Essay Questions

What mechanism do two of the widows employ after the catastrophe?

Ruth reports, “This catastrophe left three new widows in Fingerbone: my grandmother, and the wives of two elderly brothers who owned a dry-goods store. These two old women had lived in Fingerbone thirty years or more but they left…they said they could no longer live by the lake. They said the wind smelled of it, and they could taste it in the drinking water, and they could not abide by the smell, the taste, or the sight of it.” The widows’ resolution to move is categorical Avoidance which is attributed to the reality that their husbands perished in it when the train drowned in it. Resolving to move would help them to be far away from the location where their husbands perished.

How could a psychoanalyst explain the tendency of Ruth’s grandmother’s children to “touch” her after her returns?

Robinson relates, “Of course they (‘Molly, Helen and Sylvie’) pressed her and touched her as if she had just returned after an absence. Not because they were afraid she would vanish as their father had done, but because his sudden vanishing had made them aware of her.” Psychoanalytically, the children are emotionally attached to their mother following their father’s demise. They are conscious that she is the only parent they have; hence, they bestow all their attachment and connection to her. The ‘pressing and touching’ are avenues to feel close to their mother.