Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window and Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping both demonstrate isolation through interaction between neighbors, dialogue, setting or mise-en-scène, the shots, close-ups and camera cuts. People may be close to each other in a physical sense, but, on a deeper level, they are disconnected. They may interact and it will only happen fleetingly. While the novel and film both demonstrate isolation, their methods of doing so differ as there are some things each medium can do that the other cannot. The neighbors in Rear Window rarely interact throughout much of the film. Jeff scans the yard and sees the Sculptor leaving her apartment to sit in a chair. Above her, Mrs. Bird leans out the window and says, "Good morning." It must repeat itself before the Sculptor responds. The Bird Lady then takes her bird to her window and does not reappear. The Sculptor doesn't recognize "good morning" the first time because she doesn't expect any of her neighbors to speak to her. Even if they exchange good mornings there is no further interaction, it is just a superficial relationship that goes no further. The Sculptor interacts with her neighbors when she heads upstairs to talk to Thorwald. The Sculptor is physically separated from him as she has to lean over the ladder and fence. This boundary is a physical manifestation of the emotional boundary between the two individuals. The interaction between the Sculptor and Thorwald emulates the interaction between her and the Bird Lady, but this time she has taken on the role of the Bird Lady. He's talking down to someone who isn't expecting interaction. Thorwald doesn't want the Sculptor's help, because... halfway through the paper... after seeing her in a context separate from himself, Jeff discovers something about Lisa that he never knew before. Know. The two must have been intimate with each other, as implied by the nightgown she is wearing, along with Doyle's glances at the nightgown that suggest he knows Jeff and Lisa are engaging in sexual activity with each other. While the neighbors in Rear Window live next door to each other, they don't know each other very well. Sylvie and the girls live even closer to each other than their neighbors, but at times they too are almost strangers to each other. Throughout the film as well as throughout the novel, some instances show how individuals are not always connected to each other, no matter how close they may be physically. Sometimes the people closest to us are as unknown as those we have only occasionally greeted.