The Importance Of Having A Place - House - 1170 Words

Lucy, Ichiro and Esperanza stress the importance of having a place – house - they belong in and wonder where home is for them, hoping the discovery of home will lead to self-realization. Lucy says: â€Å"†¦my mother had said to me many times: for my whole life I should make sure the roof over my head was my own; such a thing was important, especially if you were a woman.† (Kincaid, 144). The fact that she ended up renting an apartment with Peggy remarks that she has started the process of becoming independent, although the apartment is only hers as long as she can afford to pay the rent. Although the apartment is only temporarily hers, it is the money she earned that let her acquire the authority to live in it. Similarly, Esperanza states: â€Å"Not†¦show more content†¦The prison which he had carved out of his own stupidity granted no paroles or pardons. It was a prison of forever† (Okada 38). Although he is physically at home, he is psychologicall y imprisoned by his decision not to join the American army and become an outcast. Home for Ichiro would be a state of mind that would let him embrace his decision and exist as American and Japanese at the same time. These characters’ quest for home makes them realize that perhaps they are looking for belonging in the wrong places. Minorities: Lucy, Esperanza and Ichiro, finally come to the conclusion that they cannot escape who they are, and that they would have to return home to become whole, instead of leaving home to fill the void. Even though Lucy wants nothing to do with her mother and writes her that she will never return home, she realizes that the thing she has been looking for this entire time – love of her mother– is the same love she is trying to erase. It takes her a while to realize this because throughout that novel she does not allow herself to feel, form attachments and seek closure, until Mariah gives her the Journal that would let her write her own story, unlike the book about women in society which contributes nothing to her self-realization. In addition to using writing as a way of liberation, facing reality enables her to see that she cannot run away from home forever, because her mother wrote her that â€Å"†¦she would