Content Warning: This novel contains depictions of death by suicide, mental health conditions, and child abandonment. Characters in the novel engage in stereotypical depictions of nomadic or transient people and unhoused individuals.

Ruthie Stone is the protagonist of Housekeeping. Loneliness is a key defining characteristic of Ruthie throughout her lifetime. Her mother leaves her and her sister at their grandmother’s house when the girls are young. The girls do not know their father, so from a very young age, Ruthie and her sister are set up for loneliness. She spends most of her childhood in the constant presence of her younger sister, Lucille, but eventually the two drift apart, as Lucille desires a more conventional life than the one Ruthie lives with their aunt, Sylvie. This leaves Sylvie, who is largely emotionally unavailable, as Ruthie’s only real and true lifelong companion. Ruthie is both a round and dynamic character, changing throughout the novel.

Ruthie is depicted as being insecure in her attachment with her aunt. She is abandoned by caretakers numerous times in her young life, including by her mother, her grandmother, and Lily and Nona, due to their inability and lack of desire to be primary caretakers to two young girls.