Sanctuary

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses a violent act of sexual assault and includes graphic depictions of domestic violence and lynching, as well as alcohol addiction. The depictions of female characters in the novel are often based on misogynistic ideas. The source text uses the n-word, antisemitic language, and misogynistic language. Such language is reproduced in this guide only through quotations.

The notion of innocence, specifically that it can be lost or corrupted, is a significant theme in Sanctuary. Importantly, the idea of an innocence that can be irrevocably lost or taken away centers on the female characters in the novel. Ruby, for instance, had not always been cast out from the community. Her circumstances have taken her innocence, and therefore her social acceptability. For these women, the traumas they experience become public affairs that mark them as having lost their innocence. Instead of focusing on their personal feelings toward their experiences, this “loss” becomes about how the community treats them, turning Ruby into a pariah and Temple into a perfect victim.

Temple’s assault and abduction are the most obvious example of this theme. The narrative draws parallels between her life as a privileged university student and her life as Popeye’s captive, but Temple’s engrained behavior fades away the longer she is held captive.