Close Reading
Several different definitions of home are given in Katherine Paterson’s children’s novel The Day of the Pelican. For example, Meli gives her own definition at the beginning saying the apartment in the Kosovo city is her home, but Uncle Fadil argues that the family farm is home due to heritage, and later the Macedonian refugee camp plays a temporary role as the family’s home. Ultimately, Meli’s father, Baba, defines home not as a place but where family is. Since The Day of the Pelican follows the Lleshi family as they move from one place to another, it reveals how minority groups create homes for themselves in new environments and countries by adjusting to new customs and maintaining cultural identity.
The term “home” is used here loosely, to which some might argue that the definition of home is not so flexible, and that home is a physical place rather than a collection of emotions and actions creating a home-like environment. These arguments are also presented in The Day of the Pelican, first by Meli who was loathe to leave the only home and community she knew, and also by Uncle Fadil who argues that since the family is from the farm, the Lleshi’s are bonded to it (Paterson, 2009). However, Nuha Khoury in her article “Where Are You From? Writing Home in Palestinian Children’s Literature” defines home as a place that implies moving away and then returning to, and a “place of security that no one has the right to take away…some place we are free to leave but something we somehow haven’t to deserve” (2010, p. 699). For the Lleshi’s, Kosovo will always be their point of origin to return to, as Meli at the end of the book thinks “of going back home to Kosovo” [emphasis added] (Paterson, 2009, p. 138). But home can be in multiple places. For example, Paterson writes of the refugee camp tent, “After all, it was their home”, of Vermont, “America was home now”, and even that family can be home (2009, p. 138; 83). For those who cannot go home, Khoury writes that thinking of home “extends thoughts of home to homeland and brackets the longing in belonging” (2010, p. 700). Paterson captures this struggle between longing for home and being home in Meli, who “some days thought of Kosovo and felt a wave of homesickness for the things and people she had loved there” and yet considered “America their new beginning…and she was beginning to like the person she was becoming” (2009, p. 138). To take into consideration the physical location that was the Lleshi’s home, The Day of the Pelican still illustrates how the family creates new homes in each new environment they find themselves in.
The Lleshi’s uprooted and re-planted themselves in four different places: the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) camp, the family farm, the Macedonian refugee camp, and Vermont, USA. Though not introduced to a new culture until Vermont, the family still faced many lifestyle changes living at the farm and campsites. Each place had different levels of amenities and comforts, some of which caused tensions or required the family to work harder. The worst was the KLA camp, where the family slept in a cramped tent, and where “so much they had always taken for granted was missing” (Paterson, 2009, p. 31). This lack of amenities taught the family to go without warm beds, shaving, and foods like eggs, butter, and milk, and instead accustom themselves to sleeping in tightly packed spaces and collecting daily firewood. For them, adapting to camp customs was how the Lleshi family created a ‘home’ (or comfortable and consistent lifestyle) for themselves in the mountains. Similarly, at the farm the family had many duties which the entire family divided amongst themselves—tasks like milking the cow and goats, giving the animals hay, feeding the chickens, and fetching water (Paterson, 2009). Learning to master these activities bonded the family together and to the farm, and allowed them to step into a normal and home-like pattern of life.
Once in the United States, the Lleshi family not only had to adjust to a different lifestyle, but they were surrounded by a foreign culture forcing them to learn new customs. The clearest example of their adjustment to American culture is when Mehmet explained to his father the holiday traditions observed in America. First, Mehmet explained about costumes and trick-or-treating for Halloween, prayers for Thanksgiving, and finally Santa Claus for Christmas (Paterson, 2009). Baba had various apprehensions about each, but eventually the family found a way to participate in the holidays, thereby integrating themselves into the environment. There were also cultural adjustments that were harder to make, such as mastering English and finding jobs. Regarding English, the young children picked it up easiest before Mehmet, who studied hard to be fluent and fit in. Meli struggled learning the new language, but compared to Meli “[English] seemed almost impossible for Mama and Baba” (Paterson, 2009, p. 110). Over time, however, Mehmet “seemed to glide through even the courses that demanded lots of English knowledge”, and for Meli “her ears had become accustomed to its strange sounds, and the new words began to feel far less clumsy in her mouth” (Paterson, 2009, p. 119; 114). Success in language learning was one way the family began to feel comfortable in America. Paterson shows, however, that without language mastery it is difficult to be included in society, as illustrated in the parents’ dependence on their children as translators, and their limited options for low-paying blue collar jobs. The contrast between parents and children reveals that creating (and finding) a comfortable environment is easier for some than for others. In this case, it is due to the children’s immersion into an English-speaking atmosphere, forcing them to learn the language and culture quickly. This strategy is one way immigrant groups can adjust to non-native cultures and move one step closer to feeling at home there.
