The Sister-Sister Bond: Creating Drama In Fiction
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The Sister-Sister Bond:
Creating Drama and Growth for Female Characters in Fiction
The bond of biological sisters is often considered the second most important bond of a womans life, being only slightly less important than the bond built with ones parent. The sister-sister bond, as it will be referred to throughout this essay, is of great importance to a young girl as it helps her define who she is and who she will become. Because this bond is integral to many womens development it is only natural that authors, especially women authors, include this relationship in their writing.
There are many examples throughout the history of Literature where women writers have used this bond to help develop the character of the women in their fiction. Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice, Louisa May Alcotts Little Women and Alice Walkers Color Purple all contain examples of this bond. While each of these texts has much to offer, for reasons of discussion, we will focus on Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson and Toni Morrisons Beloved. In order to better understand this theme in relationship to these two novels we shall explore why the sister-sister bond is important to each of the girls and what happens to the individual sister when the bond is compromised.
Although, there are several examples of the sister-sister theme in Housekeeping, the most prominent and seemingly important is between the sisters Ruth and Lucille, as the story mainly revolves around their life. In Beloved the theme is somewhat harder to see because the character Beloved is portrayed as something more than human. While we should keep this in mind, it is not of great significance to the discussion at hand; as the character is portrayed as the ghost of Denvers dead sister and therefore the sister-sister bond is still effectively introduced in the novel.
First, let us look at the similarities between the sets of girls to find the reason for the importance placed on the bond. In both books each set of girls has several things in common: the absence of a father figure, a grandmother that helps to raise them, and poverty. These circumstance in and of themselves would bond many siblings but these girls also have other factors that help explain the depth of their bonds: the role the mother plays in their life and the social companionship they lack in the small communities within which they live. These two commonalities are apparently reasons for the girls professed loneliness and the depth of the bonds they share.
Let us first look at the mother in Housekeeping. Helen, the mother of the girls leaves them with their grandmother and then as we see in the following passage commits suicide. Robinson writes, “Then she went back to the car and drove north almost to Tyler, where she sailed Bernices Ford from the top of a cliff named Whiskey Rock and into the blackest depth of the lake (22).” This abandonment leads to five years of living with their grandmother, who then dies leaving them in the charge of two elderly great aunts. Finally, they are left to Sylvie, their mothers youngest sister. During the period prior to and even after Sylvies appearance in the story the two girls bond is strengthened by the simple fact that they only have each other for emotional support and companionship.
In the following conversation penned by Robinson, we see that the bond has become so important to Ruth that she will risk punishment at school just so that Lucille doesnt have to spend the day alone:
“Im not going to school,” she said. (Lucille)
“What are you going to tell Sylvie?”
“Maybe I wont go home.”
“Where will you go?”
“Down to the lake.”
“It will be cold.”
Lucille shrugged.
“Ill go, too,” I said.
Lucille said, “Then well both be in trouble (78).”
This conversation shows the reader that not only is Ruth willing to risk reprimand for her truancy but she is also willing to brave a day of cold weather to support Lucille and her decision not to go back to school, where the lack of friendship was so obviously felt, at least by Ruth.
In Beloved the mother, Sethe, isnt physically absent as was the case in Housekeeping, nevertheless Denver feels emotionally abandoned by her mother. We see Denvers feelings on the subject early on in the novel after Paul D has made his entrance and is taking Sethes attention away from Denver. Morrison shares with the reader:
Denver was lonely. All that leaving: first her brothers, then her grandmother–serious losses since there were no children willing to circle her in a game or hang by their knees from her porch railing. None of that mattered as long as her mother did not look away as she was doing right now, making Denver long, downright long, for a sign of spite from the baby ghost (14-15).
In this passage the reader is able to discern several things: That Denver doesnt have any friends effectively making her a social outcast, that she depends on the ghost of her sister for friendship to some degree and that she craves her mothers attention. All of these things when added together help strengthen the bond that becomes even more evident when Beloved comes to the household as a person.
Once Beloveds physical presence has entered the home we see further depth to the bond felt by Denver. Morrison tells the reader what Denver is thinking before she tells Beloved the story of her birth. “Nothing was out there that this sister-girl did not provide in abundance: a racing heart, dreaminess, society, danger, beauty (90).” In this Morrison is communicating to the reader the all encompassing feeling of the sister-sister bond that Denver harbors for Beloved.
Reading through the evidence confirming that there is this deep and abiding sister-sister bond, one starts to notice that in each of the sister pairings, there is more dominant and a more submissive sister. This is important to realize because it helps the reader to understand why the path is different for each of the sisters once the bond is dissolved.
In the case of Ruth and Lucille this dominance is brought to the forefront in a conversation that takes place on page 122 of the novel. In this scene Ruth and Lucille are walking, mostly against Ruths will, to the local drugstore. Ruth has been lagging