Home Is My Life Burden Analysis

Home is My Life Burden
Home. An alternative life kept from the outside world. Others may see happiness but behind closed doors, it’s filled with tension. Life outside my home is my escape from the anxiety that’s built within the walls of a home. It’s not so much a family with my mother and I. We’re all separated, living different lives, but we’re good and stable. Others may know the outcome of how my family is now while a few know the story. My home has countless memories I don’t want to remember. It has shaped who I am today, especially them separating my little brother and I.
“On Going Home” talks about how difficult it is going back home to her family in the Central Valley of California and how uneasy it gets going back. The life she has between her child and husband is different from the one with her mother, father and brother. Her husband doesn’t understand anything that goes on in her family. For example, she says “Nor does he understand that when we talk about sale-leasebacks and right-of-way condemnations we are talking about the things we like best, the yellow fields and the cottonwoods and the rivers rising and falling and the mountain roads closing when the heavy snow comes in.” (Didion 2). The conversations she and her father have, is actually coded for something different. This also reflects the relationship my mother and I have.

It’s code for something else. That’s what happens with me and my mother. Other people ask me questions such as “What is she talking about? Do you understand her? How?” It’s hard because I don’t have a straightforward answer. I remember my mom speaking Laotian and me understanding what she’s saying. But some words I have trouble knowing what it means. Others think it’s crazy how I understand the language but don’t speak it. I know the basics, but it’s hard. Especially when I wasn’t taught at a young