ruth includes a form of defense, explaining why she hasn’t made more of her life according to the strict definition of success. Essentially, Ruth attributes her lack of formal education to the limited experiences of her upbringing. This quote additionally demonstrates Ruth’s strong appreciation for the natural world, to the extent that she does not feel herself equipped to describe it with her words alone.

“People in Honey Creek like to keep junk in the family. You never know if a huge chest of bent nails might not come in handy some time; you can’t be too careful. I think folks hold on to metal scraps and furniture because the world is an enormous place, far and wide, but they have never experienced much of it, and they’re afraid. They want an anchor so there’s no danger of drifting away into outer space or down under the ground.”

Though Ruth’s narration in this moment has a tinge of immaturity, owing primarily to the analogy of foreign lands to “outer space,” the crux of her commentary reveals remarkable maturity for a young girl. She recognizes the insignificance of material goods and the irony that so many hoard useless items. This quote paints a picture of Honey Creek as a provincial backwater town, likely inhabited by the same families for generations.

“I was ten when my father climbed into the Ford one morning, in the dark. I heard his black boots crunch on the gravel. He was too scared to start the engine so he rolled down the driveway with his foot on the clutch. Goodbye to Illinois, he probably said to himself, because he had lived up here near Honey Creek all his life. I threw off my blankets and ran downstairs and down the road in my nightgown, shouting at him to come back.”

Ruth’s candid exposition of her father’s abandonment of the family strikes the reader as especially tragic for the vividness with which Ruth recalls it. Though her father, Elmer Gray, is largely absent from the novel, his absence casts a shadow on Ruth’s upbringing. Ruth’s lifelong feelings of inadequacy can, at least in part, be attributed to her father having given up on her while she was too young to be independent, but old enough to remember his departure. This moment of contextualization elicits no small amount of sympathy from the reader at a relatively early point in the novel.

“I learned the lesson about justice fairly early on: if the rulers of the kingdom aren’t fairminded, then there simply isn't any such thing as fairness or just desserts.”

Ruth makes this painful statement after her mother’s falling out with her Aunt Sid. Ruth, then just a young girl, has just been hit by her mother in retaliation for Ruth having accepted a music box as a secret gift from Aunt Sid. This occurs just moments after May and her sister’s quarrel over goods from their deceased sister’s estate. Ruth’s worldview, as showcased in these lines, can be squarely attributed to her unfair and difficult upbringing at the hands of her jaded mother.

“I had the feeling I know what it would be like to be a plant stuck in a pot, with a mistress who every now and then remembered to give it a trickle of water.”

This quote expresses Ruth’s interior monologue in response to May’s observation that Ruth went to Sears to buy her first brassiere, and her subsequent comment at how suddenly Ruth has grown up. Ruth comments that May never takes notice of Ruth’s behaviors and development, making Ruth feel like a neglected plant. This quote also reveals Ruth’s preference for making sense of the world by means of analogies to nature. As such, the reader can imagine Ruth’s sensitivity and connection to nature would make her highly unlikely to forget such a plant herself.

“Still, it is books that are a key to the wide world; if you can’t do anything else, read all that you can.”

Aunt Sid writes these words to Ruth in one of her letters. Ruth is of high-school age at this point in the novel, and she is working for her blind neighbor, Miss Finch, with whom she listens to books recorded on cassette tapes. These lines reveal both Aunt Sid’s erudition, as well as the consistent mentorship that she provides to her niece. Aunt Sid is one of the few positive influences at this point in Ruth’s life.

“All I wanted was for May to be proud of me, to be her smartest daughter, and for Matt to turn into a hideous green color at my stardom—and what did I do but go down on the easiest word in the English language and lose May’s favorite jewel, worth millions of dollars.” 

Ruth makes this remark after her devastating loss during the high school spelling bee. “May’s favorite jewel” refers to the heirloom pin given to her by her mother as a token of good luck, which falls off at some point during a fire alarm that interrupts the competition. Ruth, who often reveals the characterization of her mother by means of illustrating May’s actions and behaviors, here explicitly reveals both her own characteristic sensitivity as well as the depth of May’s behavior’s effect on her.

“I remember when the Rev was talking about friends, how he looked at Matt and me sitting together like we belonged, like we were supposed to be playmates. The Rev didn’t know that my brother lived in an entirely different landscape, that Matt thought he was a handsome oak tree vigorously climbing up toward the light, while May and I were scrawny mulberry bushes.”

Ruth is so used to being eclipsed by her brother Matt that she cannot help but feel joy when the Rev seems to acknowledge no difference between them. It is impressive that Ruth can discern from the Rev’s countenance alone what he is feeling. Ruth’s testimony is also poignant insofar as it reveals the deep-seated pain that has resulted from always living in her brother’s shadow, to the extent that she feels like they inhabit different landscapes. This quote again demonstrates Ruth’s use of nature-influenced similes.

