Lucille's Quest to End Loneliness In Sherman Alexie's short story "What You Pawn I'll Buy Back", the main character Jackson Jackson sets out on a "quest" to raise one hundred dollars to purchase the regalia from his grandmother's powwow - which were stolen several years ago - from a pawn shop. Although he doesn't win the hundred, the owner decides to give him the badges anyway, so he. both fails and succeeds in his quest. He failed to win any money, but his real goal was to collect the regalia, so he succeeds in the end. In the same way, Lucille, in the novel Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, sets out on her quest. her own “quest” to have a stable home that will allow her to be accepted by the majority of her society so that she no longer feels alone. Say No to Plagiarism Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Shouldn’t”. Being banished?Get the original essayIt becomes clear early in the novel that Lucille longs for acceptance and companionship from people other than her aunt and sister. When the three are stuck in their house due to a flood, Lucille is eager to leave and try to find other people. She refuses to play cards and tells her aunt, "I want to find other people" and even suggests how to find them (Robinson 51). Sylvie replies that “it’s loneliness. Loneliness bothers a lot of people" and tells Lucille and Ruth the story of a woman who she said had lost her children or never had them and had invented them and who was perhaps the loneliest person whom she knew, even though she was surrounded by other people at the train stations (Robinson 51). ). This ends up being true for Lucille at the end of the novel as she has lost her aunt and sister and Sylvie and Ruth both believe that she is in Boston, believing that she will no longer be alone among all the people, even though she may actually be lonelier now without the love of her family because all she has now is the company of strangers. In the final lines of the novel Ruth, as the narrator writes, "No one who looks at this woman... [could] know how her thoughts are invaded by our absence, or know how she does not look, does not hope, and always for me and Sylvie” (Robinson 157). Although Ruth suggests that Lucille does not look at them or hope to see them, it is possible that Lucille is afraid to do these things because she believes that both are dead and hoping for them to return is potentially more painful than to simply accept their death. At the end of "What You Pawn I Will Redeem", Jackson Jackson is generally successful in his quest as he leaves the pawn shop with his grandmother's powwow regalia, even though he did not follow the rules. conditions initially set by the owner of the pawnshop. Lucille, on the other hand, was not successful in her quest because her main goal was to no longer be alone, which is why she tried so hard to fit the mold and expectations of society. Although she finds a stable home and is able to adapt to society's expectations, Lucille arguably ends up more alone than before because she is surrounded by strangers who don't really know her and has alienated the some of his remaining family members refused. accept them as they were before they committed suicide.