Question 6

The concept of home in this novel is determined in different ways. One is when Sal lives with Terry and feels like he has a family and played “house” for a while. Going to new places and seing so many different people started to make him feel like he was part of their way of  living. “They though I was a Mexican, of course; and in a way I am” (pg. 98) he says, because after a little bit more than fifteen days of good and hard times with Terry they managed to stick it out. He felt like he belonged especially because he though things would work themselves out and they would figure out a way to make some money in which  he would be able to provide for Terry and Johnny. Sal feels at “home” when everything seems to be going smoothly but when he realizes and says “what kind of old man was I that couldn’t support his own ass, let alone theirs?” (pg.96) he sees that things aren’t as easy as he thought they would turn out to be. This makes him give up and he becomes tired of working in the cottofieldand and he leaves Terry . This relates to David in Giovannis Room because when things didn’t go his way or he couldn’t accept the circumstances he was in, he would find a way out and run from the situation instead of sticking it out.