Presentation of 'Home' essay

Examine the presentation of the theme of ‘home’ in the first 104 pages of ‘A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius’

 

Throughout the memoir ‘A Heart-breaking Work of Staggering Genius’ Dave explores the appearance and emotion of where he lives at different stages in the memoir and describes each very differently using a range of linguistic features reflecting his experiences. The theme home is clear at every stage of the memoir however changes very often reflecting his situation and where he currently is living.

 

 In the first couple of pages in the memoir of ‘A Heart breaking Work of Staggering Genius’, Dave explores and captures the audience straight away by the way he sets the scene and describes his house. ‘The house is a factory’ straight away we understand his family set up Is unnatural and not how a home should be portrayed. The fact that this is a metaphor very certain of what the house appears to be, it’s clear that there is something wrong in the family and a significant sign that something bad is going to happen. The noun ‘factory’ emphasises a range of ideas that come under its lexical field. It explores the idea of animalistic and processed daily life that isn’t warm or homely, except tense, unwelcoming and a horrible environment. Egger describes the homes appearance through explored linguistic features. He describes the house as ‘dark’, ‘inconsistent’, ‘ugly’, ‘jumbled’, all descriptive adjectives which emphasise the look and feel of a room. The fact he describes the interior and décor in this manor shows that the inside of the homes appearance reflects the family’s situation and circumstances being wrecked and broken.

 

Again, in the very first few pages of the memoir, we are introduced to some of the characters including Dave’s mother (Heidi McSweeney Eggers) who’s name is never mentioned in the book except only referred to as ‘mother’. We don’t know yet that she is ill but Dave drops small hints that give us clues in the early stages of the book. ‘I had not cleaned up… she could not get up to check’ the fact that the mother is seriously ill, has a very powerful effect on the home environment in this section and we learn how the family cope in the house. The small, declarative sentences used by Eggers emphasise there’s not much to explain even though there is, leaving out emotion and potential descriptive language he could have used reflecting how he feels and his current emotions towards his mother which he seems to hide. ‘She does not move from the couch’ the small actions and placement of characters that Eggers explains, shows off what the life inside the home is like. There clearly is no major movement or exciting events and everything seems dull and dismal, again, adding to the unappealing life of the home. 

 

There is a contrast to how the theme of home is portrayed later on in the memoir when Dave and Toph have to find a place and live on their own without their parents. ‘ re-create domestic life from scratch’ The fact that in this particular stage in the memoir Dave Is looking forward to living on his own suggests he has longed for the freedom for a long time, something he couldn’t do when he was restricted to looking after his parents. It’s clear throughout the long description of what Dave thinks life will be like, he fantasises through the use of extreme adjectives and descriptive vocabulary to emphasise his vivid dreams. Egger uses a diagram of the new house to show the layout. There’s a strong comparison of the feeling and emotion towards the house as Dave describes how the house’s layout is perfect for ‘sock sliding’. This is a strong link to the theme of home as Eggers uses multiple linguistic features including expressive punctuation to get across happy emotions and excitement compared to the dull and restricted family home he once lived in previously. For a while the novelty continues to remain strong however soon, there is a breakdown in order.

 

The novelty of no parents, freedom and reckless attitude eventually wears off the rebellious attitudes die out and this is clear through the way Dave describes a breakdown of order and the maintenance of the house. ‘We lost our inspiration’ typically is expected from two brothers; however the fact they let standards slip shows abuse of the home they longed for. However, the fact that they are lazy in keeping their home nice suggests the idea of comfort and safety, something which to them makes a home. ‘We scrape through everyday blindly’ Because they have no parents to tell them off, or guide them with keeping typical cleanliness to a good standard suggests that they start to feel lonely and abandoned, and possibly miss how their old house was kept. This is a major contrast to the family home at the beginning of the memoir as before, the house was immaculate and always kept tidy compared to Dave’s and Toph’s house now where they face reality of living on their own which is an adult and mature thing to do, however because they cannot maintain their home suggests their still both childish and still rely on others.

 

The entropy when there is a lack of boundaries within the home and between the two brothers. ‘Don’t …not funny’ Toph in this section clearly feels unsafe around his brother’s boisterous actions in the kitchen. The fact that now, after living in the house for a while, it seems that for Toph, sometimes he doesn’t like living with his brother. This makes the house seem unsafe for a relatively small child compared to before when they both thought it was fun and great living on their own. This relates back to the theme of home as it is worrying and unnatural for a child to feel unsafe in his home. Dave throughout the memoir is conscious of how Toph feels when Dave goes out in the evening and getting to places on time however seemingly doesn’t consider the effect of his own actions. The fact there are caesuras in Tophs speech reflects hesitation showing Toph is scared of how to approach his brother.

 

Together, the theme of home is reflected in many ways throughout the first hundred pages of the memoir. It is expressed through multiple linguistic features and terminology by the author. There is a clear swap and change in how home is presented through situations that occur and events such as moving house and their parents dying that force them to change their lifestyles. There are oppositional views on home later in the book compared to really early on when they discover freedom and responsibility, however this novelty wears off as they realise how much they relied on their parents to look after the home. Emotion changes also as the book moves on which to the reader is clear reflecting the characters own emotions and unreliable author.