Chapter 8 - Ruth

Personal Reflections

Finally, we've reached the last chapter (and, I believe, the longest). There's a lot to talk about here, but with Jeanette's journey finally over I think this is a good place to talk about my thoughts and feelings regarding the novel as a whole. I did like it a lot and found it to be very interesting, but I'm not sure if the structure (with all of the digressions, meandering through time and memory, and alternating between reality and imagination) worked very well for me. I like all of these things in theory and I think the concept of blurring these lines is super fascinating, but in practice it was difficult for me to follow along with everything that was happening and to parse the deeper meaning of many sections, especially the fairy tale digressions (which there were a lot of in this chapter). Like, what/who does Winnet represent? I do think ultimately it's meant to represent something within Jeanette's psyche (which I will do my best to unpack below), but it's not super clear what symbolizes what in this little fairy tale. We repeatedly return to the tale of Sir Perceval (as he seeks the Holy Grail) as well, but I'm not exactly sure what to make of it. Perhaps it represents Jeanette's probably doomed quest to regain the feeling she had when she felt connected to God, but through connection with another human being (which will inevitably fall short of the perfection of the divine)? Maybe; it's unclear. But I do like that there's so much interesting stuff going on in the story overall, and in this last chapter we do get a conclusion (albeit an abbreviated one ) to Jeanette's story and her character arc regarding her coming out and relationship with her mother. So that's nice. I think I probably will appreciate this novel more on a second read.

Critical Response

I'd like to analyze the Winnet story and see what it tells us about Jeanette's character. This appears at the start of the chapter, before we even get back to Jeanette's story (although there are more continuations of the story throughout), so I think that is a clue that it contains something important for the reader to pay attention to. In particular, I will take a look at the middle passage of the Winnet digressions, where she has left her father's domain (where she previously had studied magic) and is living in the village, but still feels like she doesn't belong. In addition to not speaking the locals' language, she wants to speak more and talk to the villagers about the world outside of where she grew up, but does not feel that she can speak freely about it: "She had left her school and her followers far behind, she wanted to talk about the nature of the world, why it was there at all, and what they were all doing on it. Yet at the same time she knew her old world had much in it that was wrong. If she talked about it, good and bad, they would think her mad, and then she would have no one. She had to pretend she was just like them, and when she made a mistake, they smiled and remembered she was foreign." Winnet's struggle resembles that of Jeanette after she is forced to live on her own, away from her mother, due to coming out. Both characters feel that the rule of their parents is unjust and overly controlling, and want to learn about the world outside of that system of control, where they can be more free. Both were originally from other places and families, but were adopted into their new family roles so that their parents could pass down their knowledge and mission to an heir. And both were forced to leave by their parents after trying to exercise their power instead of deferring to the authority set before them. But leaving is still hard, and they don't quite fit into the outside world because of the gifts (magic for Winnet and imagination, the storytelling of the preacher, for Jeanette), good and bad, that they were given in their previous lives. Winnet dreams of a city that the villagers tell her of, which seems like it may only be a mythical place, but where she believes she will go someday and be able to be fully accepted for who she is, including the destructive and unpleasant parts of her past. I believe Jeanette is in a similar position by the end of the story. Winnet is a very similar name to Jeanette too. We even see Winnet's father tying an invisible string around her finger, similar to how Jeanette still thinks about her mother often and wants to try to maintain a relationship with her in the future (which she somewhat accomplishes at the end of the novel by coming back to visit her, even though her mother does not seem particularly accepting). So with a little analysis, we can make more sense of these fairy tale digressions after all. These digressive stories, while totally fictional, tell something of the emotional truth underlying Jeanette's character arc in the novel.