What is Home?

What is home? Where is home? What makes a home so significant? Home is defined as the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household. Home is so often identified as a place, however; In Linda Pastan’s work, “To a Daughter Leaving Home”, home is not just a place. Home is a dynamic abstraction that is continuous throughout one’s journey based on a back and forth relationship between a mother and daughter. Valuable lessons are shared, love and support is given, and this abstraction of home is carried with them even after departing and going their own ways.

The concept of home according to Pastan is based on a back and forth relationship between the mother and daughter through different phases of their lives. In this poem, Pastan uses singular pronouns throughout the entire piece. The pronoun “I” is used when the mother speaks and “you” in reference to the daughter. Not once does she include a plural pronoun to include both of them. This is evidence of the interactions they shared back and forth. There was also a great deal of enjambment taking place in order to continue a thought and emphasize words such as “beside you” (line 4), “with distance” (line 17), and “goodbye” (line 24). These lines describe the different phases that the mother and daughter experienced throughout the poem and life. The series of phases and back and forth reactions support the idea that the relationship was the basis for the notion of home.

Important lessons are shared between the mother and daughter that help create the abstraction of home. In the beginning line of Linda Pastan’s work, she mentions when her daughter was eight years old and she was teaching her how to ride a bike. In the poem, the daughter goes on to ride this bike. This ride is symbolized as her journey through life. The valuable lessons that are shared in the relationship between the mother and daughter stay with them. When they take off, it is those values that remain with them wherever they go. Morals that are instilled in the home are morals that are carried with them as they continue through life away from home. Parents aren’t going to be with you forever, but the abstraction of home created by experiences and relationships that were shared will impact you as you move toward independence and later start a family of your own.

The exchange of love and support between the mother and daughter helps strengthen the notion of home. Pastan mentions a curved path that symbolizes obstacles and adversity that the daughter will face in her life. Along this journey, there are always bumps in the road in which you fall back on your loved ones for support when you need it the most. All through this journey the mother was anticipating setbacks while sprinting to be with her every step of the way. It is the compassion and support that is displayed throughout this relationship that creates an unbreakable bond that will stay with one another throughout their journeys. As the daughter continues through life, the abstraction of home is never lost as a result of the strengthen bond between one another.

We are seeing the end of one chapter and the beginning of another in this poem in regards to home between the mother and the daughter. Home is not identified as one permanent location. Instead, it travels with the daughter throughout her journey. For example, the daughter takes off on her bike away from the mother. Linda Pastan writes, “I kept waiting for the thud of your crash as I sprinted to catch up, while you grew smaller, more breakable with distance” (lines 11-17). This excerpt shows the difficulty for the mother to let go. It displays how important family bonds are in a home and become more breakable with distance because it is out of her control now. The daughter has grown up and now must carry this abstraction of home with her.

The last five lines show the closure between the mother and daughter. Pastan emphasizes the difficulty of letting go, but at the same time illustrates the pride of the mother and the proof that home continues with them as the daughter departs. “Pumping, pumping for your life, screaming with laughter, the hair flipping behind you like a handkerchief waving goodbye” (line 18-24). This part of the poem proves the existence of home traveling with the daughter. She is maintaining characteristics that were imparted by “home” such as work ethic symbolized in the line, “pumping, pumping for your life” (line 18-19). Also, a sense of joy is detected in the line “screaming with laughter” (line 19-20). At the end, she says a final goodbye showing gratitude for everything “home” has given her. Another example of the notion that “home” is continuous is represented in the format of this poem. Looking at the poem, it is one continuous sentence all the way through, yet it seems to flow so naturally. After looking through several of Pastan’s works, this format didn’t appear in any others. It is very unique to this poem. Which leads to the additional support that a home is really an abstraction that joins our characters through life.

Home can be described in many ways and often is just a place, but in Linda Pastan’s work, home is not just a place. Home is a dynamic abstraction that is continuous throughout one’s journey based on a back and forth relationship between a mother and daughter. It is an abstraction that has been created by invaluable lessons learned and strengthened by the love and support from the most significant people surrounding you. Pastan makes it clear that her idea of home is continuous even after the mother and daughter depart and go separate ways. This is proven by the continuous format that is carried on throughout the entire poem. Further evidence is the characteristics that the daughter continues to display that were imparted by “home.”

Work Cited

Pastan, Linda. “To a Daughter Leaving Home” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Shorter 11th ed. Ed. Kelly J. Mays. New York: W. W. Norton, 2013. 736-737. Print.

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