Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson

Foster family: Younger generation

• Ruth "Ruthie" Stone – the narrator of the story. She shares a name with the Biblical Ruth, who also accompanied an older female relative (her mother-in-law, Naomi) on a journey.
• Lucille Stone – Ruth's younger sister, who comes to crave a more stable life.

Foster family: Middle generation

• Molly Foster – the oldest of the three Foster sisters, who leaves Fingerbone to do missionary work as a bookkeeper in "Honan Province" in China.
• Helen Stone (née Foster) – the middle of the three Foster sisters. She is the mother of Ruthie and Lucille. After her marriage, she moves to Seattle with her husband, and returns to Fingerbone several years later to commit suicide. Sylvie says that Helen was not close to her father.
• Reginald Stone - Helen's husband and the father of Ruthie and Lucille, who disappears from their lives at a young age. He works as a salesman, selling "some sort of farming equipment."
• Sylvie Fisher (née Foster) – the youngest of the three Foster sisters, who comes to Fingerbone to take care of Ruthie and Lucille after the death of her mother/their grandmother. She is "about thirty-five" when she returns to Fingerbone.
• Mr. Fisher - Sylvie's husband, who repaired motors in the Pacific Theater of the Second World War. His first name is never revealed.

Foster family: Older generation

• Sylvia Foster – Ruth and Lucille's grandmother and the mother of Molly, Helen, and Sylvie. Sylvia lived her entire life in Fingerbone, accepted the basic religious dogma of an afterlife, and lived her life accordingly.
• Edmund Foster – Ruth and Lucille's grandfather, Sylvia's husband, and Molley, Helena, and Sylvie's father ("papa"). He was raised in a house, dug out of the ground, in the "Middle West." He is consumed with wanderlust and a desire to paint mountains. This desire leads to his job on a train and the related events form the foundation of the novel. Working on the train, he is killed in its crash into the lake of Fingerbone.
• Lily and Nona Foster – Sylvia Foster's sisters-in-law (i.e., Edmund's sisters), who moved from the Midwest to Spokane, to be closer to their brother. After Sylvia's death, they temporarily move from Spokane to Fingerbone to take care of Ruthie and Lucille. When this becomes too difficult, they summon Sylvie.

Other characters

• Bernice – a friend of Helen's who lived below Ruthie, Lucille, and Helen, when they lived in Seattle. Bernice worked in a truck stop. She urged Helen to visit her estranged mother, even lending Helen her car (the same car that Helen drives over the cliff into the lake).
• Ettie – a friend of Ruthie's grandmother, Sylvia Foster. A tiny old lady, whose skin was the color of toadstools.
• The Sheriff of Fingerbone - an older man (he is a grandfather) who has served as the town sheriff for decades. Although he has dealt with many murders and other violent crimes, he is uncertain how to deal with Sylvie's apparent neglect of Ruth and Lucille. Eventually he informs Sylvie that there will be a hearing regarding Ruth's future.
• Mr. French - the principal of Ruth and Lucille's school. He becomes concerned by their truancy.
• Miss Royce - the home economics teacher at Ruth and Lucille's school. Lucille eventually moves in with her.
• Miss Knoll - Ruth's teacher