Relationship between Rose and Ruby in the novel The Girls - Essay Example

Running Head: Relationship between…. Topic: Relationship between Rose and Ruby in the novel The Girls Order#: 520252 Topic: Relationship between Rose and Ruby in the novel The Girls Introduction: The wise ones say—if there is no perfect discipline, carry on with the available discipline. No one is born with own choices. Human body is God-given physical equipment, and blessed are those who get it perfect! What would be the outcome if one is not blessed with such a body? Ask Rose and Ruby! With all the body-complications they were endowed with, they lived through the arduous journey of their life, with the inner strength of their beautiful and noble soul! The girls in Lori Lansens’ “The Girls,” are the extraordinary ones. How to describe the relationship between Rose and Ruby in the novel, “The Girls”? Its description in one word is, ‘divine’! From the secular point of view, the relationship is both scientific and human. At the beginning of the story Lori Lansens (2007,p.5) makes mention of it in the own words of the sisters thus: “We have an unspoken, even unconscious, system of checks and balance to determine who’ll lead the way at any given moment. There is conflict. There is compromise.” Each moment, each day of their life is miraculous, yet regulated struggle. Is it a difficult one? One should be hesitant to assert thus. They find an unspeakable joy through their struggles. Their trials and tribulations are extraordinary ones, considering the fact that they are at the threshold of their thirtieth birthday. What a glorious saga it must have been! It is too poignant and adventurous for the printed page to capture! They faced ridicule and admiration with the rarest of rare equanimity of their minds and Lansens puts it thus: “We’ve been called many things: freaks, horrors, monsters, devils, witches, retards, wonders, marvels. To most, we’re a curiosity. In small-town Leaford, where we live and work, we’re just “The Girls.”(p.3) God created a miracle in chiseling their special body. To say in the words of Rose, as captured by Lansens, “My sister, Ruby, and I, by mishap or miracle, having intended to divide from a single fertilized egg, remained joined instead, by a spot the size of a bread plate on the sides of our twin heads.”(p.3)They are separate, yet joined together through a very, very special procedure that is difficult for the ordinary mind to comprehend. In the words of Rose, “When Ruby is tired; I’m hardly ever ready for bed. We’re rarely hungry together and our tastes are poles apart. I prefer spicy fare, while my sister has a disturbing fondness for eggs.”(p.5)The conjoined twins since their birth have many things in common. They remained joined at the head. Their ‘life-together’ began thus: Rub’s arm curled around rose’s neck, her foreshortened legs wrapped around Rose’s hips. The journey of their life has been an incomparable one. Rose enjoys reading and writing, Ruby likes to watch TV and spend time with the kids. They have the normal quota of quarrels like other sisters. If Rose consumes alcohol, Ruby would turn sick. Even the pattern of their jobs is different. In the library Rose shelves books and Ruby reads out the content loud to children. On every count of similarity and difference, their lives are delicate and baffling. In the chronicle of their life’s journey they create many head-lines. The physical relationship between the two sisters is a marvel right from birth. Lansens writes, “How long must they have stared before someone spoke? Our combined weight at birth was ten pounds seven ounces. I was the longer one; my legs perfectly formed my torso somewhat shorter than normal, making my arms appears somewhat longer.”(p.23) Ruby is pretty, but short and truncated and cannot walk. She is a permanent load on the hip of Rose. Though tall, Rose has a distorted and grotesque face because Ruby’s head constantly pulls at hers. The story has a great philosophical message explained through the struggles of the two girls, physical as well as mind-level. It is an uplifting summing up. The author succeeds in creating two distinct voices to tell us how the girls react differently to the same situation. The eternal soul-force is vibrating through their two bodies. Their perspectives are different; habits vary. For certain issues they rely on one another, yet they are different; nevertheless, they are destined to be together. Lansens describes the changed, matured thinking of Rose, with the advancement in life thus: “I might alter it now to read: I have never looked into my sister’s eyes, but I’ve seen inside her soul.”(p.343)The sisters, have profound love for each other. It not only involves their difficult physical world, but their spiritual entities as well. It is a great relief to read the story with the definite knowledge that it is a work of fiction. As they grow together, they begin to feel maturity in their relationships. Do both of them wish to live separate lives? That longing cannot be ruled out, but knowing well that accomplishment is impossibility, they have accepted their present condition of life with cheer. In fine, the relationship between the two sisters in the story is not totally believable; it is not totally unbelievable either! The author clubs the physical structure of their bodies with the emotional aspect by writing thus: “….our faces not quite side by side, out skulls fused together in a circular pattern running up to the temple and curving around the frontal lobe. If you glance at us, you might think we’re two women embracing, leaning against the other, tete-a-tete, the way sisters do.”(p.4)The author has handled the test case of survival of ‘two’ human beings with grit, determination and humanism. Conclusion: Rose and Ruby fight through one of the toughest physical challenge. Being fully aware that every individual who comes in front of them has a question about their existence, they carried on with their life not expecting any sympathy or condemnation. They had no other option but to live together, but they carried on with that option with absolute grace and courage! References Lansens, Lori, The Girls, Back Bag Books/ Little, Brown and Company, 2007 Read More