The theme of ‘home’
in AHWOSG
At the very beginning, Eggers first description is of the ‘small
tall bathroom window’. By using the two juxta positioning adjectives ‘small’
and ‘tall’, this portrays the unpredictable moments in Dave’s life, also one of
the connotations with small is short, so to use the lexis ‘tall’ in contrast to
this shows that Dave’s home life is different to what the social norm is. This
also makes the reader imagine the scenario where it is difficult for Dave to
reach and see clearly out of the window, which could be a metaphor for him not
being able to see and predict his future, or it could also be Eggers suggesting
that Dave cannot see when and who is going to pass away next in his life, and
the anticipation and fear of not being able to see scares Dave. Later on in
this description he describes the distorted view out the window from his
position, that the ‘December yard is gray and scratchy, the trees calligraphic.’
The connotations the reader thinks of when they see the preposition December are
coldness, snow, family, Christmas and in a way, cheerfulness but Eggers has described
outside with the adjectives ‘gray’ and ‘scratchy’ which is opposites to what
the month of December is supposedly all about. This is effective because it is
reiterating the fact that Dave doesn’t have a ‘normal’ home, and that instead
of running around in the snow, or having happy times with family, he has to
look after his sick and dying mother and eggers uses the adjective ‘scratchy’
which has connotation with illness and pain to hint about his mother. ‘gray’ is
a faded, depressing and miserable colour, so to describe nature that is
supposed to be vivid and bright this shows Eggers view on the world. ‘Calligraphic’
is a noun, and is known as decorative handwriting, or the art of producing
decorative handwriting. To describe the trees in this way sounds eerie, but
beautiful, because handwriting is carefully laid out and made, perfected with a
pen and so he could be suggesting that although he views nature in a dark
aspect he does believe that it was carefully hand crafted and beautiful.
Linking this with the theme of home, eggers could be suggesting that because
outside the home is dark and depressing he would rather be inside his home with
his family than out in the world exploring, however he could also be suggesting
that his home is oppressive and he wants to break free from the ties of his
home because he is unhappy there and wants to go and explore the beautiful
unknown.
Eggers calls the house ‘a factory’ which is a noun that has
connotations with work; we can infer from this that eggers doesn’t believe that
he has a home with his family, and that coming ‘home’ is just like coming to
work, and the connotations of the noun work is stress, tiredness, and pressure.
Eggers uses repetition a lot in his memoir which is quite effective because it
tends to reiterate his point more and makes the reader read more in to what he
is saying. He repeats the noun ‘sofa’ on page two, and uses the transitive verb
to describe that his ‘mother is on the couch’. Laying on the couch has connotations
with laziness, relaxing, illness, unproductiveness or tiredness. At the start
of the description his mother was just sat on the couch, with him saying that
she was able to walk and go out but at the end he says she’s ‘not moving from
the couch, reclining on the couch during the day and sleeping there at night.’
In a way eggers is stating that his mother is a constant at home, but we know
that at the end of the chapter she passes. On this page it also reiterates the
idea of Dave working when he gets home, and that because he had lost his father
and his mother was too sick to even get up off of the couch he had to look
after the house, which in the time it was more likely that the role and responsibility
of housekeeping is left with the mother.
Egger's describes his family home with adjectives like ‘clean’
and ‘classy’ as well as describing it as being ‘decorative looking' with family
heirlooms and antiques but however his description of his home with him and Toph
is that it is dirty, his couch is ruined (unlike at the start) and his house is
described more as a 'bachelor pad' rather than a family home. Eggers suggests
that Dave is more focused on a home he can play and mess around in because he
wants to break free from what responsibilities he had around the house with his
whole family in the past, so he passes a lot of the chores on to Toph. This shows
his childlike state of mind, and how he wasn't ready to grow up and move in to
a house and make his home yet, but because of his parents passing he had to. There
is more description of the home as a noun at the start, and it turns in to more
of an abstract noun as the memoir carries on. Eggers focuses a lot on car
journeys, which could be a metaphor for Dave not wanting to settle down yet.
The car journey represents the idea that Dave doesn’t know where home is, or
what home is. He’s not sure where he’s going, and he’s stuck between needing to
look after Toph, but also wanting to live his life like people his age are too.
[Here is where my mind goes blank, I'm not sure whether I've done this correctly!]
