Hand in hand with family comes the Home… something Jack doesn't really have since he and his mom essentially live the lives of wandering Gypsies in the story. People in This Boy's Life think of home as a specific place: a house where they can live and be safe. Even Dwight wants that, despite the fact that "home" can't really exist in the same place as "angry fists." Part of Jack's journey is looking for the feeling that home brings, and the hope that the next place—wherever it is—will be that place. He's still looking when the book ends, suggesting that he's never going to find it (or at least, if he does, that it's not going to be the Christmas-presents-and-Scout-jamborees place that he imagines it is).
Questions About The Home
- Does Jack want his father because he wants a sense of home? Or is it something else?
- What's so important about Dwight's house being a former POW camp?
- Is Jack's Mom looking for a home? What proof do we see in the text of this (one way or the other)?
- Does Jack ever develop a sense of the home apart from a particular place? Does the book even think that's possible?
Chew on This
Jack can find a home if he looks hard enough and the right circumstances show up.
Because of who Jack is—shaped by circumstances and mom and wicked stepfathers—Jack can never truly find a home.