The Patron Saint of Liars

“The Hotel Louisa was getting worn, fretwork slipped from the porch, shutters hung down. In any other town it would have been ransacked, people breaking out windows and carrying off furniture in the night. But the people of Habit were true to their name and just kept on avoiding the old hotel like they did in the days when they wouldn’t have had the right clothes to go inside for a cup of coffee.”

This quote highlights the theme of The Benefits and Shortcomings of Tradition and Faith. Earlier, the people of Habit avoided the Hotel Louisa because it was too ornate; however, even when the hotel is crumbling and in disrepair, they still avoid it out of force of habit. The town’s tradition of avoiding the hotel ensures that there is a permanent dichotomy and separation between the townspeople of Habit and the women who live at Saint Elizabeth’s.

“Forgiveness was at the heart of everything. Because I could not ask, I could not be forgiven. What would be the point in confessing a sin for which you had guilt but no remorse? Bless me, father, for I have sinned, I have lied to my husband, left him never knowing he will have a child, and would do it all again in a heartbeat. Bless me, for I will continue to lie until I go the way of all the earth. Bless me in the absence of remorse.”

The only identity Rose is ever able to fully inhabit is that of a liar. Though she feels guilty for lying to Thomas, she views it as something she must do to survive. She makes a distinction between guilt and remorse, stressing that she feels no remorse—or regret—about her lies. This quote emphasizes how unhappy she is in her role as Thomas’s wife and how desperate she is to escape it.

“‘People think it’s the other way around, that the ugly girls, the plain girls even, they’re the ones to feel sorry for. But they don’t have so many’—she stopped and pushed her eyebrows together, trying to think of the word—‘distractions, I guess. There will always be people there to tell a pretty girl what she should be doing or thinking. At the counter, it’s the pretty girls you can always sell the most to. They never know their minds.’”

Both Helen and Rose are very beautiful women, and they bond over this. The idea of pretty girls being more insecure than other people and not knowing what they want out of their lives foreshadows Rose’s marriage to Thomas and her attitude to her pregnancy. She is confused and indecisive and never seems to feel completely at peace with any of her choices.