“Sometimes, I feel that I’m only just ready to start my life. I know what I need to, to live it a hundred times better. As far as I can see, no one is out there waiting for me with a ticket that says ‘Try it again.’ I’ll probably really figure out exactly how to be alive right when I’m gasping for my last breath.”

During this moment in Ruth’s narration, she admits that, even from her adult perspective, she is both unsatisfied with her life and challenged to reinvent herself. Though Ruth’s circumstances certainly warrant such a feeling, this sentiment is not an uncommon one. These lines reveal her uninhibited yearning for something better, as well as her sense of hopelessness; she believes she’ll only have it all figured out when it’s too late.

“I wondered if there were someone just like me on another planet, if they had dry cleaners up there, and winters coming on, and the symbol and myth of Jesus Christ. I wanted to find out what she did when her heart grew so heavy [that] not even lying smack on the ground relieved the terrible ache.”

This especially lonely moment in Ruth’s life marks the occasion when she and May have stopped dancing in the living room with a broom, as a result of the indelible scar left on May after seeing Matt’s disapproval at what he quietly deemed to be immature revelry. This moment not only illustrates Ruth’s loneliness, but also her unusual ability to contemplate herself by means of a sort of out-of-body experience. It also illustrates Ruth’s habit of musing about the nature of the universe and the human condition.

“And every time the memory came to me, of Ruby and his cruelty, I thought of Aunt Sid, the liar, saying how big the world is, and how, when she conducts her chorus and sees all the wide open mouths and hears the music coming out of them, she knows there’s a force, perhaps born of the earth itself, that insists on beauty.”

This quote demonstrates Ruth’s flustered, disenchanted, and wounded state of mind that afflicts her immediately after Ruby rapes her. These lines reveal the full extent of Ruby’s psychological injury to Ruth. Ruth’s experience as a rape victim poisons her against her Aunt Sid, who was one of the few adults that paid attention to Ruth, and in whom Ruth trusted.

“He noticed I had good points. Maybe he liked my nose, it isn’t so bad, and the tone of my voice, and the way I teased him a little. Daisy said he couldn't help himself, that he was attracted to me. Far as I know, he was the first man in the history of the universe who noticed that I had a feminine lure.”

Ruth’s sentiments in this section cast a light on the reasons for Ruth’s receptivity to Ruby. In her typical self-deprecating and realistic manner, she admits that he was the first man to show an interest in her. Though her comment here is overwhelmingly self-critical and reveals her low self-esteem, Ruth also allows herself a few good, if modest, qualities.

“Matt said he could get away for two days. Isn’t that an honor? Probably all the experiments in his lab would get ruined if he was gone longer than forty-eight hours. He probably had to get a baby-sitter to watch over his moldy petri dishes.”

Here, Ruth discusses Matt’s plans to arrive for her wedding day. Ruth’s unsparing sense of humor is once again brought to bear on her physically and emotionally distant younger brother. In her sarcasm is evident her relative lack of understanding of Matt’s actual occupation. In the absence of a true fraternal relationship, Ruth has mercilessly turned her brother into a stereotype.

“I knew, standing there, although I was just married, that I was the loneliest girl in the U.S. Aunt Sid was the only person who knew me, and I had the feeling just by looking at the back of her head, and the rear end of her car pulling away, that she didn’t want my acquaintance any more.”

Ruth is disappointed to see her Aunt Sid among the first to leave Ruth and Ruby’s wedding ceremony. Because Ruth primarily communicated with Aunt Sid through letters, seeing her in attendance at her wedding (where Aunt Sid could witness Ruby’s boorish behavior), proves difficult for Ruth. As is later confirmed when Ruth discovers a letter written from Matt to Aunt Sid, Ruth’s suspicions regarding Aunt Sid’s poor appraisal of Ruth is correct. Ruth’s experience at this point of the narrative represents a formative moment wherein she feels herself transported from a childhood, when she was guided (and to some extent protected) by Aunt Sid, to an uncertain future as a married woman.

“If I were a judge, I’d try to congratulate people for their good points, and then I’d tell them gently how to improve. Except you have to have crystal clear vision to judge—and that’s a quality I don’t have perfected yet.”

Ruth thinks these lines in response to people judging Ruby harshly. Ruth’s ability to withhold judgment from Ruby allows her to develop a relationship with him, despite his violent tendencies. Additionally, Ruth seems to have developed this sensitivity as a result of May’s own harsh treatment of her. Ruth exhibits her enduring humility here—one of her hallmark qualities throughout the novel.

“There’s a place in Ruby’s heart that’s about as sterling as the heart of the most blessed saint who ever lived on earth. I see the place as a pouch, filled with all the ingredients that could make a person behave perfectly.” 

