In chp. 6, Ruth heard her voice speak out from the other side of the door to Nowhere, telling her to come in. She already lost a part of herself in the Nowhere, and by the end, the two voices overlapped…as if she was whole again.
Back in chp.5, Ruth told Otto she felt as if she didn’t belong to herself anymore,she had no say or control over what she did or how she felt. By the end of chp.6 when she finally got away from Otto and everything else which tormented her, it all remained the same…but worse.
She had no say or control over where she went in the Nowhere, let alone how she should feel about the horrors she saw, the Ferryman made her believe it was still better to open herself to the Nowhere rather than stay in the Counties. She inevitably looked at him as a savior
rather than a tormentor who brought her to a horrifying world. And although he remained committed to helping her as he offered his hand to her (unlike Otto), in the end, his intentions remained the same…to make her stay for the benefit of the eye entity it served.
Ruth did feel the sense of relief the Ferryman promised her, but the joy and relief she felt as she gazed at the eye entities hypnotic light, threw her mind into a state of mindless peace, just as it had done to so many others, making her forget any and all horrors she faced and saw in the Nowhere, and instead focus on what it could give her. Ruth said she felt like herself again as she gazed upon the eye entities opened eye, but she was no longer herself…and she no longer belonged to herself either, she belonged to “it” now.