The Migrant Experience In Catherine Cole's 'Home'

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Catherine Cole’s ‘Home’ explores the complexities of the migrant experience, and how an individual’s past experience can affect their perception of belonging to a place. Through an individual’s displacement within the world, it creates a formative influence over one’s sense of belonging. The migrant experience inevitably results in the sense of alienation and detachment, as they struggle to find a sense of belonging in a different society. The diction as Ahmed, the protagonist describes the house given to him, in ‘peeling paint, the large garden’, reflects a clear sense of emptiness and isolation. Furthermore, the alliterated plosive ‘p’ sounds in comparison with the longer vowel sounds in ‘large garden,’ reflects his disorientation and frustration…show more content…
Likewise, the protagonist, Ahmed, in spite of his feelings of alienation from the Australian society, attempts to cultivate a new sense of belonging. Certain objects trigger Ahmed’s memory about home, such as the ‘unpruned roses just like those at home.’ The use of detailed descriptions of everyday objects and event, allows him to draw associations with his past and find a sense of belonging. The train motif through the duration of the story is used as he continues to describe and understand the society more, by observing and visiting the city regularly. It reveals a potential for him to belong in society, indicating his search for belonging as he begins to seek and establish connections. His constant trips to the cemetery, allow him to reflect upon his past and find familiarity and comfort. His vivid descriptions and imagery of the different cultural burying methods in ‘distant reds and yellows…graves of the Chinese,’ refers to the importance of ritual and ceremony, portraying the protagonist’s idea of collective humanity, and hence the notion that we as human beings are undeniably all the
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