What Does "Home" Mean To You?

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    In my opinion the meaning of home is wherever the connection someone has towards something or someone that makes a person feel whole or a sense of belonging. Based on what is known about the actuality of the characters - Amani, Gabe, and Musa to their real life counterparts, in a way helps with going into full detail about what home really means for each of these characters and dissecting the reasons why. 

Amani - Jordan is Amani's home as well as family. Amani's in the beginning of the novel indicated her interest in going to land of her father, simply because she wanted to know more about her heritage and all about her family's history. Most important she wanted to connect with her roots since she was living in America for most of her life. Throughout the novel Amani was able to learn  about her fathers familiarity with King H, his past history with fencing, the true face of her uncle, and learning about her own family secrets as well. Amani's journey through seeking out her cultural heritage in Jordan led her to discover more about her identity than she would have ever expected when coming to Jordan.

Gabe - I am not sure what I would categorize Gabe's sense of home, based on the fact he didn't want to return to Jordan but ultimately came to terms with being back in his home country. His thirst for understanding, just because of his dyslexia and the difficulty that he has comprehending words in both English and Arabic. His sense of home could possibly be his identity or his own self actualization of what home really means to him, going back to his condition he was also this way with Omar his nephew stating how envious he was of his ability to articulate words with efficiency. There is also his reluctance to return to Jordan as in the beginning of the novel and I make this connection based in what I learned from the author Diana Abu-Jaber and her father that stayed in America.

Musa - For this character in particular his sense of home is very complex to me, as the introduction about him and appearance made it a bit challenging to concern what exactly home is to him. If I could think of one thing it would be his cave, it's where he lived his days when he was young for many decades. Musa is his own home in a sense despite the fact that he was excommunicated as the family heir by his own brother due to his mental illness, he continued his life from the monastery and the duration his existence making the cave his home.



Word Count: 446






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