Another strategy for creating a home as a minority group is to maintain one’s cultural identity. This is clearly illustrated in The Day of the Pelican by the family’s close bonds. A theme the book reiterates is that with a family there is home, because a family embodies the culture and comfort that each individual is rooted in. Early illustrations of this are when Mehmet’s absence caused the family to lose its comfortableness, and when Mama clung to her parents’ photograph as “the only thing she had to remind her of her childhood home” (Paterson, 2009, p. 22). During the family’s travels to the KLA camp, Meli felt “safer for them to be all together” (Paterson, 2009, p. 25). Again, Paterson connects family with safety when she writes, “They felt safe in this tent city. They were together”, revealing that safety is another element of the home which is found through the family (p. 81). The most obvious example of this theme is when Baba clearly states for Mehmet, “Your home is here with your family” (Paterson, 2009, p. 129). These all illustrate that people identify with their family, and find comfort and safety there; therefore as long as the family is together they will have a home.
Other ways of keeping cultural identity are through memories and cultural customs. When spring comes to Vermont, Meli is “suddenly aware of a homesickness that…she had been able to push deep below the surface” (Paterson, 2009, p. 120). She misses things like the mountains, language, her relatives, and friends. Though homesickness is difficult, it is important to grieve losses and to use memories to keep a place alive. Finally, cultural customs are a tangible way to maintain the ties with one’s home country and the identity that is rooted there. In Paterson’s book, the Lleshi’s preserve their habit of taking off their shoes before entering a house, first in their city apartment, then at the refugee camp, and even still in America. This keeps the “otherness” that makes minority groups unique (Graff, 2010 p. 124). In discussing immigrant success stories, Jennifer Graff (2010) compares assimilation to the “’skinning’ of the self”—something that connotes violence and the psychological pain immigrants go through (p. 124). By keeping these little cultural habits, the family prevents themselves from being stripped of their culture, instead transporting pieces of their home culture to their new home.
By learning from new cultures and communities while still retaining their family bond and cultural identity, the Lleshi family succeeded in creating homes for themselves. Looking at the family unit reveals that Paterson emphasized the connection family members have with each other, which matters above all else. Paterson’s last sentences sums up the transition from one home in Kosovo to a home in America: “The homesickness passed. The family had held together. America was home now” (2009, p. 138). Though baggage remained for the Lleshi family, they were able to keep in remembrance their home country and yet create new homes by holding onto each other.
The term “home” is used here loosely, to which some might argue that the definition of home is not so flexible, and that home is a physical place rather than a collection of emotions and actions creating a home-like environment. These arguments are also presented in The Day of the Pelican, first by Meli who was loathe to leave the only home and community she knew, and also by Uncle Fadil who argues that since the family is from the farm, the Lleshi’s are bonded to it (Paterson, 2009). However, Nuha Khoury in her article “Where Are You From? Writing Home in Palestinian Children’s Literature” defines home as a place that implies moving away and then returning to, and a “place of security that no one has the right to take away…some place we are free to leave but something we somehow haven’t to deserve” (2010, p. 699). For the Lleshi’s, Kosovo will always be their point of origin to return to, as Meli at the end of the book thinks “of going back home to Kosovo” [emphasis added] (Paterson, 2009, p. 138). But home can be in multiple places. For example, Paterson writes of the refugee camp tent, “After all, it was their home”, of Vermont, “America was home now”, and even that family can be home (2009, p. 138; 83). For those who cannot go home, Khoury writes that thinking of home “extends thoughts of home to homeland and brackets the longing in belonging” (2010, p. 700). Paterson captures this struggle between longing for home and being home in Meli, who “some days thought of Kosovo and felt a wave of homesickness for the things and people she had loved there” and yet considered “America their new beginning…and she was beginning to like the person she was becoming” (2009, p. 138). To take into consideration the physical location that was the Lleshi’s home, The Day of the Pelican still illustrates how the family creates new homes in each new environment they find themselves in.
The Lleshi’s uprooted and re-planted themselves in four different places: the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) camp, the family farm, the Macedonian refugee camp, and Vermont, USA. Though not introduced to a new culture until Vermont, the family still faced many lifestyle changes living at the farm and campsites. Each place had different levels of amenities and comforts, some of which caused tensions or required the family to work harder. The worst was the KLA camp, where the family slept in a cramped tent, and where “so much they had always taken for granted was missing” (Paterson, 2009, p. 31). This lack of amenities taught the family to go without warm beds, shaving, and foods like eggs, butter, and milk, and instead accustom themselves to sleeping in tightly packed spaces and collecting daily firewood. For them, adapting to camp customs was how the Lleshi family created a ‘home’ (or comfortable and consistent lifestyle) for themselves in the mountains. Similarly, at the farm the family had many duties which the entire family divided amongst themselves—tasks like milking the cow and goats, giving the animals hay, feeding the chickens, and fetching water (Paterson, 2009). Learning to master these activities bonded the family together and to the farm, and allowed them to step into a normal and home-like pattern of life.
