After a
series of abandonment, Ruth and Lucille of Robinson’s Housekeeping find their own identities
through the mother-daughter relationships they form and the homes that they connect with.
Mother/daughter relationships are often overlooked in literature. Due to Freud’s oedipal
complex, people often focus on relationships dealing with mother/son or father/daughter, but
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much is to be said about the way that a girl learns from her closest model in society. This idea is
often brought up when texts are read through a feminist perspective.