Essay on the theme of home

Eggers shows the theme of home consistently in the novel, as Dave throughout has linked home to his mothers illness and in remembrance of his parents. On the first page Dave says ' The house is a factory' he uses this metaphor to describe his home purely because of his ill mother and how  the colour and happiness has vanished, instead he has become a carer and worker, he does not play the usual son role and so this affects his view upon his home,

Dave however when describing his family home is very detached and doesn't have an emotional attachment when describing it. He describes the family room as '...ultimate refection of our true inclinations' implying  it represents his family and how they once were when together, Using another  metaphor Dave then says 'It's always been jumbled, the furniture competing, with clenched teeth and sharp elbows, for the honour of the most wrong looking object' at first it seems to be describing this family room as loud and violent in colour yet it can also foreshadow how the family has been feeling as if they are an outcast to the outside world, Dave repeats the theme of being different and how people watch from the outside.

When Dave describes his new home with Toph there is a sense of  insecurity and a need to make it as home like as possible. Dave feels he doesn't fully give Toph the security that he needs in his life and so tries to attain it through their new home, '...for decoration and protection I paint two huge superheroes, Wolverine and Cable...' he uses childish lexical fields of comics which shows his youth and how protection is a must for Dave as he almost  feels as if death surrounds him.

Acceptance is another part of Dave and his new idea of home, 'Only here would we blend.Only here, by comparison, would we seem ho-hum' repetition of 'only here' exaggerates how already they feel a lot more accepted, he also uses the verb 'blend' this indicates that everyone has a story that him and Toph aren't the odd ones out no more, no longer seen as the orphans. By adding on 'by comparison' he's explaining that no one knows about the cancer in the new neighborhood and that no watches and look anymore as everyone is too wrapped up into their own life problems. Finally the word ho-hum which means boring, he seems happy to be accepted and to no longer to be judged and for his life to seem interesting as if he feels like his new home is somewhere he can restart.