Lucille's Quest to End Loneliness In Sherman Alexie's short story "What You Pay I Will Redeem," main character Jackson Jackson goes on a "quest" to raise one hundred dollars to buy his grandmother's pow wow signs - which had been stolen many years ago - from a pawn shop owner. Although he doesn't earn the hundred, the owner decides to give him the insignia anyway, so he both fails and succeeds in his quest. He wasn't able to make any money, but his real goal was to get the signs back, so he's ultimately successful. Similarly, Lucille, in Marilynne Robinson's novel Housekeeping, embarks on her own "quest" to have a stable home that will allow her to be accepted by most of the society in which she lives and no longer feel alone. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't". Being banned'? Get an Original Essay It is evident early in the novel that Lucille longs for the acceptance and companionship of people other than her aunt and sister. When the three become trapped in their home due to a flood, Lucille can't wait to leave and try to find other people. He refuses to play cards and tells his aunt, “I want to find other people,” and even suggests how they might be found (Robinson 51). Sylvie replies that “it's loneliness. Loneliness disturbs many people” and tells Lucille and Ruth the story of a woman who she believed had lost her children or never had them and invented them and was perhaps the loneliest person she knew even though she was surrounded by others in the stations railways (Robinson 51 ). This ends up being true for Lucille at the end of the novel as she has lost her aunt and sister and both Sylvie and Ruth believe that she is in Boston believing that she will no longer be alone among all people, even though in reality she might. she feels 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 crowded with our absence, or know how she doesn't look, doesn't 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 the two are dead and hoping that they will return is potentially more painful than simply accepting theirs. death. Alla end of "What You Pawn I Will Redeem", Jackson Jackson is overall successful in his quest because he leaves the pawn shop with his grandmother's pow wow signs even though he didn't meet the terms initially set by the pawn shop owner Lucille , on the other hand, was overall unsuccessful in her search because her main goal was to no longer feel alone, which is why she tried so hard to fit into society's patterns and expectations. Although she finds a stable home and is able to adapt to society's expectations, Lucille likely ends up lonelier than before as she is surrounded by strangers who don't truly know her and has alienated the few family members she has left by refusing to accept them so as they were before they were presumed to have committed suicide.