Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
RUTH (How is Ruth shown to lack self-esteem? (At Hailsham, Ruth tells lies…
RUTH
How is Ruth shown to lack self-esteem?
At Hailsham, Ruth tells lies to put herself in a position of power over the others
e.g. when Kathy confronts her for lying about the pencil case
Ruth appears
'loss for words'
and is
on the verge of tears
suggesting she is hard on the outside but inside she struggles with her own identity
At the cottages, Ruth is desperate to fit in
Kathy describes there being
'two quite separate Ruths'
Ruth takes many of her social cues from those around her
When she sees others act one way, she will quickly change her behaviour
Copies behaviour she sees on television
Kathy finds this ridiculous.
How does Ishiguro reveal that Ruth is a believer?
Ruth often hoped for a better outcome in life
Ruth entertains ideas of one day working in an office
When Rodney says her possible works in an office in Cornwall she is keen to go and check it out
Her disappointment when she realises the girl isn't her possible shows that she truly believed her dreams would come true.
Ruth convinced Tommy and Kathy that they could get a deferral.
She believed they had a
'real chance'
at getting a deferral.
How is Ruth presented as manipulative?
Kathy is the first to notice Ruth's manipulative nature.
e.g. Ruth cuts Kathy out of their secret guard when Kathy begins to question her stories about Miss Geraldine.
Determined to stay with Tommy
Repeatedly twists Kathy's words to criticise and humiliate him.
e.g. she tells him that Kathy
'finds [his] animals a complete hoot'