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The Boughton Family Home
The family home holds the memories of multiple generations of the Boughtons and is a symbol of the family’s rich and tumultuous past. Reverend Boughton cherishes his home as it embodies “for him the general blessedness of his life, which was manifest, really indisputable” (3). He relishes in the memories of his eight children and his deceased wife and mourns the loss of this simpler time. Now at the end of his life, Reverend Boughton clings to the memories of his past health and success as a clergyman and active father. Upon arriving home to care for her father, Glory describes the house as “abandoned” and “heartbroken” (4). She dislikes the crowded and outdated style of the house filled with souvenirs and mementos. Glory dreams of owning a home of her own that is “a modest sunlit house, everything in it spare and functional, airy. Nothing imposing about it at all” (305). While the Boughton family home symbolizes the past and the memories of the past, Glory’s home symbolizes her hopes for the future. She hopes for a blank slate that will allow her to create a new life of her own away from the influence of her parents, their religion, and the traumatic past.
The Car
In opposition to the symbol of the house, the car that Jack repairs symbolizes a new future. Soon after his arrival back home, Jack begins to work on the DeSoto abandoned in the barn. He spends hours working on the car and attempting to fix it. Jack explains to Glory that the barn offers him a refuge from the house and his father, with whom he has yet to reconcile. A symbol of modern technology and progress, the car offers Jack not only an escape from the imposing Boughton family home but also a path forward into the future. Jack shares with Glory his plan to fix the car for his own “fantasy of charging off in my father’s DeSoto to rescue my lady love from a smoldering Memphis” (107). Jack even refers to the car as “my home away from home” (113). It is a triumph when Jack fixes the car. Glory describes the car as “a preposterous beauty” (161). Proud of his achievement, Jack drives the car around Gilead with his father and Glory. They enjoy a nostalgic drive that seems to usher them into a more harmonious future together until Jack accidentally drives to the home of Annie Wheeler, the young woman he impregnated and abandoned. This reminder of the painful past forces Jack to acknowledge the inescapable past. When they arrive home, he gives Glory the keys and tells her that the car is her own. For Jack, the hopeful symbolism of the car is not enough to grant him access to a new, bright future.
Gilead
The name Gilead features repeatedly in the Bible and translates from Hebrew to “hill of testimony.” Thus, the motif supports the broader theme of religion. Gilead is the name of the first book in Robinson’s series, which features the same events from Home but from the perspective of Reverend John Ames. Gilead is also the name of the Boughton family’s hometown. For Reverend Boughton, Gilead represents an old way of life. He reminisces on the places and events in old Gilead and remembers them fondly. As Jack, Glory, and their father drive around Gilead for the first time, he recounts how “there used to be chicken coops and rabbit hutches behind every house almost, and people kept milk cows, and there was enough open land right in town to be plowed with a horse or a mule and planted in corn” (162-63). The older generation longs for the simpler times of old Gilead, a representation of their youth. As part of the younger generation, Glory questions: “How could anyone want to live here?” and “Why would anyone stay here?” (281). The stability of Gilead is what Glory calls “its curse of sameness, somnolence” (281). Reverend Boughton associates Gilead with a time when his family was reunited under one roof. Glory connects Gilead with a representation of all the influences that threaten to overtake her and bar her from living freely and independently.
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By Marilynne Robinson
