Richard Wagamese: The Importance Of Home In 'Keeper N' Me

Loneliness is debatably one of the most horrible feelings existent within society. It strikes every living soul at one point or another, as it takes an immensely deep emotional toll. A profound part of what contributes to the feeling of loneliness is isolation. During the great depression in the 1930’s many people suffered from imaginable loss including loneliness and separation from others. Of mice and men is a novel written by John Steinbeck, the novel follows a group of individuals during this time period of depression, and their daily adversities and interactions with others. Of Mice and Men is a novel, about closeness to others, but generally the story articulates that those outside of social norms suffer from isolation and loneliness.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is a story of a young Mexican girl growing up in the United States. Her name is Esperanza, and the novel takes the reader into her mind and heart as she reminisces about her childhood and what she hoped for in her future. Throughout the novel, Cisneros uses various symbols to highlight the inner conflicts within Esperanza. One of those symbols is shoes. Cisneros uses shoes symbolically throughout the novel to represent parts of Esperanza’s thoughts, emotions, and dreams as she undergoes a transformation from childhood innocence to the realities of adulthood.

“You know, I hearda this guy runnin’ around tryin’ to tell folks he be Hawaiian. A man can’t be his own person if the man don’t know himself. Right, Mama?” (pg. 31) “Keeper’n Me” by Richard Wagamese is a story about finding one’s identity, the balance required in life, the importance of finding your own history and reconnecting with lost friends and family. Garnet Raven did not have an easy life growing up, being moved from foster home to foster home for most of his childhood and being separated from his siblings. After leaving the foster care system at the age of sixteen Garnet struggled to find his own Identity. Most of the foster homes Garnet stayed in didn’t tell him about where he was from or what his history was; he was always just

Society defines home as “a house, apartment, or other shelter. It is the usual residence of a person, family, or household” (“Home”). In The Glass Castle, Jeannette’s definition of home suggests that it is a place for friends, comfort, love, happiness, and financial security. However, home is a complicated topic that can be interpreted in many ways. The Glass Castle clearly describes the pessimistic attributes of home, such as a lack of support and poor parenting. However, the positive attributes of home outweigh it’s negatives in its definition; therefore home is a place where individuals feel secure financially and emotionally.

Imagine you are walking in a city, and amongst the crowded street, you notice a man. He isn’t walking, just sitting down out of sight. He doesn’t make a sound. However, he stands out the most out of everyone else. As you pass you see a cardboard sign with the writing asking for money in the corner of your eye. In addition, to his unpleasant smell, long beard, and messy hair it seems he is invisible. So many people pass by him still they walk on with their day as if nothing even happened. They just look at him with either pity or disgust, and even both. Often times, people experience things in their life that often force them to lose everything and live out on the streets, or many times it is by choice that they live on the streets. Frequently, we just pass by people and look down on them since they have no home; but who is to say they don’t have a home? Home is not the house you live in or the country you belong to. It is a place that incites certain feelings and those feeling are what makes a place home. The people on the streets with no “home” may simply find that anywhere in the world is where they call home. Home has two specific set of values that make it more than just a place which are privacy, and safety.

Maya Angelou once wrote that “the ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned”. Many people go through life searching for a place to call home - a place to belong, a place they can truly be themselves. But home is more than just a place. It is more than the walls that surround us, more than the doors we walk through and the roof over our heads. Home is a feeling. It is where you are not afraid to make mistakes because forgiveness is right around the corner. It is the breaths of relief after realizing you have pulled to shore, away from the raging ocean tides. When immersed in a foreign country surrounded by unfamiliar people, it becomes difficult to recreate the feeling of “home”. For instance,

“Home is where the heart is” (Unknown). Meaning how homes are made of families and love. In the novle Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech, Sal changes due to the settings, Bybanks, Kentucky, Euclid, Ohio, and Lewiston, Idaho.

How would you like it if you were always moving around from home to home and your parents didn’t take very good care of you? In the Glass Castle, Rex and Rose Mary Walls’ unconventional parenting style greatly affects how Jeannette and her siblings are brought up in the world. As the Walls family packs up and moves from place to place, subtle changes begin to take place in the tone of the book. While living out west, the Walls family is still living in poverty, but her parent’s personalities are more light-hearted. When the six of them pack up and make their final move as a whole family, the severity of their situation begins to take a negative toll on everyone. Living in poverty proves difficult for every member of the Walls family, and the

The Novel, The Great Gatsby, was written in 1925 by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. During the summer of 1922 Nick Carraway, the book’s narrator, takes a job in New York as a bond salesman. He rents a small house on Long island, West Egg. Nick gets to meet his mysterious neighbor in West Egg, a young millionaire named Jay Gatsby (He is the main character in this book). Jay Gatsby always has parties at his mansion in West Egg where all the celebrities and rich people show up. One day Nick gets invited to his neighbor party and there he meets Gatsby for the first time and this book is about their relationship and Gatsby’s love for Nick’s Aunt, Daisy. No one is perfect and everyone has flaws and the purpose of this essay is

“Throughout life, we are put into boxes to categorize how people see and know us. This is how stereotypes originate, because people would rather read labels on the box instead of taking a look and seeing what’s inside.” (Rodriguez 154). In her memoir, The Pregnancy Project, writer Gaby Rodriguez gives details about how she was able to fake her own pregnancy while also hiding the truth from her siblings, boyfriend’s parents, and her entire community. Gaby reveals everything that she learned from the experience. Nevertheless, Gaby’s story is about challenging stereotypes, and she found the strength to come out from the shadow of low expectations to make a bright future for herself. I enjoyed Gaby’s inspirational true story caught my attention and had it for the entire time.

When I returned to my family’s cramped tenement I was too exhausted to thoroughly examine the book. Home didn’t feel very different from what I was used to in the factory. It was much cooler because it was just me, my mother, and father; however, it was still very cramped, and had that same smell of moldy paint.; I quickly bathed and scrubbed off the layer of grime from the factory. I ate my meager helping of food and fell asleep admiring this little red

In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald illustrates society in the 1920’s and the desire for the people with in it to achieve the American Dream, which embodies the hope that one can achieve power, love and a higher economic/social status through one’s commitment and effort. The novel develops the story of a man named Jay Gatsby and his dream of marrying what he describes as his “golden girl”, also known as, Daisy Buchanan, his former lover. Fitzgerald explores the corruption of the American dream through the Characters; Myrtle, Gatsby and Daisy.

The novel Watership Down is a book about finding home. Home is a tough subject to tackle. What is home? How does one make home? In the book, home is where the people you care about are.

Home. An alternative life kept from the outside world. Behind closed doors, it can be filled with tension but others may see happiness. Life outside my home is my escape from the anxiety that’s built from within the walls of what is called my home. But now, it’s not fully a family with just me and my mother. We’re all separated, living different lives, but we’re good and stable. Others just know the outcome of how my family is right now while a few know the whole story. My home has so many memories I don’t want to remember, but it has shaped who I am today, especially being separated from my little brother and the events leading up to it.

When it comes to “The book of Ruth” in the bible and “The Human Comedy” by William Sorayan, both of these text also show how individuals leave there home town or state to be either with their families or to provide for themselves and their households. The book of Ruth shows how Naomi loses all of her sons, in a sense she basically lost her home. She did not have anyone to support her or be there for her so that really had an impact in her life. In my opinion a home has to have some sense of support, love, and companionship because being lonely can have a hug impact. Luckily Naomi had her daughter in las Ruth come along with her back home. Ruth left her home and family to give companionship to her mother in law. What really open my perspective