English 122
Glen Silva
Sec. 2738
Essay #2: Compare and Contrast
Each person has different ideas on where and what "home" is. Some may say home is where the heart is, others may think home is where one has a solid foundation of memories. In the essay "I Must Be Going" by Richard Ford, he explains how moving is one of Americans anxieties, yet does is so often; Ford feels home is wherever he makes it. In the essay "Homeplace" by Scott Russell Sanders, he gives the idea that settling down and making part of this earth a part of you and working hard will lead to a feeling of "at-homeness." The two essays are different in believing where home is, yet "home" in both essays contain certain love that gives us the idea that even the most opposite types of people have something in common.
"Home" is thought of as a physical being, but in these essays, home is a feeling; a feeling of comfort and love which come in many shapes and sizes. "Home" can be brought on by sights, smells and most important, the memories of those senses. Ford shows that the most important aspects of feeling at "home" is "the important place that holds you, always meant that: affection, love" (110). He says this before he tells us about how he and his wife were broken down in Nebraska in the late 70's and his wife says, "I've just gotten so sleepy now. I've got to go home and sleep." "Home?" Ford says... His wife laughs, "Just back to the motel. Where else?" (110). Home is where this couple is making it. They are broken down in the hottest time of the year away from their house, yet still feel that warm feeling of "home."
Wix 2
Sander's idea of love being the most important part of "home" is very similar. The Millers, in Sander's essay encounter three tornadoes in Ohio. Each tornado practically makes the family start from scratch in building a new house and replanting all of their crops. Yet, even though this family has to rebuild a new house, they are