The exclusion of a new family from the status of the founders exemplifies how, without outsiders to exclude and scapegoat, the citizens of Ruby are beginning to turn on one another. Pat’s confrontation with Misner has fractured her hope for the community, and it has opened her eyes (to some extent) about how she is complicit in Ruby’s tradition of exclusion. Her decision to burn the papers is at once a moment of defeat, as she gives up on her passion, and a moment of rebellion, as she challenges the importance of Ruby’s bloodlines.