Essay/Term paper: Home is where the heart

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Expository Essays

Home is Where the Heart is





By definition a house is a building built for habitation where as a home is an abode built for one's family. But a home is something more special than that. A home is a place, where you feel comfortable. A house is just shelter. A home is a place that one love's to live in, but a house one just lives in. A home is built with a family, but a house has no intentions of family life. "A house belongs to you, but you belong to a home." (C. Marks)
The first memory that I have of a home is waking up one cold Saturday morning in my bunk beds. I jumped out of bed, and went down stairs to the living room, and enjoyed breakfast by the fireplace with my family. One thing that I love about home is that the feeling of safety and warmth. There has never been a time when I have not felt safe in my home. Home also has a certain smell that is almost in desirable. When I returned home for the first time after being at school, I felt great . The first thing that I did after returning home was hug my parents and my dogs, then I went over to the living room and sat down on my couch. I felt as if the couch was giving me a big hug. My grandpa told me recently of the time when he returned from World War II. He said when he returned home not only did he kiss my Grandmother, but he also kissed the floor of his humble home. He said the old rhyme he it for so humble their is no place like home, really meant something to him.
I guess that a dorm room would be described as a home because it is just a temporary shelter. But my dorm room is trying to be the exception to this rule. Within the walls of my dorm room there is full carpeted floor, with a stereo system and personal computer. But these things are not the things that make my dorm room different. Sitting in the corner of the room is a blue recliner. This chair is very special to me because it belong to my Grandfather. Every time I would go to his home I would always sit in his chair. The chair is so comfortable that it is unbelievable. It also has a certain smell to it which is very similar to home. There are also two wooden lofts which my roommate and I sleep in every night. These lofts were built by my dad and I the first weekend I went home. I got the measurements while he got the lumber. We spent one and a half days to build them. The following day we packed them up in the Bronco and took them back to school. After putting them up in my room it started to feel a little like home.
The poem The Death of the Hired Man, written by Robert Frost is written about a man and what he thought that his home was(Frost). I thought that the Hired Man always would leave this place called home at the most inconceivable times then returning with promises and ambitions of things that he would do to the home place. He did that same thing and as he grew older he became more tired from the work that he did. Then one day when he came in after work, he told the old lady Mary, of the things that he planned to do. Then later that night the hired man died in his sleep. The poem was written very nicely but I just do not think that it really represented what home really is.
The poem Home by Edgar L. Guest is a poem about what a home is and what makes a house a home. He says in the poem that it takes a heap of liven in a house to make it a home(Guest). I agree with this a hundred percent. He says the home is not something that you can buy, it is something that you make. A home goes through stages of growth. First their is a couple who start the home out with love for each other. Then come the children with their love and laughter. The house becomes more and more of a house to the me living in it. Then as the children grow up and leave, they leave with wonderful memories which is another stage of a homes growth. Then come the last stage of growth, death. The poem Home represents the life that I would like to live. A simple life with children to love is what I am dreaming of.
In the article by Brendan Gill there is praise for the poem The Death of the Hired Man and there are bad words for the poem Home. The article starts out with Gill saying that Guest does a poor job of differentiating a house from a home, and saying that Frost does an excellent job of doing this. Then Gill starts with a summary of The Death of a Hired Man that goes on forever. After the summary he starts to tell how that the word "home" has become modernized. This is where the article becomes a little more meaningful to me. I enjoy the way that he says "home equals buy" (Gill).Then as the article ends he relates to the ending of the Frost poem. This is where he concludes by saying houses that are more than houses are homes.
As I sit in my room in the evenings I turn on the television and I commercial use of the word home. The commercial that I love the most is the M.I. commercial that says " home is a two letter word M.I"(M.I.). They are completely wrong ! Home is a place where families sit together and enjoy each others company. I also think that the phrase mobile home is unfeasible.A home is a place that is always there.Another word that gives me a hard time is funeral home. There is no way a place filled with death could be a home.
As I think back on what home has meant to me over the years it would be mostly about family, friends, and love. It seams to me that these three things have always been a part of my home, and I hope that these three things will always be a part of my home. I believe that a home is what a person makes of it. If a person wants a home, a home is what a person has.