What is Home, and Can You Go There?

“Home is where the heart is.”: Shakespeare
“Home is the place where, when you have to go there,
They have to take you in.”: Robert Frost
“You can’t go home again.” Thomas Wolfe

Writers have a lot to say about home. It is one of the themes of a human life. Home makes us who we are.

If hearing voices or seeing illusions means a person is crazy, then I am certifiable. My characters come to see me all the time. Writing books say “build” a character. Mine come already built. It’s my job to get to know them better. Home shapes these people.

Example: A man grows up with no real home – no family, and when the devil tempts him, he succumbs and then realizes what he has done.

A woman marries a charming man. He is a charming liar. He violates the marriage vows and has the audacity to want to come home. She refuses.

A woman“grows up” and moves away. When her husband dismisses her, she realizes she has never been herself – just what he wanted her to be. She goes home, but on her own terms.

A family is so ashamed of a relative they won’t let her come home, dead or alive.

I encourage your comments about home. What is home?