Ruth’s appraisal of Ruby here is a beautiful testament to her penchant for seeing the best in people. She is incredibly charitable in her estimation of her husband. Her response to his good qualities is a result of her ability to listen to him speak of his childhood and his own thoughts on the world. Elsewhere in the text, Ruth talks about how she could be a counselor like Ruby’s social worker Sherry, and these lines incline one to believe she indeed could play such a role.

“Aunt Sid was still asking me what books I liked. She didn’t seem to get the picture. How was I supposed to read books when I was trying to be a good spotter, and then when I came home I had to feed the chickens and wash the dishes.”

Ruth’s maturation and the internal conflict that results from this maturation is fully evident in these lines. Her childhood mentor and pen-pal, Aunt Sid, is a reminder of how much adulthood has forced her to change. Though Ruth loves literature, she feels obligated to ignore this facet of her personality in order to attend to the needs of her family. The reader gradually recognizes that Ruth is giving up the things she loved to fit into a domestic mold, much as she quenched her ambition to meet her mother’s low expectations earlier in her life.

“I had conversations with myself on the subject of some of the events that had taken place in my twenty-one years. After a while, all the monologues ending up nowhere, I stopped my thoughts mid-course and said, ‘This must be what life is—so strange you can’t believe it—and a person has to go along with it.’”

By this point in May’s life, she is married with a child and has returned to work. Her reflections here are both mature and humble. On the one hand, her ability to reflect on her set of experiences and decisions that led her to where she is in the present is admirable; however, her resignation to her circumstances and her inability to resolve them shows her to be still a child.

“The Rev’s words came to me when I was confused: ‘Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.’ And of course, ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’ Those sentences always made me feel that I could carry on, that someday I was going to get what I deserved.”

Though Ruth is generally dismissive of organized religion, especially as she gets older, these lines demonstrate that indeed she takes comfort in organized religion to an extent. The Reverend is one of the few positive male figures in her life, and his words stay with her. In essence, organized religion is serving just the purpose it is intended to for Ruth: making her feel both empowered to overcome challenges and at ease with her life and circumstances.

“Everyone else was concentrating on their poker cards so I went upstairs to look at Justy sleeping. There were so many things I wished for him. I hoped that he would never know that evil groups existed in other countries, sneaking and prowling in the mountains and then killing the poor people. I hoped that he would grow up blind to all our shortcomings and that he would understand and forgive my poisoned thoughts.”

Ruth’s thoughts here demonstrate her commitment to her child at all costs. These sentiments are common ones for mothers to feel for their children, though in Ruth they are especially laden with relevance because of Ruth’s admission of her imperfections. Ruth’s experience as a mother is a transformative one for her; she becomes more accepting of the faults she perceives in the world as she becomes more determined to inoculate her son against them.

“I wish I could hire Charles Dickens to describe Aunt Sid. I don’t have a chance in the world to do her justice. She wore beige slacks and a sleeveless blouse with brown horses galloping in rows across green turf. Her hair was piled on her head, as usual, and her smile came directly from the heart. If I were a Catholic I’d believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary came to look like Aunt Sid, when she got older, after her son died and her life got on track.”

These lines showcase Ruth’s abiding respect and admiration for her Aunt Sid. Aunt Sid is a consistent mentor to Ruth, and Ruth in turns sets out to describe her beloved aunt in the only language she knows: the idioms of literature and religion. Furthermore, this quote is not without Ruth’s trademark sense of dry humor, as she assumes that the Virgin Mary went on to live a fulfilling life after the birth of Jesus. The implication here, too, is that Mary’s life went off track when she had Jesus, which signals Ruth’s regret at falling into a traditional, domestic role, even though she loves Justy.

“My time with Aunt Sid was a secret I had already stashed away. If I explained to Daisy, out loud, our morning on the porch eating English muffins, my memory of it would become fixed. I wanted the whole experience to remain fluid and new.”

Here, Ruth’s adult self admits that she fabricates memories in a way that idealizes them. Ruby has just returned from a visit to her Aunt Sid’s home, and she is reluctant to return to her day-to-day life in Honey Creek. As an adult, Ruth can recognize the importance of having personal and private experiences. Thus, these lines demonstrate Ruth’s emotional maturation; she can acknowledge her idealized and selective memories and still take comfort in these experiences that beget them.

“During the winter, when we were shivering and coughing in our bed all night, Ruby treated me as his own thing, if he felt like it. I didn’t want to get so close but he said he, Mr. Magic Fingers, could make a dried-up creek bed gush. Besides, he said, I was his wife and there were certain things I had to do. He said that it was the law, that the police were going to catch up with me if I didn’t behave right.” 

These lines reveal the darker side of traditional marriage, especially when one of the partners has a propensity for violent behavior. When Ruth first encountered Ruby, she was delighted by the attention paid to her, and she loved having someone to call her husband. Nevertheless, these lines affirm the reader’s likely conviction that Ruby is abusive and manipulative, even toward those whom he loves. Finally, these lines foreshadow Ruby’s fatal attack on both Ruth and her mother during the subsequent chapters.