Homecoming Literary Elements

Young Adult/Social Problem Novel

Various places along the Atlantic Coast states—specifically Maryland and Connecticut—at some point in the second half of the 1970’s when indoor malls were still relatively rare enough to inspire a sense of wonder to the uninitiated.

Third-person point-of-view that is primarily seen through the perspective lens of Dicey.

Although the tone is for the most objectively descriptive, the narrator’s sympathies obviously lie with Dicey’s reactions and contemplative meditations upon her circumstances. Considering the situation of the siblings at the center, the mood is surprisingly upbeat, but does turn noticeably darker when the subject turns to the institution of marriage relative to its place within a patriarchal system.

Protagonist: Dicey Tillerman. Antagonist: The failure of a politicized system to provide adequate understanding and treatment of mental health issues and a subsequent safety net to handle the collateral damage that failure inevitably produces.

The conflict that drives the narrative is bound up in the fact that Dicey must turn from teenage eldest sibling to substitute mother in almost literally the blink of an eye in order to ensure her siblings remain intact as a family unit.

Gram agrees to take in Dicey and her siblings, albeit with a great deal of doubt and trepidation.

“They could go on to Bridgeport. Dicey had never seen Aunt Cilia—Great-aunt Cilia. She knew the name and address, because Momma had made her write it down four times, on each paper bag, in case something happened: Mrs. Cilia Logan, 1724 Ocean Drive, Bridgeport, Connecticut” foreshadows the climactic movement of the narrative toward the siblings finding a home with relatives who are effectively complete strangers.

The opening paragraph is a jaw-dropping example of understatement in which the maternal instruction to “mind what Dicey tells you” is the only indication to her children that their mother is mere seconds away from abandoning them forever.

The desire of the younger kids to hear the story of Hansel & Gretel creates a subtle allusion linking the idea of parental abandonment to the story being told here.

Imagery throughout the novel as it relates to several different characters serves to paint a portrait of the institution of marriage as prison-like sucker of freedom and identity for wives.

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“Maybe life was like a sea, and all the people were like boats. There were big, important yachts and little rafts and motorboats and sailboats and working boats and pleasure boats. And some really big boats like ocean liners or tankers”

When Father Joseph says, “I myself will see what I can find out about the Tillerman family. Sometimes the Church can make the more sensitive personal inquiries, that the police authorities can't” his use of the capitalized “Church” becomes a metonymic metaphor covering its entire institutional basis for stimulating action on the part of others.

“paper mulberries are fragile…It's the way they spread out at the top, it's the way they grow. If you didn't brace it, the weight of the leaves and the growing branches would pull the tree apart. Like families."