More so than in previous novels, Housekeeping is full of comparisons, metaphors, and similes. This is how Ruth guides the reader through her world and life.
"I saw the three of us posed in all the open doors of an endless train of freight cars--innumerable, rapid, identical images that produced a flickering illusion of both movement and stasis, as the pictures in a kinetoscope do."
"It seemed then and always to be the elaboration and ornamentation of the consensus between them, which was as intricate and well-tended as a termite castle."
She also uses them to describe her philosophies.
"...memories are by their nature fragmented, isolated, and arbitrary as glimpses one has at night through lighted windows."
"For even things lost in a house abide, like forgotten sorrows and incipient dreams, and many household things are of purely sentimental value, like the dim coil of thick hair, saved from my grandmother's girlhood...In the equal light of disinterested scrutiny such things are not themselves. They are transformed into pure object, and are horrible, and must be burned."
Not only do these comparisons give us insight into whatever Ruth is describing, but also into Ruth herself. They tell us a bit about Ruth's character. I feel that Ruth is able to make all of these connections because she sees everything in her world as interconnected. Like Sylvie, (and unlike Lucille) Ruth is more willing to blur the boundary between humans and nature. The use of comparisons also suggest a strong familiarity--almost mastery--of her world. She has observed enough of the world to make all these connections.
She is also so unlike the other protagonists in the novels we've read. She is almost the opposite of Stephen the artist, who maintains a distance from the world, his subject. Unlike Holden, she never feels lonely and is not too interested in other people. And unlike Esther (aside from not being depressed) she never has to face a conflict between what she wants and what society expects of women. I suppose she has to face society's ill-will towards transients, but it does not bother her like Esther. Whether or not we can attribute these differences between Ruth and the other protagonists to location, circumstance, or personality, it still makes Ruth a very unique and interesting person.
Your comparisons of Ruth to other protagonists brought up some interesting thoughts for me. It's true that she seems to have a strong understanding of the world, to be able to describe it with such familiar language. But as you pointed out, she is also disconnected from the world. Unlike Holden or Esther, she doesn't seem to care about other people or the rules of society. Maybe her connection with the world comes about later, since her narration is from the perspective of an older Ruth. Or, at this point, she already understands the world, but chooses not to take part in society.
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