"Home" by Toni Morrison starts with a short chapter based on the first person, that has been narrated by a man called Frank Money. This book tells more about the life of twenty-four year old Frank Money, who is an African-American war hero, and his journey back home after being discharged from the army into an isolated homeland. Frank suffers Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD) as a result of having lost two closest friends in war front and killing many people including a young girl. He drowns in drinking through the year after returning home and ends up becoming homeless. The recurrent Frank’s behaviors land him in a psychiatric ward where escapes and goes back to his home town, hoping that he would save his sister from a life threatening disease. Making his way back home, he is faced by many challenges especially because he is black and the society he is coming back to is still hit by racial discrimination.
Plot summary
Over time, Frank’s plans, to rescue his sister, their bond towards each other becomes more and more clear and verifiable. Frank and, his sister Cee Money, are the major characters of Toni Morrison’s Home. Frank is feeling responsible for his sister because, as they grew up, they did not enjoy the love of their parents and this was made worse by their abusive grandmother. Therefore, he needed to protect her by all means as he did not have any other close family member left by his side. He takes up the role of a guardian towards Cee due to the negligence of their parents and the need to make up for all the horrible things he did in the army at war. This responsibility take by Frank creates the author’s one of the most significant and important themes of the novel(Ron, 2012).
In the second chapter, Frank comes up as an adult who will do anything to get to his sister even if it means be violent to free himself. In the mental hospital, he is tied to the bed and is pretending to be fast asleep hoping that he could play a trick to the doctors to skipping his medication and loosening the restrains so that he could escape from the institution. In this state, he is afraid of getting to Cee late as he received a note telling him that she was very sick and could die anytime. He manages to escape from the mental hospital early in the morning and runs barefooted to a church where he is helped by a black reverend who offers him food, a pair of shoes and a couple of dollars to cater for his travels(Morrison, 2012). Up to now, he is not sure of the reasons that got him to a mental hospital but he knows that it had to be for a violent reason. Frank frequently thinks about his periodic panic attacks and occasional violent moments that had followed him since the Korea war and he decides to reduce his drinking to gain more control of himself to focus on his sister.
This is the single most important reason why Frank embarks on a journey south back to Lotus, Georgia; he is anxious to rescue his sister Cee after she was in dangerous hands. Cee went experienced a series of challenges also with Frank gone due to the lack of comfortable and habitable living conditions she had been subjected to. Again, Frank wanted to do the best for her same as he been doing since he was a child. Frank needs someone to protect and the only one left is his sister and so, takes up thisrole for most of the book. Consequently, Frank satisfies his need to redeem himself by loving his sister unconditionally. Frank ascertains, “I’ve had only two regular women. I liked the small breakable thing inside each one.” His need to feel wanted becomes the reoccurring theme throughout the book(Morrison, 2012). This is evident when he says, “When…I caught my image in a store window, I thought it was somebody else. Some dirty pitiful-looking guy…Right then, I decided to clean up.” From this moment, Frank’s relationship with Lily begins, though having a forceful self-hatred that has been printed within him since his deployment to Korea. However, the relationship ends living him to focus on what was initially his role, his sister coming first. After all, he was always going to be the guardian and his sister, who needed him more than Lily did. He felt like he was nobody without Cee, and had no purpose.
Their childhood clearly showed that Cee’s role was basically that of being helpless character that always needed to be protected, while Frank’s role was to be a fearless protector. The author has done a great piece of work trying to portray the characters in the book as dependence towards each other. However, their relationship could be mistaken if the reader does not pay close attention to the roles of each character in the book. Frank away his violent trends that he had acquired from the time he was deployed to Korea. In the beginning, he thinks that he needs the rage that had followed him from the killings Korea to get to his sister. Before finding his sister, his mindset changes drastically. He could not let things get sour and put the life of his sister in danger under any circumstances.
Despite Frank’s effort to shield Cee from the evils of the world, this task becomes even harder to do as Cee becomes an adult. He knew that he could not protect her from everything such her infertility, which leaves a permanent scarring on her. Despite Frank being such a caring and loving brother, he could not teach Cee to be a woman.
Themes
The author depicts the limits of empathy as a major theme in the novel. Frank is appears to be haunted by the lives he took during the war in Korea and the effects they had on him as a normal human being. He also sympathizes with his sister who she has left without someone to look after her. She is scared of losing her to illness and experiencing any sense of discomfort in her life. However, the society that Frank comes back to is not so welcoming even with the soldiers that have devoted their lives to keeping them safe. The people’s ignorance to understand what soldiers experience in the battle field, and their inability to help them out shows the limits of their empathy in a community setting. The homeland lacks empathy towards people of based on their race and gender definition(Cohen, 2012).
Franks family’s lack of affection and in despicable negligence is brought out by their parents work schedules. They have no time for their kids and they are therefore subjected to living with an abusive grandmother. The problems they face as kids tend to follow them even when they become adults.
Determination has been clearly been shown by Frank’s efforts to attend to his sister. He is willing to take all the risks to assume the responsibility of a guardian despite him suffering mental problems. After the war in Korea, he comes back purposely to look after Cee and make sure no harm comes her way. He is also willing to use violence to escape from the mental hospital and walk barefooted while snowing to go see his sister. Frank is driven by determination and the love he has towards his girlfriend and sister.
Works Cited
Charles, Ron. "Toni Morrison’s Home, a Restrained but Powerful Novel." The Washington Post (2012).
Leah Hager Cohen. "'Home,? a Novel by Toni Morrison." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News " Multimedia, 17 May 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/books/review/home-a-novel-by-toni-morrison.html.
Morrison, Toni. "Morrison and the Definitions of Home." Toni Morrison, 2012.