Once in the United States, the Lleshi family not only had to adjust to a different lifestyle, but they were surrounded by a foreign culture forcing them to learn new customs. The clearest example of their adjustment to American culture is when Mehmet explained to his father the holiday traditions observed in America. First, Mehmet explained about costumes and trick-or-treating for Halloween, prayers for Thanksgiving, and finally Santa Claus for Christmas (Paterson, 2009). Baba had various apprehensions about each, but eventually the family found a way to participate in the holidays, thereby integrating themselves into the environment. There were also cultural adjustments that were harder to make, such as mastering English and finding jobs. Regarding English, the young children picked it up easiest before Mehmet, who studied hard to be fluent and fit in. Meli struggled learning the new language, but compared to Meli “[English] seemed almost impossible for Mama and Baba” (Paterson, 2009, p. 110). Over time, however, Mehmet “seemed to glide through even the courses that demanded lots of English knowledge”, and for Meli “her ears had become accustomed to its strange sounds, and the new words began to feel far less clumsy in her mouth” (Paterson, 2009, p. 119; 114). Success in language learning was one way the family began to feel comfortable in America. Paterson shows, however, that without language mastery it is difficult to be included in society, as illustrated in the parents’ dependence on their children as translators, and their limited options for low-paying blue collar jobs. The contrast between parents and children reveals that creating (and finding) a comfortable environment is easier for some than for others. In this case, it is due to the children’s immersion into an English-speaking atmosphere, forcing them to learn the language and culture quickly. This strategy is one way immigrant groups can adjust to non-native cultures and move one step closer to feeling at home there.
Another strategy for creating a home as a minority group is to maintain one’s cultural identity. This is clearly illustrated in The Day of the Pelican by the family’s close bonds. A theme the book reiterates is that with a family there is home, because a family embodies the culture and comfort that each individual is rooted in. Early illustrations of this are when Mehmet’s absence caused the family to lose its comfortableness, and when Mama clung to her parents’ photograph as “the only thing she had to remind her of her childhood home” (Paterson, 2009, p. 22). During the family’s travels to the KLA camp, Meli felt “safer for them to be all together” (Paterson, 2009, p. 25). Again, Paterson connects family with safety when she writes, “They felt safe in this tent city. They were together”, revealing that safety is another element of the home which is found through the family (p. 81). The most obvious example of this theme is when Baba clearly states for Mehmet, “Your home is here with your family” (Paterson, 2009, p. 129). These all illustrate that people identify with their family, and find comfort and safety there; therefore as long as the family is together they will have a home.
Other ways of keeping cultural identity are through memories and cultural customs. When spring comes to Vermont, Meli is “suddenly aware of a homesickness that…she had been able to push deep below the surface” (Paterson, 2009, p. 120). She misses things like the mountains, language, her relatives, and friends. Though homesickness is difficult, it is important to grieve losses and to use memories to keep a place alive. Finally, cultural customs are a tangible way to maintain the ties with one’s home country and the identity that is rooted there. In Paterson’s book, the Lleshi’s preserve their habit of taking off their shoes before entering a house, first in their city apartment, then at the refugee camp, and even still in America. This keeps the “otherness” that makes minority groups unique (Graff, 2010 p. 124). In discussing immigrant success stories, Jennifer Graff (2010) compares assimilation to the “’skinning’ of the self”—something that connotes violence and the psychological pain immigrants go through (p. 124). By keeping these little cultural habits, the family prevents themselves from being stripped of their culture, instead transporting pieces of their home culture to their new home.
By learning from new cultures and communities while still retaining their family bond and cultural identity, the Lleshi family succeeded in creating homes for themselves. Looking at the family unit reveals that Paterson emphasized the connection family members have with each other, which matters above all else. Paterson’s last sentences sums up the transition from one home in Kosovo to a home in America: “The homesickness passed. The family had held together. America was home now” (2009, p. 138). Though baggage remained for the Lleshi family, they were able to keep in remembrance their home country and yet create new homes by holding onto each other.
References
Graff, J. M. (2010). Countering narratives: Teachers’ discourses about immigrants and their experiences within the realm of children’s and young adult literature. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 9.3(3), p. 106-131.
Khoury, N. N. N. (2010). Where are you from? Writing home in Palestinian children’s literature. Third Text, 24(6), p. 697-718.
Paterson, K. (2009). The day of the pelican. New York, NY: Clarion Books.
Graff, J. M. (2010). Countering narratives: Teachers’ discourses about immigrants and their experiences within the realm of children’s and young adult literature. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 9.3(3), p. 106-131.
Khoury, N. N. N. (2010). Where are you from? Writing home in Palestinian children’s literature. Third Text, 24(6), p. 697-718.
Paterson, K. (2009). The day of the pelican. New York, NY: Clarion Books.