56 pages • 1 hour read
The Smell Of Other People's Houses
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Themes
Coming of Age in Times of Change
Content Warning: This section discusses teen pregnancy, domestic abuse, sexual abuse of a child, racism, substance use disorder, and mental health conditions.
Hitchcock focuses on the lives of teenagers to foreground, and even amplify, the challenges people face in a changing world. The novel uses four young narrators of differing backgrounds to explore the diversity and struggles of youth in the harsh, rural environment of Alaska. The story is set in 1970, a period when the country reckoned with the transformation of its annexation to the United States. The prologue presents statehood as a key event that defines the characters' worlds as they grow up in an environment where Alaskan’s autonomy and land rights are challenged. These feelings of autonomy are mirrored in the struggles of the characters, each of whom faces the challenge of belonging and loss in a shifting environment.
Ruth recalls her childhood with nostalgic longing; her parents led a simple life, and her father provided their food through hunting. Ruth feels her father died defending their independence and hunting rights against a centralized government. She longs for both her father and her mother, who faced a mental health crisis shortly after his death and left for an abbey. Ruth’s life is irrevocably disrupted by events relating to Alaska’s annexation to the US, representing a metaphorical parallel drift just as Alaska reached statehood. Like Ruth, Hank also links statehood to his father’s death. He was a fisherman who warned Hank about the changing effects of statehood, which Hank connects to the collapse of his family. Hank feels a responsibility to uphold his father’s beliefs and care for his younger brothers following the arrival of his mother’s abusive boyfriends. These linked losses of father figures and the creation of distant mother figures connect Ruth and Hank, deepening their bond and allowing them to confide in each other during times of personal and political turmoil.
As an Indigenous character, Dora extends the issue of environmental transformation. Dora grapples with her community’s trauma stemming from colonization. A long history of cultural genocide and land theft crashed Indigenous rights in Alaska and devastated the nations’ communal structure. Dora's parents have substance use disorders, and Dora experienced physical and sexual abuse from her father since childhood. Dora must also claim her Inupiat identity, as “[m]ost people in Fairbanks just lump all native people together” (27). She is also defined by the experience of racism, enduring racist jokes and sexually harassing comments by boys like Ray. Dora lives in fear and longs for a sense of belonging, which leads her to cling fearfully to Dumpling once she is welcomed into her family.
Young girls’ limited freedom in this context is also evident in Ruth’s life. Living in a rural community where her agency is restricted, Ruth’s life is decided by her strict Catholic grandmother. Ruth becomes pregnant and is sent to an abbey, but Ray’s life remains unimpacted, highlighting a lack of accountability for young men from wealthier families in Alaska. Alyce, for example, lives in a more affluent neighborhood with her mother, but she does not remain untouched by the community’s struggles: Her childhood is spent helping on her father’s boat. This setting is central to her character, as life at sea threatens to limit her dreams. The pressure of helping her father with the demands of commercial fishing makes her compromise her desires, demonstrating how economic factors impact teenagers and their sense of responsibility, particularly in isolated, threatened areas. Alyce wants to help her father but also dreams of attending the dance audition and earning the scholarship she needs. Hank, meanwhile, strives to replace his father and become “the man of the family” in his middle-class family (110). This role, however, becomes an immense burden for the 17-year-old Hank, ultimately leading to an escape attempt to leads to Sam falling from a ferry.
Because of their different racial and social backgrounds, the adolescent protagonists face diverse challenges on their coming-of-age journeys. However, they are united in their resilience and courage. Despite the limitations and obstacles that the adult world imposes on them, they manage to claim their own identities and find new senses of self and belonging as they approach adulthood.
Coping With the Trauma of Familial Disruption
Despite their diverse perspectives, all four protagonists experience the collapse or separation of their families. This form of childhood trauma is a common denominator in their stories and instigates part of their inner conflicts. By exploring the impact of childhood traumas and seeking resolution, the novel indicates how young people can forge their independent paths and diverge from their parents' life patterns. These traumas in the characters’ lives, and their respective coping methods and healing processes, also demonstrate the overlap in the challenges of familial disruption in the lives of all four young people.
Ruth’s family is disrupted after her father’s death and her mother’s mental health crisis, which occurred when Ruth was five years old. During her adolescence, Ruth’s happy childhood memories haunt her. She and her sister Lily grow up with their grandmother in a strict Catholic household that makes Ruth feel “homesick and suspicious” (4). She remains heartbroken over the loss of her parents, and her emotionally detached grandmother does not offer her a sense of family. The experience of teenage pregnancy exacerbates Ruth’s trauma, as she navigates it alone, with no familial support. Ruth cannot parent her child, but the decision to place it for adoption means another familial heartbreak. Like Ruth, Hank also sees his family disintegrating after his father’s death. He sees his mother unable to raise him and his brothers alone, and a series of abusive boyfriends further disrupts their home. Hank feels his childhood world collapsing; he is forced to grow to protect his younger siblings, which tests his courage and presents a significant source of conflict.
