Attachment and Detachment: A Stale Friendship

"It was Peggy who found the apartment. We were then still best friends. We had nothing in common except that we felt at ease in each other's company. From the moment we met we had recognized in each other the same restlessness, the same dissatisfaction with our surroundings, the same skin-doesn't-fit-ness. That was as far as it went" (145).
Throughout this book, I have come to realize Lucy's attachment to what she knows. She still surrounds herself with memories from her past because the are familiar. Although she claims a wish to separate herself from who she was back "home," she still relates herself to that person. I believe that it is the same with her relationship with Peggy. Peggy has been a constant friend who embraces Lucy's dissatisfaction with life, for she feels the same (as shown in the quote above). Lucy finds comfort in this familiarity, not allowing herself to experience a world away from Peggy. Analyzing the quote above, I noticed the line "were still best friends" and was automatically struck by the past tense. Lucy displays a skewed view of time throughout the book which I think strongly effects her emotional relationships. She makes her friendship with Peggy appear in the past tense, yet goes on to describe their apartment in immediate past tense to cause me to assume they are still friends. Her lack of a normal time line confuses the reader. I believe Lucy is confused herself because she doesn't know where she fits in the grand scheme of things. Peggy remains as a branch of that confusion, a person floating along in Lucy's life as Lucy tries to sort that out. Their relationship is strange, at times cold. But, I believe Peggy gives Lucy a sense of belonging in her confusion due to the fact she is familiar. Lucy tends to cling to what has been in an effort to gain perspective on what is. Unfortunately, I believe that Lucy's attachment to her past is exactly what is holding her back. Her relationship with Peggy is stale, no longer growing, and she must separate herself from that stage of her life in order to move forward. Peggy does not encourage her to find herself because Peggy does not understand, I believe, her own identity. Two people who are struggling to find themselves, both with negative opinions of the world and relationships cannot function in a proper, inspiring or healthy relationship.