How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
(1.6)
Small begins his memoir with a very cinematic zoom-in. We go from the Detroit skyline, to his block, to the trees, to the streetlights, and finally, to a row of almost-identical houses. Before he takes us inside his home, he shows us the stifling suburban sameness of all the homes around it.
Quote #2
Because the Murphys would not allow her to have her baby in their house, Mama was born in that cabin. (1.308)
Because David's grandmother got pregnant without being married—or, as she would say, "preggnid outta wedlaw"—her in-laws exiled her and their son to the cabin behind their house She could see their home every day, she just couldn't live in it.
Quote #3
That fall I was sent away to an all-boys school in the East. There they put a strong emphasis on sports, Bible studies and manual labor. I ran away three times. (3.264-265)
Instead of examining what's going on in their home that makes David rebel, his parents just find him a new, equally awful home.
Quote #4
The apartment was too cold for canaries, and I wasn't faring much better. I was lonely, often hungry, and afraid of the neighbors. Plus, my attempts at becoming a world-renowned artist were not going too well. (4.150)
Better than being lonely, often hungry, and afraid of your parents. Poor canary, though.
Quote #5
Stan and Letitia lived in the upstairs bathroom. Once they had lived in a regular room but they were broke now and forced to downgrade. They insisted it was a fine place to live… (4.158)
The panel in which Stan sits on the edge of the tub playing his guitar while Letitia sits on the cold tile floor is heartbreaking, but it shows that the people you love are your real home.
Quote #6
Bill and Gina lived in the tower room where the floor had collapsed. They lived around the edge of the crater and pitched their trash down the hole. (4.159)
Small draws this room as a massive crater with only a small amount of space around it, and the tenants' bed right on the edge, about to fall in. This is an example of artistic license—even if the crater wasn't actually that big, we get a sense of the desperation and danger the tenants, including the narrator, lived with.
Quote #7
Art became my home. Not only did it give me back my voice, but art has given me everything I have wanted or needed since. (4.158)
Through finding his figurative home, David was able to find a literal one. When he became an illustrator and teacher, art started paying the rent. (And we're assuming he didn't have to live in a bathroom.)
Quote #8
There was only one thing to do to get that car moving again. I had to leave the safety of my house. I had to go outside. (5.29)
In David's dream, a remote-control car is his surrogate self. He sends the car out to explore the world for him, controlling it from behind closed doors. Only when he sneezes and accidentally drives it into the water is he forced to go out, interact with the world, and retrieve himself.
Quote #9
Suddenly I realized the building was the one where Grandma had been locked away. The old Central State Asylum. The figure was my mother, sweeping the path, clearing the way for me to follow. I didn't. (5.36-37)
Ultimately, your true home is inside you, but it can take many years to find the external geography to match the internal. Family can be a house of sorts—a construct to reside within—but that doesn't mean it's a home.