Beloved And We Have Always Lived In The Castle Analysis

Ah, home sweet home! Home is where the heart is! These two phrases are most likely what comes to mind when one thinks about their home or going home. People will imagine their ideal house with a nice family, in a quaint town, with the best neighbors. Home is where people are typically most comfortable and at ease. They will feel unguarded since home is such a private place. It is a place in which people often seek protection, security, warmth, and love. It is not only where people sleep and eat, but it is also where their family, one’s support system is. While this may be true in some cases, it undoubtedly is not the case in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle. In both novels, the home plays a crucial role, but not in the manner one would think. In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, the authors use the theme of the home to reveal how one’s home may not always be a place of comfort but, yet one of isolation and insecurity.
Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved takes place in Cincinnati, shortly after the Civil War, but also recounts the events that occurred on the plantation Sweet Home, which is in Kentucky. Sweet Home was anything but sweet. It was …show more content…
In Beloved, the home symbolizes the importance of the past and recounts the various events that happened within the house. On multiple occasions throughout the novel, the characters think about the past. This process of recounting the past drives the importance of the home even more to the reader. Then in We Have Always Lived in the Castle, the home symbolizes the struggles that Constance and Merricat face with the townspeople, as well as their struggle with isolation and not wanting to leave the house. This hardship could possibly speak to the reader and they could then identify with the characters and how they are