Review of “On Going Home” by Joan Didion

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Meaning of Home to the Author
Conclusion
Work Cited

Introduction

On Going Home is a personal essay written by Joan Didion and published in 1968 where the author talks about various aspects of the home. Although the author counts on how it has become hard to get back home, now that she has been married, the home played a key role in shaping whom she became. According to the author, home means a reflective place that has features of human anatomy and socialism in defining and shaping the future of persons. This paper describes Didion’s meaning of life as a burden of life in terms of living current life and also counting on the past events when she lived at home.

Meaning of Home to the Author

There are key aspects that define what is home is to Didion. The author says that home refers to the place where she was raised and not where she is married. Didion grew in California, where life was characterized by hectic situations such as dusty houses and walls. In the essay the author says that ‘By “home” I do not mean the house in Los Angeles where my husband and I and the baby live, but the place where my family is, in the Central Valley of California’ (Didion 140). Therefore, from the reflection that she gives, it is clear that home is the original place where she learned ways of life before transitioning to adulthood.

The meaning of home is vast as discussed in the work by Joan Didion. The author’s explanation about home makes a reader understand that she means a place where one is shaped in life before getting to other ventures. Thus, home is like a foundational zone where an individual can learn to navigate life before opening an eye on other life occurrences in the future. In one-part Didion says that ‘…the yellow fields and the cottonwoods and the rivers rising and falling and the mountain roads closing when the heavy snow comes in’ (Didion 141). Thus, she portrays home as a distinct factor and a burden that builds an individual into learning cultural aspects that must be undertaken in life.

The fact that she mentions rivers and mountain roads shows that she explored keenly between the native place of origin and the current place of residence. There is a difference in terms of environment and ambiance that defines their childhood. The culture she tries to reveal is that of accommodating each other’s situations, which might seem to be hard to perceive. Didion shows that her husband did not like the home due to the dust and also the lifestyle which forced them to learn the ways of people of the ridges (Didion 140). According to the work, home is like a phenomenal theatre that makes an artistic element in an individual for the sake of living in the world.

The burden of life as per the author’s take on a home is also evident in her work. Home is like a place where no one wants to get back to but is forced by family ties. Joan Didion says that she had gone back to California to celebrate their daughter’s birthday together with her husband (Didion 142). It means despite the evidence of difficulty when staying at home, they have to make the expectations of the family members to be true when it comes to bonding. She also tells how her brother disregards her husband by calling him ‘Joan’s husband’ (Didion 141). The brother is living an uncivilized life because he does not understand that the husband to his sister is a brother-in-law.

To display how the burden of life from home revives family ties, Didion mentions that ‘I go to visit my great-aunts. A few of them think now that I am my cousin or their daughter who died young. We recall an anecdote about a relative last seen in 1948, and they ask if I still like living in New York City’ (Didion 141). A critical leader will understand that Didion had stayed for long without interacting with the relatives since she was married and they lived in New York, which was a new place alienating her from other relatives. However, even though her husband was objective of remote life as she mentions in the work, Didion acknowledges that life is important when crediting the importance of home more so, family members.

According to the author, home is a burden of life and a place where she may not wish to be associated with every time, especially on the moments and events that are undertaken there. Didion says that ‘The question of whether or not you could go home again was a very real part of the sentimental and largely literary baggage with which we left home in the fifties; I suspect that it is irrelevant to the children born of the fragmentation after World War II’ (Didion 141). The statement means that people born after struggles with peace in the world may not fit some lifestyles. According to her, it is like during the wars and conflict, people do not have the sense of cultural belonging and may engage in primitive ways that do not suit the modern culture. She mentions a young pretty girl who undresses herself to dance for some money. Thus, it is hard for Didion to be wishing to have links with home if that is what the people in remote areas do.

Joan Didion’s meaning of home may be interpreted as a place of history and ceremonial issues. While at home, she shows the reader how the home has been a place of memorizing past events. She says that ‘A bathing suit I wore the summer I was seventeen. A letter of rejection from The Nation, an aerial photograph of the site for a shopping center my father did not build in 1954’ (Didion 142). Thus, she tries to insinuate home as a place where one can rekindle past life and get fresh memories of life. She mentions going to the ranch with her father and also taking coffee with the mother. She puts it clear that there are many issues to remind her of her past while at home more so when having sessions with family members.

Conclusion

According to Joan Didion, the home has various meanings and depicts numerous factors in her personal life. First, home is the original point where she grew from and where her family members are residing. Secondly, home means a place where one learns the culture and general ways in life. Third, Didion puts home a place of unifying members during special occasions such as birthdays and exploring the rivers, mountains, and ranches. Additionally, home means where one can get a history of who they are after rekindling past events and happenings when growing. The author also portrays home as a factor of living non-modern life due to some incidents that occur in remote areas. Therefore, from the above factions, the essay reveals home as the burden of life for the author.

Work Cited

Didion, Joan. Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968, pp. 140-142.

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Review of “On Going Home” by Joan Didion

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