In the novel The Rabbit Hutch, by Tess Gunty, we see the occupants of the Rabbit Hutch living separate lives. We learn about Hope, and her newborn baby Elijah. We learn about the elderly couple Ida and Reggie who live below. We learn about Joan and her jar of maraschino cherries. We additionally learn about Blandine Watkins, and her three roommates Jack, Malik, and Todd. In the run down town of Vacca Vale, one would think that the community would be a tight knit group. Despite all the beat down aspects of Vacca Vale's exterior, the community could come together and make the present loneliness disappear. But this is not the case in the Rabbit Hutch. The tenants of the Rabbit Hutch live completely different lives, and don't even interact very frequently. But the Rabbit Hutch itself allows for interaction. A teenage boy in apartment C12 declares "the walls of the Rabbit Hutch are so thin, you can hear everyone's lives progress like radio plays" (354). Gunty however, does manage to create some feeling of community between the inhabitants of the Rabbit Hutch, showing how different people with different lives can come together.
The character's ever persistent loneliness helps keep the novel interesting. With each character seeming lonelier than the next, we wonder how all of these characters are similar, and how they will connect for the conclusion of the novel. Although none of the tenants in the Rabbit Hutch seem to have a close bond throughout the novel, we learn in the conclusion that living in the Rabbit Hutch actually does form connections between individuals. We see this with Joan when she goes to visit Blandine in the hospital. Joan and Blandine had only had a quick interaction at the laundromat, where Blandine claims "Its weird, right? Living so close to people you know nothing about" (25). But by living so close to each other, Joan feels as if it is acceptable to go and make sure Blandine is alright, and build a relationship within the Rabbit Hutch community. Even if the feeling of community is only presented briefly in the book, the reader can tell that there is a small sense of community for the occupants at the Rabbit Hutch, and that they can support each other as best as they can.
I completely agree with your points in this blog post. At the beginning of the book, the characters all lived in the same complex but barely interacted with each other even though they were lonely. None of the characters seem particularly interested in reaching out to others. A perfect example of this is how Joan reacted by rushing off when Blandine tried conversing with her in the laundromat. I agree that the characters’ loneliness makes the novel more riveting because we get to see each character’s individual thought process and actions throughout the book and how those actions affect the other characters.
ReplyDeleteHowever, towards the end of the book, the characters start forming a sense of community. Hope is finally able to tell her husband that she is scared of their son’s eyes and he responds positively by saying they can get her company and therapy acknowledging that “[i]t’s hard to spend so much time alone” (283). As you mentioned Joan goes to visit Blandine in the hospital and promises herself that “[s]he will offer to visit every day. She will be neighborly” (330). While this is a good development, it made me think of all the things that could have been prevented if they had a sense of community from the start for example, Joan could have gone to help Blandine when she was screaming.
Expansion on character proximity and behavior in The Rabbit Hutch despite each individual’s unique isolation is an important topic to dissect, especially if the goal is to understand the living facility’s environment as a whole. For example, we can look to apartment C6’s occupants, Ida and Reggie, to dive into a specific mindset. When dead mice begin to drop onto their balcony, Ida is aggravated and appalled, demanding her husband return one of the dead mice at the door of the culprit, stating “they need to learn their lesson.” (19) Ida and Reggie are close to mid-seventies, and their character insight Gunty provides mostly involves the couple sitting in front of the television, arguing and reminiscing about the past. A clear inference from their descriptions in the novel can conclude that they do not interact much with others, just like most in the Rabbit Hutch. Yet, despite the lack of context and consideration for the tenants who throw the mice, Ida believes that she knows what is best for them. She believes that her miraculous replenishment of a dead mouse (or really, Reggie’s attempt of replenishing a dead mouse), will solve their issues. These types of dead-end interactions unfortunately constitute a majority of the behavior of those who reside in the complex, and lead to questions of how such a culture is developed.
ReplyDeleteI also noticed the increasing loneliness of the characters and was wondering how they would all connect, come the conclusion of the novel. I agree that this was by design and that Gunty wanted to show how a community of physically close but emotionally disconnected people can interact all throughout the novel and yet remain alone. The ending, like you mentioned, goes to show that all of the characters can find semblance of themselves in each other through their shared loneliness in the Rabbit Hutch. Joan and Blandine bond through their shared struggle to feel lucid, Blandine asking her unexpected visitor “are you [awake]?” (396). This question repeatedly comes up, often asked by the characters (mostly Blandine) in a way to gauge how well they can process their internal struggle. Moses never feels awake, living as a shell of what his mother could never provide for him. He often feels like a child that always needed more, birthed from a mother who could only provide less. At the end of the novel all of these characters converge for the finale: Moses witnessing the exiting of Blandine’s body, when everything becomes real for both of them and the boys, and Joan having her conversation with Blandine in the hospital. In each of these cases, the characters are breaking down their walls and connecting, as they learn that they are all more similar in their loneliness than they realize, finally learning to “wake up.”
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