Home

In the novel Home by Marilynne Robinson the setting has a clear effect on the story. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and the geographical location are both prominent factors in shaping the plot. Growing up in a small conservative town in the 1950’s has shaped the views of Jack, Robert, and Glory Boughton. Gilead and the rest of society haven’t accepted the Civil Rights Movement, but Jack has never held the same beliefs and because of his experience outside of Gilead he has a different view on racial issues than the rest of his family.

This book takes place in a small town in Iowa during the 1950’s. The 1950’s are a turbulent time for racial issues; multiple events such as the death of a young African American boy named Emmett Till and African American protests are mentioned in the novel. However in this fictional small, conservative town Gilead, Iowa these events don’t receive much sympathy. Gilead itself is a prominently white town “There were no colored people in Gilead”(318). This town is very out of tune with the progressive movement and it emphasizes how much of society at this time does not accept the civil rights movement. When Jack and his father are talking about the death of Emmett Till one can tell how Jack’s father, a man who has spent his whole life in Gilead, is different from his son when he says, “’Emmet Till. Wasn’t he the negro fellow that-attacked the white woman?’”(156). Jack responded “’He was fourteen. Somebody said he whistled at a white woman…He was a child, and they murdered him’”(156). Their two views are clearly different. Jack’s father see’s Emmet Till as the bad guy, but Jack see’s Emmet Till as the innocent fourteen-year old boy that was wronged by a prejudice society. Since Jack hasn’t spent his whole life in Gilead surrounded by people who think exactly the same as his father he holds an opposite view; one that he may not have if he too spent his whole life in Gilead.

The ignorance towards the Civil rights movement is even seen when Jack talks to Glory. When Jack is talking to his sister about W.E.B DuBois the reader can tell how ill informed she is about the subject and how society has tried to paint W.E.B Dubois as a “communist”. When Jack asks if she has heard of the man she replies, “Well, yes, I’ve heard of him. I thought he was a communist”(47) to which Jack replies “I mean, if you believe the newspapers?”(47). If for years Jack had been reading the same newspapers as the rest of his family he may hold the same perspective, however he knows that W.E.B DuBois is far from a communist; in fact he’s a famous civil rights activist. It’s the goal of the society that wants to hinder W.E.B Dubois efforts to paint him as a “communist”; a person who is seen as an enemy to the American way of life.

The time period and location of both of these stories is the primary factor in shaping the main characters in these stories. In a small community that prides itself on being very close knitted Jack tends not to fit in because he is very independent. So when Jack leaves home for twenty years he isn’t sure if he’d be actually welcomed back by the community or even his family “He stood there just inside the door, like a stranger unsure of his welcome”(77). This is supposed to be Jacks home yet he still feels unsure. Just in the same way African Americans are treated as outcasts in society Jack feels like an outcast in his own hometown. When Jacks father is describing Jack he says, “I just never knew another child who didn’t feel at home in the house he was born”(115). Jack can identify with the African American community when he too feels like an outcast in a place where he should feel at home.

A lot of the tension surrounding Jack stems from his different stance on social issues. When Jack and his father are watching TV one night the news comes on and shows footage of African Americans peacefully protesting in the streets. Jack can’t believe how the protestors are being treated, but his father doesn’t think that the footage is all that important “White police with riot sticks were pushing and dragging black demonstrators. There were dogs. His father said, ‘There’s no reason to let that sort of trouble upset you’”(97). What Jack sees on TV horrifies him, he doesn’t understand how peaceful protestors could be treated like this while others just sit back and accept these grotesque actions. His father goes on to say, “Young people want the world to change and old people want it to stay the same”(98). This quote perfectly sums up Jacks ordeal. He’s in the wrong town at the wrong time; this is a town that is okay with a society that treats African Americans as less then equal in a time that African Americans have less rights then others. This sort of attitude is what drives Jack away from his home. Not until the end of the book does the reader realize that the love of Jacks life is an African American woman. Now the reader understands why Jack was gone for so long and why he never talked much about his personal life. Just as Glory said “Jack didn’t trust me well enough to tell me much about anything that mattered to him”(320). The reason Jack feels so uncomfortable even in his own home is because he knows the person he loves the most would never be welcomed.

Jack’s family is the product of the time and place in which they live. The reason that Jack is an outcast in his own hometown is because the society that he lives holds different beliefs than he does. Perhaps if Jack was born into a more accepting and progressive time he would feel more at “home” in his hometown, however he wasn’t, so his hometown will never be his home.

Works Cited

Robinson, Marilynne. Home. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008. Print.

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