“How does Ruby's childhood prepare her for her role in the novel?”
The events that occur in Ruby’s childhood allow her to become a strong independent woman who is able to fend for herself, due to having nobody to rely on throughout her life. Ruby had grew up without a mother and with a father that was a small-time criminal and drunkard who had no pride in himself. Stobrod wanted his daughter to take care of herself entirely on her own, so he let her figure out how to do that on her own too. This is the reason why Ruby and Stobrod did not get along with each other, until the near end where they manage to reconcile their relationship, when they live and work together on the farm. The reason why they are able to live and work together is because of how they have changed over the course of their journeys in the novel. As Ruby and Ada learn from each other, they both learn to appreciate each others previous lifestyles. When Ruby first met Ada, she was very critical of the lifestyle Ada enjoyed back in Charleston. After Ada’s description of a house party, Ruby ‘could only marvel at lives so useless that they required missing sleep and paddling about on the river for pleasure.’ Then Ada’s views on Ruby and her lifestyle, thinking ‘all Ruby’s talk was of exertion. Ruby’s monologues seemed composed mainly of verbs, all of them tiring. Plow, plant, hoe, cut, can, feed, kill’. However soon Ada rises above sophistication and becomes a more enlightened, nurturing caretaker, who didn’t care about social status and learned to accept the relationships between humans and the natural world and comes to have that kind of relationship herself. As Ruby spends time around Ada, she learns to accept her father’s weaknesses as she learns and values things like reading, music and companionship and because she starts to value these things, she is able to start a relationship with her father, as she finds something to respect in her fathers musical talent. By composing fiddle music, Stobrod finds a way to give something back, its something he can apply himself to, something he is actually good at, this gives him a reason to feel worthy and to actually take pride in himself. On his journey Stobrod also comes to realize the value of family because of his journey, when he looked after Pangle, therefore Stobrod came back to Ruby.
