Thesis
Toni Morrison's novel, Home, is an allegory that uses post-Korean war setting to paint a picture of the never-ending human conflicts like war, racism, trauma and manhood. Despite many years as the world’s superpower, America has not yet found a solution for world conflicts. Despite fighting in Korea, where he lost his homes, Frank Money has not yet learned how to be a man, and he thinks of Lotus, where he was grown, as a place worse than any battlefield. The novel is a reflection of a struggle that never ends, no matter how someone, how a country or people, try to stop it. Home is not just about the 1950's; Home is about now.
Novel – Snapshot
Frank Money finds himself in a hospital and he cannot remember why he is there. He feigns sleep to avoid a dosage of morphine. Frank is a veteran who fought in Korea, in the war between North and South Korea. It has been a year since he came back and after getting released from the camp, he lost his money in gambling. He gets a message that his sister is very sick and if he does ‘tarry', he will find her dead.
He sneaks from the hospital through the fire exit with bare feet and treks south. He survives with the help of strangers like Reverend Locke, who gives him seventeen dollars. On his way, he keeps a note of the racial differences between black and whites, especially the restaurants that would not serve food to a black man. There is discrimination on the train, and that reminds him of a book, the Green Traveler, which was touted as the ideal guide for travelers of color.
Somehow his sister survives, and they go to Lotus, their home. His memories of home are bleak, as he remembers how his parents used to work for sixteen hours a day in the cotton fields to provide for him and Cee, his little sister. Quite vividly, he remembers himself taking care of Cee while his parents were out in the farms. He also remembered the sad, immature deaths of their parents, one dying of lung disease and the other one from a stroke. The memory of his cruel grandparents haunted him.
When Frank Money arrives back home, at the Lotus, they are received by familiar faces. Some local medicines are used to treat Cee, and she recovers after several months. Frank Money, too, recovers from his ‘trauma’, where, at some point, people had thought of him as having gone nuts. The fact that he heals without treatment qualifies to put weight on the importance of home and how it makes one feel safe and comfortable.
Korean War – Snapshot
War began in 1950 when North Korea annexed South Korea. President Truman sent American forces to help South Korea under the guise of the United Nations Organizations. The war lasted three years and both America and North Korea lost many soldiers. Veterans of war retired from service and joined the civilians in normal lives after the war. As it is the case in war times, survivors of the Korea War suffered traumas as a result of the events they experienced during the war (National Archives).
Then and now
Toni Morrison released the novel in 2012 a short while after the United States of America withdrew its army from Iraq. The forces had been in Iraq for ten years, since the September11 attacks. Soldiers who came back to America were feted with accolades for ‘serving the nation', the way Frank Money was feted when he came from the Korean War. The timing of the book release to tally with the coming home of the soldiers who fought in Iraq is significant for it serves the purpose of communicating the fact that the more things change, the more they remain the same.
America had gone to war in Iraq, fifty years after the time President Truman had sent his boys to Korea. Despite the passage of time and changes in technology, as well as the progressive politics of America for fifty years, there has been no new solution to international conflicts. The way America had lost soldiers fifty years earlier is the same way soldiers died in Iraq, despite a wide outcry from Americans that it is not necessary to send fighters to foreign countries (Nye 94). In essence, if Toni Morrison had just walked to the airport when the soldiers were being received, and decided to track the life of one soldier, she would have come up with a story that is similar to that of Frank Money.
Most veterans suffer post-traumatic disorder for experiences in war - and close shaves of death. In battlegrounds, fighters know that their lives might be one bullet away from death, and losing colleagues at the frontline haunts them for long periods. It becomes very hard for the veterans to fit in the society after the war, and many of the survivors waste away in gambling and drugs.
Toni Morrison starts the novel by exclaiming ‘why does its lock fit my key?' The idea rings around the aspect of losing memory and touch of a safe place where someone can lay their head. War trauma changes familiar places, because, despite the sameness regarding physical location and surroundings, one will never feel at home in their previous home, as they are imprisoned by memories of war and deaths of fellow fighters.
