Home is an emotionally powerful idea that has the potential to evoke strong responses from audiences in any form of communication. The meaning of home is different to each and every person, so it can draw widely varied responses from different people. When Sonsyrea Tate says that "you can leave home all you want, but home will never leave you" it could instill a feeling of dread in some readers, or a feeling of great joy in others, in addition to whatever other combination of deeply felt emotions the reader may be feeling.
The Grapes of Wrath is a work in which the characters may leave their homes, but their homes never truly leave them. Tom Joad is forced by the circumstances to become the major provider for his family, a major contrast to his position as an inmate while they still lived in Oklahoma. The family consisted of self-providing farmers who got by well enough on their own, but when they were unable to grow enough to survive, they were uprooted and it seemed like their whole lives changed. However, they still retained a few qualities that had been central to them at their home.
Family is very important when you are a farmer; when there are very few other people around, the bonds that are formed between family members are amazingly strong. An agricultural family works as a social unit to support each other against the face of a seemingly all-powerful force: nature. The Joad family tries to stick together throughout the story, but they are eventually split up as Tom again becomes a fugitive from the law, and the quality of home in the form of their family seems to be gone. It seems that their family is broken up, they have lost what held them together, and they are away from home in a hostile land where they can't survive like they used to. One could take away from this that they did indeed lose everything that had been theirs in their home. If all the details are accounted for, it would appear to be that while Tom may have lost almost all of what his "home" was, but there was still some with him. He refused to let the circumstances dictate his actions, and began to lead an effort to organize the farm labor of poor migrants with similar circumstances.
After losing his physical home, Tom found his home away from home in the form of his family. After being forced away from his family, Tom once again found a home in the form of the burgeoning organized labor movement that he became a part of. United once again with a group of people working to support one another against a seemingly all-powerful force, Tom retains an aspect of what his home was to him even though he has lost the most precious part of his home: his family, his farm, his livelihood. Home is not something that you can take away from somebody; it is a part of a person as much as their hands or their mind.
EDIT: I was responding to the following prompt:
The Grapes of Wrath is a work in which the characters may leave their homes, but their homes never truly leave them. Tom Joad is forced by the circumstances to become the major provider for his family, a major contrast to his position as an inmate while they still lived in Oklahoma. The family consisted of self-providing farmers who got by well enough on their own, but when they were unable to grow enough to survive, they were uprooted and it seemed like their whole lives changed. However, they still retained a few qualities that had been central to them at their home.
Family is very important when you are a farmer; when there are very few other people around, the bonds that are formed between family members are amazingly strong. An agricultural family works as a social unit to support each other against the face of a seemingly all-powerful force: nature. The Joad family tries to stick together throughout the story, but they are eventually split up as Tom again becomes a fugitive from the law, and the quality of home in the form of their family seems to be gone. It seems that their family is broken up, they have lost what held them together, and they are away from home in a hostile land where they can't survive like they used to. One could take away from this that they did indeed lose everything that had been theirs in their home. If all the details are accounted for, it would appear to be that while Tom may have lost almost all of what his "home" was, but there was still some with him. He refused to let the circumstances dictate his actions, and began to lead an effort to organize the farm labor of poor migrants with similar circumstances.
After losing his physical home, Tom found his home away from home in the form of his family. After being forced away from his family, Tom once again found a home in the form of the burgeoning organized labor movement that he became a part of. United once again with a group of people working to support one another against a seemingly all-powerful force, Tom retains an aspect of what his home was to him even though he has lost the most precious part of his home: his family, his farm, his livelihood. Home is not something that you can take away from somebody; it is a part of a person as much as their hands or their mind.
EDIT: I was responding to the following prompt:
2010, Form B.
“You can leave home all you want, but home will never leave you.” —Sonsyrea
Tate
Sonsyrea Tate’s statement suggests that “home” may be
conceived of as a dwelling, a place, or a state of mind. It may have positive
or negative associations, but in either case, it may have a considerable
influence on an individual. Choose a novel or play in which a central character
leaves home yet finds that home remains significant. Write a well-developed
essay in which you analyze the importance of “home” to this character and the
reasons for its continuing influence. Explain how the character’s idea of home
illuminates the larger meaning of the work. Do not merely summarize the plot.
What I like about this essay is the fact that you emphasize how when Tom is forced to leave his actual family, he still desires to maintain the sense of family and community that has been instilled by his agrarian upbringings. In order to do this, he creates a sort of surrogate family in his union brothers, and you really do a good job of explaining that. I think that part really does a good job of sticking to the prompt, as the reader does not have to do much work to understand how the labor family relates to home.
ReplyDeleteTo me, this essay could be improved by adding more details about different characters in the book. For example, something about how the grandpa and grandma both died from what many would say is homesickness might be appropriate, and could demonstrate that truly being removed from home results in the death of one's character. I would also say that a stand-alone conclusion would be helpful to tie your ideas together and give a sense of finality to the essay.
I liked this essay because even though I haven't read Grapes of Wrath, I understood what this essay was about and how home remains a part of Tom. I like how you repeated the phrase: "seemingly all-pwerful force." It helped tie together the two different families that Tom has, first his original family and then his family with the labor movement. I would disagree with John about adding more details about different characters in the book because the prompt only mentions the main character, so you should focus on the main character. I agree with John that you do a good job talking about how Tom maintains a family, however, I didn't really get much of how the character's idea of home illuminates the larger meaning of the work. Also, I would copy the prompt at the top of your post so that we don't have to look for which prompt you responded to. Other than that, good job!
ReplyDeleteFirst and foremost, this essay on first read is at a high standard, much better than mine by a long shot. You don’t deviate from your main idea, which made this essay flow smoothly. Your example of Tom from The Grapes of Wrath, I think, is perfect for this essay. You describe the qualities of what home means to you and how this can be seen in the novel. Tom can find a home in any place due to desire to continue to want to have the family feeling. Also I liked the last sentence of the essay. The way a person has their hand and their mind is much like a family, you really cannot lose that.
ReplyDeleteFor improvements, I think a slight bit more of detail about the actual situations in which Tom had to work hard to create some family. Maybe talk about the many movements the family had to make. Dealing with the deaths of Grandmother and Grandfather en route to California and how Tom rebounded from this might be a good addition. And as John said, a conclusion paragraph might be useful to connect your ideas, which are really quite splendid.