Home is a novel by the American author Toni Morrison, originally published in 2012 by Alfred A。 Knopf。 It tells the story of Frank Money, a 24-year-old African-American veteran of the Korean War, and his journey home “a year after being discharged from an integrated Army into a segregated homeland”。

1。2 Definition of Motif and Homecoming

   A motif is any repeating element that has symbolic meanings in a story。 Through its repetition, a motif can help produce other narrative (or literary) aspects such as theme or mood。 A narrative motif can be created through the use of imagery, structural components, language, and other narrative elements。 The flute in Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman is a recurrent sound motif that conveys rural and idyllic notions。 Another example from modern American literature is the green light found in the novel The Great Gatsby by F。 Scott Fitzgerald。

  “Homecoming”, as a popular motif around the world literature, is also an expression of “returning home”。 Here, “home” is not only the physical shelter which prevents families from getting hurt or which is the bond of all members in its traditional meaning, “home” here has its abstract concepts。 Here are some of my own explanations。

First of all, “homecoming” can be referred to mean returning to hometown, which is the origin and the cuddle of someone。 And the best example of this explanation is Odysseus created by Homer。 Secondly, “home” can also embody someone’s internal self。 Returning to this kind of “home” means achieving internal peace and power, and finding true self of someone。 And the best explanation of this kind is The Kite Runner。 The last kind of “home” is the outside nature surrounding us。 That is very easy to understand because that nature is the common origin of all human beings, and returning to nature can also be regarded as returning home to achieve balance between mental spirits and the outside physical world。文献综述

1。3 Literature Review

 Generally, “trauma” is the most commonly discussed topic about Home。 Home (2012) offers ample grounds to discuss topics such as acts of remembrance, memory traces, the politics of mourning, and direct (and indirect) representations of trauma and sorrow (Ibarrola, 2014, p。 109)。 This paper focuses on the trauma motif and the significance of the collective memories of the Africans。 In another paper, the author analyzes the origins of the traumas and the ways to deal with those traumas。 Confronted with trauma, the brother Frank unleashed his pent-up emotion by verbalizing his memory to an empathetic listener, while Cee, the sister, relying on the nurturing care and assurance from the maternal community consciously regained her own self-esteem and thereby healed the trauma。 At last, the recovered brother and sister were not only able to face up to the traumatic personal history but also to the painful history of the whole race (Hu, 2013, p。54)。 With “going home”, they expressed the best wishes that every black people could assuage their innermost trauma and build up the real spiritual home in the very land of America one day, which were also shared by Toni Morrison who dedicated her whole life to writing about the traumatic experience of black Americans。 The advantage of both of these two papers is successfully analyzing the destiny of Frank money and his sister in a bigger context—that is African community。 However, the paper didn’t fully analyze the transformations of the characters’ personalities after a series of traumas, which is the biggest limitation of them。