How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
He misses the academy with relentless longing. He shouldn't want to be back in his dorm room […] but he does. (2.13)
This is one of those "never forget where you came from"moments. Though we have the urge to escape our past, it can be where we feel the most comfortable: it's familiar.
Quote #2
Ironically, for the first time in her life, she feels protected in a way that she never did within the protective bubble of the Dome. (5.5)
The Dome isn't a home for anyone, especially Lyda. It's an artificial protection —home for Lyda actually becomes living with the mothers.
Quote #3
Partridge, it's over. You're one of us. Come home. There is no home. (6.43)
For Partridge, there really isn't any home. He doesn't feel right outside of the Dome, but he doesn't feel at home inside the Dome. So really, Partridge feels as if he doesn't have a home.
Quote #4
A home, the thing that was stolen. Perfect, as if perfect ever existed. (6.97)
All Partridge wants is to feel at home, but he feels as if that luxury has been stolen from him because of his father. Here, he feels like the wretches — like his home has been taken, not just lost.
Quote #5
It smells like home, something sharp and sulfuric in the back of Pressia's throat. It smells like childhood, and she's allowed to be nostalgic for it; even a poisoned, desolate childhood can be missed. (11.55)
Sometimes a certain smell can seem like a time machine: it's a surefire way to elicit nostalgia.
Quote #6
If you weren't always searching for a real home, if you lived in a safe and happy place, would still need to play house? (12.40)
Good question, Pressia. Playing house and actually experiencing a sense of home are two entirely different things — here we get a sense of Pressia's alienation from what it means to feel at home.
Quote #7
"Home sweet home," Partridge says to no one. (37.22)
Like we saw earlier, Partridge doesn't actually feel at home in the Dome. This is sarcastic, because the house with Mimi and Iralene is the epitome of fake.
Quote #8
Partridge can feel his old self transported back to him through the smell […] Does it feel like home? No, but it's part of him. (40.11)
Just like Pressia, Partridge doesn't miss his past, but it still brings back feelings of nostalgia. The thing is, even if we don't want to go back, we can't ignore that the past shaped who we are today.