At this point in the novel, Lily and Nona are trying as hard as they can to find a replacement to take care of the girls so that they can go back to their peaceful life. Even though they don’t think that Sylvie would likely be a good fit, they still try to contact her because they are desperate to leave. I understand that Lily and Nona don’t want to stay, but I also think that they are being kind of insensitive to Ruth and Lucille’s feelings. Their mother just killed herself and their father was already gone, so it would be nice if they could have someone stay with them who cares just for a little bit.
When Sylvie arrives, I think that the girls are desperate for someone who can act like a mother figure and not leave, and even though Sylvie doesn’t exactly seem to fit that description, she is the only chance the girls have. This is why the way they act around her makes sense to me, even though it may be a little bit weird if you don’t understand where they are coming from. Whenever it seems like Sylvie is leaving, the girls follow her and make sure she comes back.
I also always forget that Ruth and Lucille are only around 10 or 12 at this point in the novel, so the fact that they are so dependent on their guardian makes even more sense. When reading the book, I often forgot how young they are because it is written in a way that makes Ruth sound older. I think that it’s a really interesting dynamic between Ruth and Lucille and Sylvie because even though Ruth and Lucille are the children, they act in a lot of ways like the adult while Sylvie often acts like the child. Considering this in a coming of age context, it would definitely cause the girls to grow up or “come of age” faster than they would have to in a normal family because they have to be responsible for worrying about Sylvie when that really shouldn’t be their job at that age. They also haven’t mentioned any friends they have of their own age so far in the book, so their coming of age seems even more isolated and different from others we have read or talked about.
You make a good point here, about how the very adult, mature, poised, and confident narrative voice can lead us to forget the fact that Ruth as a character is such a young girl for so much of this novel. It is a peculiar dynamic, where the "adult" narrator depicts her child self assessing the very childlike guardian/aunt who is supposed to be an adult. (And young Ruth in many ways seems like a miniature adult, so serious and grim and generally "over it.")
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