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Definition Essay-What Is Home?

1206 Words5 Pages

What is home? Since I was forced to leave my hometown, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, I have not been able to stop thinking about what home means for people who are trying to survive in exile. After much reading, reflections and discussions with friends on and offline, I have concluded that home is more complex than I’d ever imagined. I have arrived at the point where I doubt whether words could even capture the concept at all. So, what is home? People of different backgrounds have said so many things about home in so many ways. There’s the famous English idiom “home is where the heart is”, which means, per Oxford References Online, “a person’s home is not necessarily where one actually lives but where his affections are directed”. Similarly, Vernon …show more content…

A lot of things could be said in this regard. But for this essay, home should be understood as a concept or idea that is fluid, layered, shifting and relative depending on time, place and conditions of a person whose home is under discussion. Home could be adjustable or could have contrasting meanings such as happiness and sadness; the places and times to be remembered both for its goodness or badness such as joy, celebrations, festivity or oppression, dispossessions or for its savageries & cruelties. Home could also be very subjective reclamation of self and regaining of lost identity. For instance, the escaped former ISIS’s sex slaves in Syria can remember all these contrasting realties about her home after she has got to one of the western cities as refugees. Therefore, it could be changing, relative and …show more content…

For instances, most of the Jewish people, who were scattered all over the world since the destruction of their Temple by Romans in first century A.D (online Jewish Encyclopedia), had been longing to be in Jerusalem for about two thousand years before they established State of Israeli in 1948. Except for the first generation of exiles, it is safe to say that Jerusalem had never been known to generations of Jewish people who were longing, praying, and dreaming to go home which was, of course, Jerusalem. In this specific example, home could be even the spiritual sphere where a person having faith that she will go to by escaping from the injustices and evils that she faces here on

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1115 Words | 5 Pages

The migrant experience is a contradiction itself where the desire to find a safer and better habitation is ultimately disowned with the absence of belonging and feeling at home. Peter Skrzynecki’s anthology titled ‘Immigrant Chronicle’ explores this idea, notably in the poems, ‘Migrant Hostel’ and ‘Feliks Skrzynecki’, in which he gives a further insight into the isolation and exclusion they encounter in their start of a new life. Yet it is through this challenge that migrants attempt to conquer their disconnection and learn to adapt to the mainstream of society in their own way. The distant association that migrants have with acceptance into a community can spark feelings of seclusion, humiliation and solitude.

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464 Words | 2 Pages

The definition of 'home' is different for many people. Some people have no place to call home. To some, home is the place where family is at. To others, home is a state of mind, something completely resting on the beliefs or thoughts of the individual. The general idea of home is a place of safety and stability.

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173 Words | 1 Pages

Every person has their own definition of home. In the story “The Round Walls of Home,” Dianne Ackerman is saying her home is the earth. She uses the word “round” because the earth does not have walls like normal homes, but the walls are the outside of the earth, making it round in shape. When most people describe their home they would mention the color of the walls, what sorts of belongings, and how many rooms. But, Ackerman describes her home as a, “big, beautiful, blue, wet ball.”

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796 Words | 4 Pages

The home is generally constructed as a place of ownership, where we feel secure enough to “remove our masks” that we wear when we present ourselves to the rest of the world (293). Our homes often reflect our own or our family’s identity and are indicative of our lifestyles. The stories that are presented in Evicted reveal the intense levels of anxiety and anguish that surround the eviction process due to the nature of how we interact with our homes and the indestructible link that exists between a physical home and

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1847 Words | 8 Pages

How do you describe the characteristics and requirements of a real “home”? In the Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, the outspoken and bold character known as Leah Price experiences a major rift between her family and former American homelife that leads her to transfer her obsessions over acceptance by her father to the conflict within the Congo and her lover, Anatole. Leah’s failure to receive the approval from her father through religious excellence and prestige along with the death of her youngest sister, Ruth May, led her to resent the ideals and oppressive hand that her father had implemented since her birth. Anatole’s evident acceptance and admiration of Leah’s individuality allowed Leah to feel fulfilled in her need for acceptance by a

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1130 Words | 5 Pages

The word “home” is mentioned 138 times throughout Keeper N’ Me. It discusses foster homes, homelessness, Garnet’s many homes, other people’s homes and the home Garnet never thought he would find. There is a difference between a home and a house. The difference isn’t always clear to find, unlike the phrase “home is where the heart is” finding your home can be quite difficult if you don’t know where your heart lies. When Garnet joins Lonnie and his family you could say that his heart laid with them but eventually we learn that their home was not where he belonged no matter how invested his heart was in their family.

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688 Words | 3 Pages

Home is different, in hindsight, for everyone. It can be where family is, a place, a feeling, or an accomplishment. Mental travels to the peace of home and physical journeys can be very different. In Reminders of Him by Colleen Hoover, Kenna starts her story in her home. What Kenna goes through is more of an emotional journey.

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1230 Words | 5 Pages

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. Even if a person lives in poverty, they learn to make the best of it. For example, Jeannette and her family move

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872 Words | 4 Pages

As he goes across the country, he realizes that the concept of home isn’t just limited to a specific location. Matter of fact, he claims that the concept of home is subjective, stating, “The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun” (Krakauer 57). This quote shows Chris’s look on home as an ever-changing concept that is not just limited to one specific location or set of experiences. For Chris home is wherever he finds adventure and discovery, whether it’s on a deserted beach in Mexico or even in the deep Alaskan wilderness.

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1024 Words | 5 Pages

In the Novel “Homecoming” a family of children, the Tillermans, are having a rough time finding a place they can call home. There is many definitions for the word home, but to the Tillermans a home is place where they can not be separated. The children have been through and have thought about four homes, Cousin Eunice, foster care, Will and Claire, and their grandmother’s home. They chose to stay with their grandmother, but the children could have went to any of the other three homes. Each home offers something in both a positive and negative way, and the Tillermans prefer one home of the others.

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732 Words | 3 Pages

Gordon Waitt and Andrew Gorman-Murray, "It's About Time You Came Out The article talks about how the understanding of home and the understanding of self can become an enigma for a person who is unable to conform to the social expectations of the society he lives in. A man who does not conform to who is regarded as a "normal guy" in a given society will find it difficult to live in comfortably in his home. A 16-year-old Australian man view of home is disoriented because he is unable to fit in the social formations of that society.

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992 Words | 4 Pages

Everyone wants liberty. Everyone wants life. We can all agree on these fundamental principles. Home is where we can work towards these principles. Sir, you have a home- it is broken and desperately needing repair, but it is a

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974 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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1447 Words | 6 Pages

Home is My Life Burden 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.

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1700 Words | 7 Pages

In an ideal world there would be no horrible diseases, no crimes, no suffering. Unfortunately, this world is far from ideal and people are confronted with life changing challenges and decisions. One such difficult and controversial decision faced by many women today is abortion. While people choose abortion for different reasons, there seems to be no chance for a compromise between those who support it and those who are against it. The reality is that whether or not abortion is legal, a woman in a desperate situation will find another way to have an abortion.

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