Ray As A Caregiver Archetype

“I have a car, a Custom 500 Ford four-door, plenty of legroom. He’d taken it to the car wash before he disappeared and left it gleaming in the sunshine on the driveway. How did he leave? Walk? Hitchhike? How do you leave a town with no train, no bus, no car? I also have a French horn I plan on learning how to play, an Akai stereo and my records, Tash’s stuff, and an official looking note saying the house is mine.
All my dad left with was his new suit, his dipping bird, and the bible he’d had since he was a kid. He laid out all the information in a note he left on the kitchen table. How to deal with the sale of the house, how to change the oil in the car, not to get a basement apartment if I could help it, and to list my number with my
first initial only. N, he wrote (in case I’d forgotten?), looking forward to that delicious meal you promised. I’ll give you a year or two or five to develop your system. In the meantime, we have work to do. Remember the affirmative words of Jesus, Nomi. Lo, I am with you always. ” (Toews 239)

This is the opening passage to chapter twenty-eight in a complicated kindness written by Miriam Toews. The main character, Nomi, has just woken up to see that her father Ray has left their small, religious town. Since the passage doe not explicitly indicate that it was Ray who left in the first few lines, but it is revealed that it is indeed him who left in the next paragraph. The event that caused Ray to leave his daughter is that she had just been excommunicated. He did not want to have to choose between his daughter and his religion because he loves them both so, he decides to pack up what he has left and leave so Nomi can ultimately be free. Ray resolved a conflict before it even had the chance to develop. He knew he would ultimately have to pick between the two so he defused the situation before anyone got hurt. I do not agree with the decision Ray made to leave however, I am not in his position and there is no opportunity to hear his reasoning and his side of the departure in his point of view.
The passage also hints at Ray being a caregiver archetype because he is a parent taking care of his child even though he is nowhere around.
Ray leaves Nomi with the vital information because he knows in his heart that she will not stick around in East Village. Since he still believes in the Mennonite religion, he leaves words of Jesus for Nomi moreso for him than for her. He knows she will not care about that but it is in his character to leave a religious saying behind. Throughout the novel, the readers learn and infer that Nomi possesses qualities from a rebel and the innocent archetypes. Nomi is a rebellious teenager who does what she wants and does not care about what other people think. As a youth stranded in an isolated town, she experiments with drugs, alcohol and sexual relations. Even though she has an evident tough side, she also has a caring and a very kind side. When she was younger, Nomi was more in touch with the religion the town practised, she would pray and constantly ask if Tash was going to hell. Even though she out grew the religion, she is still a very nice teenage girl because she often helps children we they need it “Hey, I said, don’t cry. You’re gonna be okay. You had the wind knocked out of you, that’s all” (Toews 129). Nomi rushes over to a little boy who fell down and helped him get to school and comforted him. This demonstrates that although Nomi is a rebellious teenager she still cares for the people around her, especially
kids.
The entire story is told from Nomi’s point of view so there is a little bit of a bias regarding how she feels about certain events. In this passage, we are missing Ray’s perspective and how he feels about leaving and his reasoning behind it. There is repetition of the word ‘no’ to enforce and exaggerate Nomi’s confusion of how her father could have possibly left. That sentence also relates to the setting, it reveals how isolated the town they live in is and how difficult it is to stay connected to the world around them. Even though the passage reveals heartbreaking news, Toews wrote it in a way that makes it appear to not be as severe and depressing.
The car can be seen as a symbol of freedom for Nomi because she had just recently passed her driving test. With the car she has the freedom to leave the town she hates or stay in her childhood home. The “Custom 500 Ford four-door” (Toews 239) is a symbol of freedom and options to Nomi who was previously trapped and stuck where she was. Even though Nomi has multiple options in front of her now, she still wonders and is unclear as to what she should do. “Wondering who I’ll become if I leave this town” (Toews 246) it is later brought up that Nomi is still unsure of what to do even though she now has the opportunity to do what she has be yearning for for a very long time. The objects Ray leaves with; “his new suit, his dipping bird and the bible he’d had since he was a kid” (Toews 239) are a symbol of who he is as a person and what he learned about him throughout the book. For example, Nomi said he always wears a suit, everyday, no matter how intense the heat. The dipping bird is the last gift Nomi had got him. And his childhood bible, obviously means a lot to him because of his religious beliefs.