Though I initially sympathized with her character, I ultimately disliked Ruth and what she seemed to do to Sonny. First, there's her twisted viewpoint on fidelity: She's not the kind of woman to get divorced, she says, but she has no problems dumping her emotional baggage onto a high school lover. She's obviously invested more than physical intimacy into her affair with Sonny, asking him his favorite color to give her ideas of how she'll paint the room.
Though Jacy led to no good, I thought Sonny's relationship with her at least liberated him from an unhealthy relationship with Ruth. I thought Sonny's attempt to leave town toward the end was going to be his emancipation ... the way Jacy and Duane had found a way out, and Sam the Lion and Ralph also had escaped, in a way. Maybe that overwhelming sense of loss when Ralph died drove Sonny back into town to emotionally connect with anybody who was left, and that person was Ruth.
I read the last scene in Ruth's kitchen as more of a tragedy. Sonny reaches out for her forgiveness, for some kind of emotional connection, and she relents only after lashing out at him as though he were her peer (her make-believe husband?) and not just a boy. Then the burden of living is erased from her expression and transfers to his as their hands touch. The apathy on Sonny's face tells me that the trap of that claustrophobic town has closed around him for good.
3 comments:
Christy, I found your comment to be a really intriguing take on Ruth. DW and I were talking about it last night, and he thought so, too. (I expect him to weigh in before he goes galavanting off to Yosemite today). I can see your arguments very clearly, but I don't think I'm entirely on board. First, I think her comment about not divorcing is not unusual. In that era, especially, I think a divorce, especially if initiated by a woman, was frowned on as much as adultery. She was in a no-win, really. I saw her as grasping after a straw of happiness in a shitty life, not dumping her baggage on someone else. Yes, she was weak and pathetic in many ways, but I think the director intended for her to have our sympathy, and she did have mine. I honestly didn't think much of their age difference because I don't think she was looking to exploit Sonny in any way. She wanted companionship from him, but not in a blameworthy way, I thought. And I really thought that she was good for him overall — not that they should run off together or anything — but she brought some maturity and empathy to his life. He had a lot of pain — from death, from Jacy, from not knowing what to make of the world — and it seemed like a good experience for him to see that the pain Jacy caused him by toying with him was similar to the pain he had caused Ruth. That kind of lesson is a hallmark of growing up. It's the kind of lesson Sam learned somewhere along the line that made him so remarkable — his deep empathy.
I want to watch the scene again to see if I detect apathy and a look of being trapped. That's a really interesting idea. He could have gone to Genevieve, though, if mere human comfort and connection was all he sought. She would have provided it. I think he went to Ruth for a reason. I think he knew even before she spelled it out that he had acted dishonorably toward her. For me, it's like he was saying, "I've been kicked around, and realize now that I kicked you around, and I wish we could be whole again."
I think if Sonny hadn't looked so pained in that final scene, I wouldn't have interpreted Ruth and Sonny's relationship as a trap, an unhappy ending, even if I thought it wasn't in Sonny's best interest.
Ruth does deserve some compassion -- it isn't realistic to expect her to divorce or live alone in a loveless marriage. (Interesting that Ruth, Lois and Genevieve are all suffering with their lots in life, and yes, options are limited.)
I think she wanted more than companionship (physical or otherwise) from Sonny. Like the comment about painting the room his favorite color (definitely calf love stuff) and berating him for leaving her ... that was very much a grownup conversing with a young adult whom she has defined as a grownup -- and peer -- by their physical relationship. I don't want to judge their age differences as far as the affair goes, but if in her fantasy perspective he's her equal in maturity, that he can be her substitute husband, then that's what I would call "baggage" to put on someone Sonny's age.
Now I'm going to backtrack on this point ... on the preacher's son post, when we talked about whether that storyline was extraneous, I thought that when the sheriff calls for a manhunt and specifically asks for Sonny's help, that perhaps that scene was meant to establish that Sonny had become one of "the town men" now that high school was over. If the town's standard for full adulthood is graduation, then Ruth might be expected to see Sonny as more of a man/peer than a kid.
Sonny's not going to Genevieve at the end is a great point, because when I thought that no one was left for him, I overlooked her. And so there must have been something Ruth offered, or some closure needed there, that demanded he go to her.
I would expect that Genevieve might encourage Sonny to go rather than stay since it would be in his interest to do so.
Since he did come back, I doubt that he will ever leave town, but I also don’t think things will last long with Ruth—they will keep hurting each other in various ways that will slowly drive them apart even as they try to cling to each other.
I don’t know that I ever sympathized with Ruth, but I did feel pity for her. When we meet her, she has decayed into a depressed, nervous person who probably perplexes and maybe exasperates her doctors. She has a horrible living situation, but she no longer has the kind of self-fortitude to try and do anything about it if she ever did. And she doesn’t have any close supportive friends who could help her either. I wonder what she was like before marriage. I would guess that she started out already somewhat frail, but if she had been planted into more nourishing soil, perhaps she would have blossomed.
Sonny silence through Ruth’s tantrum was remarkable. I thought he looked crushed. He can no longer do anything to do right by Ruth. He should have gone to her much earlier and told her that it was all over and he was leaving. Instead he first hides from her and then tries to sneak out of town. Realizing that he cannot do that, he goes back to her. He offers her no apology or rationalization, but just sits there dazed. I wonder if he will be trapped into a life as passive as Ruth’s has been and will fail to thrive.
This was a good post cl.
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