Future Home of the Living God

by

Louise Erdrich

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Little Mary’s Messy Room Symbol Analysis

Little Mary’s Messy Room Symbol Icon

The mess in Little Mary’s room symbolizes the messiness of Cedar’s life, especially in regards to her complicated and strained family relationships. When Cedar is visiting her birth mother’s house for the first time, she is shocked to meet her younger sister, Little Mary—a sassy, hostile teenager who, as it happens, has a very messy room. While at her birth mother’s house, Cedar finally grasps the extent to which her engagement with her birth family will require a great deal of emotional energy and labor on her part. She hasn’t been willing to engage with this work thus far in life, but over the course of the story she slowly opens to the possibility of it. Her engagement with the mess in Little Mary’s room parallels this gradual willingness to untangle her knotty and complicated family life. At first, Cedar is disgusted by the mess in the room, and refuses to help her younger sister to sort through it. But by the end of the story, forced to flee into Little Marys’ room to temporarily avoid confronting her birth family and adoptive parents together, Cedar willingly begins to help Little Mary sort through the chaos. As the girls clean, they begin to speak more kindly to one another, and the story even closes with Little Mary wrapping her arms around Cedar lovingly. So, by avoiding her two families and fleeing into Little Mary’s messy room, Cedar actually ends up in the arms of more family, and her sorting through the room’s contents suggests that Cedar is beginning to open herself up to exploring her family relationships.

Little Mary’s Messy Room Quotes in Future Home of the Living God

The Future Home of the Living God quotes below all refer to the symbol of Little Mary’s Messy Room. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Isolation vs. Interconnectedness with Family Theme Icon
).
Future Home of the Living God Quotes

I look down. At my feet there is a box of black Hefty steel sacks, no doubt placed there by Sweetie as a subtle hint. I bend over, put my pack and computer where I hope I’ll find them again, and pull the first plastic bag from the box.

Related Characters: Cedar Hawk Songmaker (speaker), Mary Potts Almost Senior (“Sweetie”), Little Mary
Related Symbols: Little Mary’s Messy Room
Page Number: 479
Explanation and Analysis:
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Little Mary’s Messy Room Symbol Timeline in Future Home of the Living God

The timeline below shows where the symbol Little Mary’s Messy Room appears in Future Home of the Living God. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Future Home of the Living God
Isolation vs. Interconnectedness with Family Theme Icon
Non-Belonging and Forging Individual Identity Theme Icon
Growth and Age as Nonlinear Theme Icon
...She notes that Little Mary smells like “something going rotten” and glances at the girl’s room, which is a “stupefying dump.” Cedar than draws her attention to her grandmother, who has... (full context)
Isolation vs. Interconnectedness with Family Theme Icon
Non-Belonging and Forging Individual Identity Theme Icon
Growth and Age as Nonlinear Theme Icon
Cedar then returns to the living room and tries to speak to Little Mary. Cedar is still marveling over her younger sister’s... (full context)
Isolation vs. Interconnectedness with Family Theme Icon
Little Mary then asks Cedar to help her clean her filthy room, in a tone of voice much more modest and shyer than before. Cedar thinks to... (full context)
Isolation vs. Interconnectedness with Family Theme Icon
The two sisters are making progress on clearing away the mess when Little Mary asks Cedar what she’ll name her unborn child if it’s a girl.... (full context)