Is Housekeeping a Successful Coming-of-Age?

When I finished Housekeeping, I thought that it was the most definitive ending of the books we've read so far this year. But as we discussed in class, I realized that the ending was actually quite ambiguous. The novel is seen as a coming-of-age story for Ruth, and it completes this storyline quite nicely. Ruth finds her way in the world and her “ending” is quite clear. However the novel starts with Ruth and Lucille as a unit. They do almost everything together and everyone knows it. However as the novel progresses they becomes less and less alike. Lucille goes with the "common persuasion" and Ruth becomes more like Sylvie.

By the end of the novel, it is clear that Lucille and Ruth have gone their different ways completely, as they are no longer live together and Lucille believes Ruth to be dead. In class I presented that in this way their joint coming-of-age story is not successful. But what I didn't think about is how this is also a separate coming-of-age story for Lucille.

Lucille’s coming-of-age story is also tracked throughout the book, at first with Ruth and then separately. She starts in much the same position as Ruth: in the hands of their grandmother, abandoned by their mother. Ruth and Lucille navigate their changes of guardianship together, and like stated previously are very much a unit. However, when Sylvie comes, the unit begins to split. Lucille, as her own coming-of-age, begins to become more and more like the older women and girls of Fingerbone. This “epiphany” of Lucille’s parallels Ruth’s own: that she is more like Sylvie than the women of Fingerbone. Lucille takes the biggest step in her coming-of-age story by moving into the home ec teacher’s house. However, I would not say this is the most defining moment in her coming-of-age story. I would instead say that her biggest moment comes when Ruth and Sylvie are said to drown in the lake. We have no idea what comes after this point in Lucille’s coming-of-age story. However Ruth’s speculation says that it may have in fact been unsuccessful, her life being fully defined by the day Ruth and Sylvie escaped Fingerbone.