Dora’s family disruption connects to the trauma of colonization. Her parents are disconnected from Indigenous traditions in part due to the disruption of Alaska’s statehood, which could also be read as a contributor to the deep disruption in their home. Additionally, Dora copes with her parents’ substance use disorders and the traumatizing experience of domestic abuse and sexual assault by her father. Unlike the other protagonists, Dora finds no positive childhood memories to long for: Her father is the primary antagonist in her life, and her mother is rendered defenseless in the face of his extreme aggression. These experiences of familial turmoil are central to Dora’s character and define her view of life. Alyce, meanwhile, copes with guilt over her parents' divorce, which leads her to prioritize her parents’ wishes over her own desires. Alyce is willing to abandon her dream of becoming a dancer to assist with her father’s commercial fishing business simply because it would mean continuity and the prevention of additional disruptions.
Even though the novel explores the hardships of the teenage protagonists, by the end of the novel, they emerge successful in their coming-of-age journeys, each achieving a new sense of self and belonging. Through their stories, Hitchcock counters the stigma of adolescents who are unable to disentangle themselves from their families, demonstrating that young adults can forge their own paths and find their own identities. Despite their families defining much of their childhood selves, the young protagonists break from familial patterns to claim different and hopeful futures.
Finding Hope Through Friendship and Community
In the novel, the adult world imposes obstacles on the young protagonists’ intertwined journeys to adulthood, but these obstacles are mediated by their friendships with each other and their sense of community. Ruth, Alyce, Dora, and Hank each experience hopelessness as young people with limited agency in a changing social environment, amidst familial crises and traumas. However, self-created community and nurtured friendships help them overcome their trials. The intertwined narrative structure reinforces this theme and establishes the significance of connection between young people, particularly in a harsh, isolated environment.
Ruth’s freedom is restricted by her grandmother’s conservative values, and her friendship with Selma, Alyce’s cousin, helps her endure life’s challenges after losing her father and during her mother’s estrangement. In Selma, Ruth sees the “complete opposite” of herself, a young girl who loves life despite her struggles. While alone in the abbey, Selma’s letters keep Ruth in touch with home and remind her that she belongs somewhere. While the adult world—particularly through the lens of her grandmother—imposes a sense of shame on Ruth regarding her pregnancy, Selma recognizes her bravery and resilience, encouraging her to remain hopeful. Selma articulates a central idea in the story: Family can be both the one you are born into and the one you build. Selma tells Ruth, “We don’t have to be blood to be family” (132). Ruth also realizes this sense of chosen family in her meeting with Dumpling, who offers a different perspective on teen pregnancy, sharing that Indigenous communities always value newborn lives unconditionally. These connections remain with Ruth throughout her loneliness in the abbey.
When Hank’s path intertwines with Ruth’s, the two feel an instant connection, sensing each other’s troubles. Their unexpected meeting outside the abbey is an intimate moment that shifts part of their inner worlds and futures: It is a moment of rejuvenation through friendship. Hank endures through his challenging circumstances following his father’s death because he is determined to protect his brothers.
Alyce is largely reclusive due to her isolated childhood on her father’s boat, and her meeting with Sam opens a new world of emotions for her. The friendship provides her with a safe space to share her dreams about dancing, and Sam encourages her to talk with her father. As such, Alyce's saving Sam intertwines their lives. The intimacy she creates with Sam makes her realize her previous self-restraint, as well as her father’s love.
Even though the novel does not profoundly explore Indigenous lives with regard to historical context, Dora’s struggles are both distinct and connected to the other protagonists. The Indigenous community is fundamental to Dora’s survival and sense of belonging. At Dumpling’s, Dora finds the loving family she lacks, and despite their different ancestries, they act like sisters. Simultaneously, she also finds a family at fish camp, the traditional practice that brings the Indigenous communities together. Following the Indigenous tradition offers sustenance for Dora and helps her endure hardship during her coming-of-age journey. Fish camp feels “like being part of a family” because it helps Dora ground part of her identity and self in communal experience (94).
The novel ends with a hopeful tone, resolving many of the protagonists’ hardships as they claim their rights to their lives outside of the expectations of the adults around them. Ruth decides her baby’s fate by ensuring a hopeful future in a loving foster family. She articulates her desire to live a different life than the ones followed by her mother and grandmother, away from an abbey, and returns home with a renewed sense of identity and belonging. Dora, meanwhile, overcomes her fears and traumas by confronting her father and deciding to support her mother. These actions demonstrate her will to break a destructive pattern of abuse and free herself of any real ties to her father. Alyce, too, overcomes her guilt of her parents’ separation and follows her dream of becoming a ballerina. The protagonists’ stories negate social assumptions of stigmatization caused by familial crises and indicate the possibilities of a hopeful future beyond trauma.
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