When Jason Taylor knocks on Mr. Blake's front door (indirectly, of course), Pluto Noak and Moran end up berating Mr. Blake for beating up Martin. There is no substantial explanation for why Martin would have been assaulted by Mr. Blake, although Mr. Blake definitely has a reputation for being abusive to teenage boys. All that Mr. Blake actually has going for him is his appearance: he lives alone in a house with a fence and a gate, and after his wife died, his son ran away after a fight with his father--this gives him a "dangerous" backstory, and combined with his hostility to local teenage boys (e.g. confiscating balls), there is potential for adventure-seeking teenagers to make him into a legend.
Sylvie seems similarly harmless, except that she sleeps in the middle of the town on a bench, and has other misadventures. When the uptight people of the town see her, they make further assumptions that Sylvie is up to even worse things behind the scenes. As far as they are concerned, Sylvie is likely doing terrible things to her children. This leads them to be especially worried about Ruth after they come home on a railroad--corruption of the youth is a terrible crime. In the end, Sylvie takes Ruth over the bridge with her.
Who is seen as worse, Mr. Blake or Sylvie? Mr. Blake is accused of violent crimes by the youth themselves. Sylvie is accused by the older generation of more insidious but less tangible misdeeds in leading Ruth astray--besides Lucille, there isn't much of a youth voice in Housekeeping.
What do we think Mr. Blake was like growing up? Where did his wife come from? What kind of friends did his son end up having, and how did he go away? What kind of interesting backstory can we invent?
I definitely had not thought of connecting Sylvie and Mr. Blake, but I'm glad you did. It totally makes a difference where the perspective of the novel is. As I was reading your post, I was thinking, "This is ridiculous! Of course Sylvie doesn't beat children and didn't Even read the chapter? Mr. Blake is this awful guy!" But now that I think about it, we have no idea what Mr. Blake is really like. Sylvie appears to be an unfit guardian, and she definitely is in ways, but she never beat the girls. Maybe Martin and Lucille would be friends? We can't really know.
ReplyDeleteThe other people in Housekeeping were portrayed as misunderstanding and hostile towards Sylvie, like they didn't just not want Ruth to be corrupted, they didn't want anyone to prefer Sylvie's lifestyle over their own (out of more selfishness than concern for Ruth, I thought). It's interesting that you connect Sylvie to Mr. Blake, because we never get much information about Mr. Blake, other than the son-beating rumor; it could almost be like we're seeing Sylvie from the perspective of one of the children of Fingerbone. The compassion/self-awareness we see from Jason as far as "how did we get here" was the main part of the scene that I noticed, but you could definitely speculate on Mr. Blake outside of his relationship to Jason. He seems insecure, for example; some of the things he said in the interaction with the kids were uncalled for. I think what is especially important about this scene (and many other scenes) is that adults don't look perfect to Jason.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
Being Sylvie is worse. Anyone who is mature and has all the facts will leave Mr. Blake alone. But the adults of Fingerbone has misguided assumptions about which type of lifestyle is correct, and pick on Sylvie accordingly. I'd rather be bullied by kids than adults, personally.
ReplyDeleteAgain, who are we to put ourselves in a place to judge whose life is worst? Wouldn't that seem like we're in a better place looking down on them? I don't necessarily think that either of their lives are worsen by the surrounding people. Sylvie doesn't really care about what other people think; the only reason she starts changing is so that she can keep Ruth, who is similar to her from being forced to assimilate. From tonight's chapter, we hear all the vulgar things the older boys say about Jason going to the movies with his mom, so I don't believe what they were saying about Mr. Blake. Just because they don't understand anyting doesn't mean the greater population fears him also. I'm just saying they both have their issues, like everyone else. It's just our secrets aren't discussed in public.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting question. I think in general what it comes down to is fear -- the kids hate Mr. Blake because they're afraid he'll hurt them, and as we see in Jason's encounter with the dogs, physical harm from adults feels like a very realistic possibility to them. By contrast, most adults aren't scared of being beaten up by someone who hits his kids. They might not like him, but that dislike comes from a place of understanding what he is -- he's the abusive father. Every town has some. By contrast, not every town has a Sylvie. It's much harder to pin her down to any one "type," and that makes her ultimately much scarier to the adults of Fingerbone than a child beater. The threat she poses is a sinister, pervasive one. If she sticks around, she might convince others to live like her, and no one will want to maintain the life of the town.
ReplyDelete