Running Head: Describing Ones Childhood House

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Describing Ones Childhood House
Jorge Andujar
Devry University
Professor Monaghan









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Home is where the heart is the perfect way to describe Sedaris, Danticat,
Oates and Cofer. Danticat, Ortiz, and Cofer have a vivid memory of their childhood
home that is their space. In the case of Oates and Sedaris have a different
description of their home and what they consider their space. Events that occur in
our past that get stuck to our memory make an impact on how we are brought up.
Home is where everything is right and no other place is more comfortable.
Home is where the heart is an overly used quote but perfect for the topic at hand.
The thing about home is that its nothing like a house. Its two different types of
home one is where you live and one is where your space is. The other kind is your
space the place where you are in your zone. Danticat said it the best when she said,
Beneath the building ran a subway station though which rattled the D, M, and Q trains
every fifteen minutes or so. Though there was graffiti on most of the walls of Westbury
Court, and hills of trash piled up outside, and though the elevator wasnt always there
when we opened the door to step inside and the heat and hot water werent always on, I
never dreamed of leaving Westbury court until the year of the fire (Danticat pg.81).
Cofer can relate more with Danticat than they can with Oates and Sedaris. This
because their memory of their space and home have to do with the house they actually
live in. A vivid example that Cofer talks about is when she says I do remember the way
the heater pipes banged and rattled, startling all of us out of sleep until we got so used to
the sound that we automatically shut it out or raised our voices above the racket(Cofer).
The way she describes something that is happening inside the building it shows that her
memories are of being in the home she lived in.

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Oates and Sedaris have a different definition of home and where they are
most comfortable. Oates is fascinated by the abandon homes that in his area. In the
passage Oates goes on and gives the definition of a house: A house: a structural
arrangement of space, geometrically laid out to provide what are called rooms, these
divided from one another by verticals and horizontals called walls, ceilings, floors.
The house contains the home but is not identical with it. The house antici- pates the
home and will very likely survive it, reverting again sim- ply to house when home
(that is, life) departs. For only where there is life can there be home (Oates pg.245).
By this you can tell she does not consider her house her home.
Sedaris says, "The environment you're looking for is called a psychiatric
hospital," my father said. "Now give me the damn hat before I burn it off (Sedaris).
You can tell by the way the father act with him he does not like it much. No one
who gets treated that way would be happy at home. It is hard to have a space
somewhere where you are not comfortable.
Things that happen to us while we grow have a major impact into how we are
brought up. Someone like Danticat grows up to be more sensitive because of her
experience with the kids that died. Later when she is older and talks about it with her
mother it still bothers her. The neighbors that lived by Oates had an influence in his life
and how he had so much freedom made him not appreciate his home more. Cofers life
in El Building changed him because he came from a single-family home in Puerto Rico.
Everyone grows up and has something that changes them and makes them whom they
are.
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All the authors have a different life but can all relate. They all have their own
space in their own way. Oates and Sedaris have a different way to look at their home.
Danticat and Cofer are more attached with their home. The way someone is raised
influences how they mature.


















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References
Cofer, Silent Dancing. (n.d.). Retrieved August 11, 2014.
This Old House. (n.d.). Retrieved August 11, 2014.
Edwidge Danticats Westbury Court (n.d.). Retrieved August 11, 2014.
This Old House. (n.d.). Retrieved August 11, 2014.