Eggers presents the theme of home in many different ways. Firstly he presents home to be a place of work rather than relaxation, as he describes the "house is a factory". The use of the metaphor gives us this as before he described the "exhaust" to be tumble into the "white sky" emphasising the imagery of a factory with smoke coming out of the chimney. This is used because Eggers feels that he works more in an environment that he is supposed to enjoy and be free as he wants to live but instead expresses his misery through this metaphor. Also the connotations of "factory" reflects to hard working manual labour and perhaps corruption of its nearby surroundings - for example the smoke causes pollution and acid rain.
The home seems to be severely affected by the effects of the parents illnesses as well as the people involved,but it also seems to be a reflection of the family's relationship becoming unstable. The home is shown to be neglected and not cared for- much like the Toph and Eggers. Eggers points out that the "family room is usually dark" because of the number of large elm trees that blocked the windows. This shows that due to the parents illness for the lack of catering around the house means that even the everyday resource of light is restricted symbolising life has almost forgotten about them and that there is no hope. Furthermore the interior could also reflect the family's relationship as the carpets are "off white wall to wall" meaning grey and that the connotations of "grey" suggest dull, fading of it's usual colour. Also the door "hanging on one of the three hinges" could symbolise that their family is similarly hanging by a thread.
Furthermore the use of the determiner, 'usually' gives the sense that this is an occurrence therefore the family had accepted that suffering of the house and possibly relationship is doomed between parents and children.
Some really good interpretations here. It works very well when linked to techniques - when you talk about the connotations of the adjective "grey" and the metaphor of the "factory" you are starting to hit the criteria. Use more terminology in each paragraph. Also start to show awareness of structure and form by linking different parts of the memoir together to show how the structure enables us to form a picture of the memory he has chosen to share e.g. contrast this home with the subsequent homes.
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