Something
that has repeatedly come to my attention throughout reading We Are All
Completely Beside Ourselves is how much of a follower Rosemary turns out to
be. I don’t mean this in a negative way, just in the fact that Rosemary is not
someone who takes charge. She can be bold and brave but only when others are
before her. In her younger days, she is outspoken, but she needs Fern in order
to be that way. She uses Fern much like a security blanket. Rosemary can stand
up for herself, so long as she has someone to fall back on. When Rosemary
speaks, it is because of something Fern has done. When she acts out, it is
because she's following Fern's lead.
So after Fern’s departure, when she has no one left to push her, she
falls silent. For years, Rosemary spends her days learning how to be silent and
staying that way. She doesn’t speak because she has no one to push her to
speak. Her one streak of boldness occurs when she travels to the farm with
Lowell and helps him break into her old house, but again, it is because Lowell
pushes her to be daring. Rosemary doesn’t do anything bold with her first
two roommates in college because they themselves are not risk-takers. If
Rosemary is not pushed, she falls out of the picture. She certainly does not
have the initiative to push others.
When Harlow comes into the picture, Rosemary sees an opportunity. A
Fern-like opportunity. I think a big part of the reason why Rosemary does not
completely lose her mind when she comes home to find Harlow in her apartment is
because, when Harlow is around, Rosemary feels valued. Rosemary lets Harlow
into her life because Harlow is bold. Harlow is as free-spirited as Fern was. Harlow
turns Rosemary into a risk-taker- I am fairly certain that she wouldn’t have
gone out to bars or taken pills (and she definitely would not have gotten
arrested) without Harlow there to put the pills and drinks in her hand, or to
be the one to initiate throwing the dishes. Harlow is an essential part of the
plot because, without her, Rosemary may have never begun the process of looking
back on her life with Fern.
I think it is very important to point out the tendencies Rosie has when it comes to taking risks. When Fern was in the picture, Rosie was more willing to take risks and communicate with those around her. After Fern’s removal from the family, Rosie closed off that side of her. When people takes risks, they are usually surrounded by the comfort and stability of the people around them. Once those people are removed from a person’s life, he or she is more hesitant to take risks and be open. I agree with your statement that Rosie, “[had] no one left to push her” once Fern left. Not only did Rosie lose Fern, but she also lost Lowell and her parents in the process as well.
ReplyDeleteWith that being said, your ideas in relation to Harlow are very relevant regarding her new-found opportunity to take risks again. However, I also feel as though Rosie’s relationship with Harlow is a double-edged sword. On page 137, Rosie expresses her concern with her new found friend: “When the revelation finally came, it complicated my feelings toward Harlow more than it illuminated them. On the one hand, I could see she was bad news…Yet I felt comfortable with her in a way I never felt comfortable with anyone.” This quote leads me to believe that Rosie is scared to become vulnerable and open up about her past with Fern. It will be interesting to see throughout the rest of the novel how Harlow influences Rosie in regards to her past.
Your insight to how Rosemary must always be ‘pushed’ has shed light on the book for me! I had been confused at first when Rosemary claimed, “I felt polished by the wet air… just a little wild” (7). When I had read this originally, I had imagined Rosemary would be a strong, feisty character. Immediately following the quote, however, she tells us that ‘wild’ means she might flirt in the library or day dream in class. Personally, that does not strike me as terribly wild (compared to her other adventures).
ReplyDeleteAs you point out, we do come to learn that Rosemary can be wild – smashing plates, mixing alcohol and drugs, getting arrested, talking non-stop, etc. She only engages in this wildness, though, when pushed by Harlow, her new Fern.
Harlow truly replaces Fern in Rosemary’s winter of 1996-97. “As if I was quite used to finding someone with no sense of boundaries in my space, fiddling with my things and breaking most of them. Here we go again.” (137). This is the moment when Rosemary reflects on her feelings when discovering Harlow in her apartment. She is hardly bothered by Harlow’s presence superficially because she had been through these same types of situation many times over while living with Fern. Soon after this realization, Rosemary also concludes that she wants Harlow to like her (145), presumably to that she can have a Fern-like replacement in her loneliness. Due to her desire to get closer to Harlow, we once again see her wildness reappearing by being pushed into their crazy drugged night.
I agree that in We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves Rosemary is a follower in many situations. I think the significance of this observation lies especially in two points mentioned in this post. The first is the contrast between Rosemary’s behavior before and after Fern in terms of feeling free to speak and act impulsively. I’m not sure if Fern necessarily “pushes” Rosemary to take the “risk” of speaking as a child, but there is no denying that Rosemary’s desire and willingness to be heard almost vanished after this trauma. Fern seemed to encourage the more impulsive side of Rosemary, who later seeks this freedom to take risks in the company of others like Lowell and Harlow. Rosemary consciously makes an effort to control her urge to speak, becoming more and more silent and restrained as time goes on.
ReplyDeleteBuilding on this, other important implication of this observation is the way it pushes Rosemary toward Harlow. Rosemary’s relationship with Harlow turns out to be another turning point in Rosemary’s life because Harlow reawakens Rosemary’s want for attention and to be heard. Additionally, Rosemary is much more impulsive around Harlow. The post mentions Rosemary’s newfound readiness to take pills, go to bars, and smash glasses, which are all risky behaviors that Harlow encourages. It’s possible that Rosemary’s relationship with Harlow is what leads her to finally reexamine the “dangerous territory” (37) that has been plaguing her for years.
It seems Rosemary’s willingness to take risks versus being a follower is actually a good lens through which to observe her trajectory throughout the novel.