The journey to self-discovery is usually long. For Frank Money, it took the urgent letter about the illness of his sister to start his journey to Lotus, a place he loathed. The cause of his admission to the hospital is still unknown, but from his subsequent behaviors of ‘someone who had gone gaga', we suspect that he had suffered acute stress attacks, and, possibly, a Samaritan had taken him to a hospital. The journey to Lotus and his healing symbolizes the struggle of someone who has found a reprieve, which they no longer carry the burden of their memories. It takes Frank to the cradle, to the beginning, where there are people who know him for who he is.
On his way home he witnessed racial abuse and segregation, wondering when the society will ever understand the sanctity of life. Perhaps, the reason why racism depresses Frank is that he had seen white soldiers who were completely unconscious of their skin color in the war front. He had lost white friends; he had defended them and they defended him, without consideration whether one was black or white. By creating that dilemma, that circus of racial oppressors who lack the basic understanding of life, maybe, Toni Morrison wants us to rethink the problem of racial segregation and discrimination.
Manhood and struggle
It is surprising that Frank can survive the battlefield, but still abhors mean thoughts about his childhood home. It teaches us that some experiences do not teach someone how to face their problems. The man in Frank might as well be America, the country. Over the Vietnam War, the fall of USSR and presence in Somalia, America has not learned to face the reality that war does not create permanent solutions. Frank could not change his view on Lotus; he had problems with gambling and did not know how to fit in the society.
Stretching it a little bit, on the personality of America, Toni Morrison creates an allegory of a country that never learns to cooperate with allies and neighbors. America still gambles with foreign policy, something that has been repeated by many leaders. It shows that the conflict to self-discovery is never ending unless approaches problems from the root. Even good presidents, by public ratings, have sent soldiers to war; Bill Clinton to Somalia and Obama's decision to attack Libya. The Reverend who gave Frank Money some seventeen dollars was called Locke, a name that the author uses to symbolize the things he could unlock with his key. To America, Locke would mean that the government has everything it needs to solve problems affecting the American society. If the government could be keen on its decisions, then it would open many doors to prosperity to many Americans.
Toni Morrison gives up on her strive to understand human beings and governments. She develops the plot of the book then gets bored and ends it at 148 pages. She leaves the reader to sort the book conflict on his/her own. The book leaves the reader asking questions such as what happened to Frank and Cee, if they bounced back to life and success and if Frank settled for a career. Compared to her other books like Mercy and Beloved, Home has still some space to grow and fulfill the readers’ expectations, but Toni Morrison decided to cut it short. In essence, Home is not a novel. For its length, it qualifies for a novella, and its form makes more of an allegory than a novel. The fact that Toni Morrison insists it to be a novel can be read as a message that people should be less visual in their judgment. Defining the type of a book by its size is the same as judging people for their appearance, skin color, height or religion. Morrison is using the length of the book to tell us that there is much more to something that outward appearance.
Homecoming
The theme of homecoming tells us that one never settles until the solve problems from the source, as opposed to dealing with problems from the end. To best of Frank's memory, the only time he felt peaceful is when he stared at Cee and ‘thought that he saw his life in her.' He was used to taking care of Cee when his parents went to work in the cotton fields, and it is during that time that he saw genuine appreciation. The catch, maybe, is in the fact that we see ourselves in people, and this experience reveals our nature to ourselves.
Many people are engrossed in the business of living forget about their nature and values. They have the keys to happiness, to better lives, but they do not know ‘which lock their key fits best.' Similarly, people are concerned with the vanities of life that they forget where they come from and lose the sense of peace. The novel uses the symbol of home to describe a place or a situation that makes one feel at peace
Conclusion
Toni Morrison uses her experience and skill to summarize her life quests and literal works. She wrote this particular novel forty years after her first work, and she does it in a very abstract manner, by choosing to write a book that summarizes the human struggle. By reminding the reader about the past, she is like saying, ‘hang on a second, despite the technology and changes we have gone through, we haven’t changed a bit’. Through Frank Money, we discover that we suffer in our own imprisonments. We learn that our struggles can be easily solved if we looked at history for lessons. A society that still discriminates people on the basis of the color of their skin is still locked, and, ironically, the same society has the key the solution of the problem.
Works Cited
National Archives, "US Enters The Korean Conflict." Archives.gov. N.p., 2016. Web. 18 May 2016.
Nye, Joseph S. Soft Power. New York: Public Affairs, 2004. Print.
