Home is Where the Heart is Analysis Essay Example

Always remember that home is where family is, and never the people and your surroundings think anything different  . In the short story “Home is where the heart is” (2002) written by Marlene Brittens, we get told about the life of the young girl named Bonnie, who throughout her time in boarding school, experienced the rude comments from teenage girls and high school drama. She finds the love of her life, who changes her view on the suburbs and shows her that home and family provide the greatest emotional bonds. In this essay I will analyze and interpret the main character, setting, theme, and what influence these points have on the story.

You can characterize Bonnie as a young girl who’s got the world in front of her, as we throughout the story see her go through a personal development. In the start of the story we see Bonnie as the young girl trying to fit in, in the social life of boarding school. Over the time of trying to fit in, the one thing that seemed to ruin it for her was living in the suburbs, and the opinions the other girls had about it. “And perhaps Justine and Sheila had been right. The suburbs were the worst of both worlds”. (p. 2. 11) Bonnie was clearly influenced by the other girls and stopped inviting people over because of embarrassment. Fast forward some years, where she brings Clive home. Suddenly her description of the suburbs changes, and she sees the place with new eyes. “‘I’m afraid I live in the dreaded Burbs,’ she confessed. He didn’t even seem to understand what she meant. (...)Bonnie prepared to introduce the man she loved to her family, Clive stopped suddenly and kissed her”. (p. 3. 25-28) Furthermore as a result of her boyfriend giving the validation she always had been missing, and in fact makes all of her worries disappear. Everything looked full of promise, and she began to imagine a future of her own in the suburbs. 

The setting in the story mainly takes place in the suburbs. The place gets described from the perspective of Bonnie and therefore the description is subjective. Bonnie has grown up in the “dreaded Burbs ” as she calls it in the story, and wishes to have grown up in another place. “Roads full of houses with small gardens in front of them, frilly net curtains, on the windows. People looking at you, spying on you, complaining to your mother”. (p. 1. 32-33) She sees the suburbs with a negative point of view, which we also see on (p. 2 . 34) “They didn’t know how terrible it was to live in the Burbs(...)” .This provides us a clear picture of what Bonnie thinks of the suburbs. By contrast the description changes when she took her boyfriend home to meet her parents for the first time “The little gardens looked full of promise, places where you could build a pond or a barbecue or a pit for the years ahead”. (p. 3. 30-31) We thus have a picture of her mindset changing, as mentioned before because she got the validation she always had been missing.  

The theme is in the story “Home”. Throughout the story Bonnie realizes what a real home is, and that home isn’t about where in the country you live in. However home is where the family is and is the base where everything begins. 

In conclusion the story is about not letting people's judgment get to you, and being able to grow from the past. Because if you do so, you will get another view on things, and everything wouldn't end up being as bad as you always thought.