English 122 - I Must Be Going by Richard Ford

Mitchell Wix Wix 1

English 122

Glen Silva

Sec. 2738

Essay #2: Compare and Contrast

Each person has different ideas on where and what "home" is. Some may say home is where the heart is, others may think home is where one has a solid foundation of memories. In the essay "I Must Be Going" by Richard Ford, he explains how moving is one of Americans anxieties, yet does is so often; Ford feels home is wherever he makes it. In the essay "Homeplace" by Scott Russell Sanders, he gives the idea that settling down and making part of this earth a part of you and working hard will lead to a feeling of "at-homeness." The two essays are different in believing where home is, yet "home" in both essays contain certain love that gives us the idea that even the most opposite types of people have something in common.

"Home" is thought of as a physical being, but in these essays, home is a feeling; a feeling of comfort and love which come in many shapes and sizes. "Home" can be brought on by sights, smells and most important, the memories of those senses. Ford shows that the most important aspects of feeling at "home" is "the important place that holds you, always meant that: affection, love" (110). He says this before he tells us about how he and his wife were broken down in Nebraska in the late 70's and his wife says, "I've just gotten so sleepy now. I've got to go home and sleep." "Home?" Ford says... His wife laughs, "Just back to the motel. Where else?" (110). Home is where this couple is making it. They are broken down in the hottest time of the year away from their house, yet still feel that warm feeling of "home."

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Sander's idea of love being the most important part of "home" is very similar. The Millers, in Sander's essay encounter three tornadoes in Ohio. Each tornado practically makes the family start from scratch in building a new house and replanting all of their crops. Yet, even though this family has to rebuild a new house, they are always at "home." Sanders writes, "...the Millers had invested so much of their lives in the land, planting orchards...it was a particular place, intimately known, worked on, dreamed over, cherished" (210) The feeling of knowing that you are using your land to create jobs, hope, and a solid foundation of memories creates a special feeling of fulfillment. Their land is loved as well as the ones they share it with. Sander's "home" is considered to be a house, marriage, neighborhood, community; and the number one feeling of home for the Sanders is love. Love gave Ford and Sanders a common ground among their many differences such as how Ford is always on the move and Sanders is not.

The idea of moving around to most people must be imagined because they have not done it more than maybe two times in their whole life and if they have it was most likely in the same city. Ford gives two reasons why he must always be moving in order to keep from 'longing' too long. First, he is trying to find a place that is better than the one that he has been before. Even if he finds a new and interesting place, he would live there for a while and decide to move again due to "the more magical, exotic place and that's what you needed to see" (110). The second reason Ford gives is his father who was a traveling salesman. Ford says that, "...every Monday morning I would hear him whistling as he got ready to leave again..." (110). Listening to his father always being on the move for business gave him a reason to live his life on the move. His reasons gave

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him the excuse that whether or not he wanted to turn out the way he did, there were forces brought on through living life that directed him is that direction.

On the other hand Sanders has a completely opposite thought pattern, and that being, "how can you value other places if you do not