A Comparison Between Rose in "Rose" and Other Dubus Characters

Andre Dubus creates characters which all have very different struggles and life stories. When considered together, though, the reader can see that many of the characters have strong similarities which in a way connect all of the stories.

The most obvious similar character to Rose in the stories we’ve read is Matt in Killings. Both Rose and Matt have lost connection with their children in some way. Rose feels like an outsider as she witnesses her husband abusing her three kids and Matt loses his son Frank through murder. A very literal similarity surfaces in both characters’ response to the abuse and murder of their kids: Rose and Matt both end up killing the person responsible. After this deed, both characters seem to live their life in a daze, shocked by their own behavior and disconnected by their actions from the real world. However, Rose and Matt also are very different in the ways they chose to kill Jim and Strout respectively. Rose’s was a crime of passion, and she lost control of her emotions in the heat of the moment as she ran over Jim’s body. Matt’s crime was more quiet, intricately planned, and altogether disturbing. While Matt actually had time to sort out his feelings and consider the consequences of his actions, he still committed a crime just as horrifying as Rose’s in the frenzy after saving her children from their father and the fire. Regardless of the circumstances, both characters found enough anger and grief in their hearts to throw away all of their values and commit murder.

Rose is also very similar to Yvonne, a more minor character in If They Knew Yvonne. Both women were in a loveless relationship, and both women were passive about their situation. Yvonne recognized that she and Harry, the main character, were engaged in a purely physical relationship. This drained her self-confidence and led her to a state of grim acceptance of her situation. Similarly, Rose witnesses and understands the nature of her husband Jim’s abusive behavior towards their children. She grows passive towards both the abuse and her own terrible relationship with her husband. While she hates herself for doing what she knows is the right thing in standing up for herself and the kids, Rose stands idly by until the very end of the story.

Matt, Yvonne, and Rose are just three Dubus characters who connect in their struggles, their emotions, and their actions. The short story author tells of different characters living in different worlds who are somehow very much the same.