Reading Sag Harbor, I realized that, in the beginning, Reggie and Benji are much like Lucille and Ruth. However, as the novels progress, the pairs diverge. In the beginning of Housekeeping, Ruth and Lucille are one. The term "we" is always used. Slowly we see Lucille and Ruth separate, such as when Lucille decides to skip school, but even then the separation is slow, as shown when Ruth joins Lucille in skipping school. Eventually, due to the influence of her friends, Lucille becomes thoroughly disgusted by Sylvie and her lifestyle and leaves. Lucille also tries getting Ruth to come with her, but Ruth refuses; she sticks with Sylvie. Ruth and Lucille go onto live vastly different lives, with Ruth joining Sylvie as a transient, and Lucille getting married.
In Sag Harbor, we are told from the start that Reggie and Benji are already separating. At first, they were almost identical; they were twins. Benji acknowledges the two of them separating, even calling it a good thing as he tries to form his own identity, but is still surprised by Reggie as he goes down his own path. Benji and Ruth are similar in this way. Both see their siblings changing, but don't really like it. However, I think ultimately Benji is fine with the change. He sees that his brother still cares for him, such as after Benji gets hit by a BB gun, and the separation is mutually agreed. With Ruth and Lucille, the separation is more strained, drawn out, and neither sibling is pleased with the other. Another difference is that with Benji as narrator, we get a clear idea of how he feels towards Reggie and a more defined picture of his and Reggie's relationship. In Ruth and Lucille's case, where Ruth is narrator, while it is clear Ruth does not like the separation, we don't get much detail into their relationship; it does not seem as complex as Benji's and Reggie's does.
Although Ruth's and Lucille's separation was painful, I hope to see Benji's and Reggie's separation develop into a positive and perhaps even greater relationship than the one they had when they were twins.
Siblings don't have to be an inseparable pair in order to be close. With Ruth and Lucille, there really is a kind of forced separation, a splitting of paths that reflects a fundamental difference in their personalities. Benji presents the "separation" of him and Reggie as a good and necessary thing for both of them--they spend most of the summer apart, they go to different schools, they're into different music. But this doesn't mean there's tension or ill will between them--it's more a matter of both of them going through self-definition.
ReplyDeleteWhen we see Elena, all of a sudden, in "Tonight We Improvise," Benji hasn't seen her for months and won't see her again until Thanksgiving. She used to be a constant presence in his life, a profound influence, but she's "escaped." And now she's urging Benji to do the same. She still seems to care a great deal about him, and they talk in an indirect but pretty honest way about the way things are in their house. She's able to exert a formative influence on him despite her distance from the day-to-day business of the family--it's even suggested that she's maybe especially influential *because* she's "escaped." She's an example to Benji of what it means to define yourself, apart from the domestic noise of family.