AP English Language and Composition 2013-2014: Home at Last

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Home at Last

Dinaw Mengestu wrote a collection of essays about living in Brooklyn, New York. Read the essay titled "Home at Last" which is on page 337 in your text book. You might also be able to find the essay on line. After reading the piece, discuss in your blog its tone and purpose. If you are struggling with the assignment, you may want to use SOAPStones to get through it. Good luck.

37 comments:

Meaghan CoppoloApril 17, 2014 at 7:18 PM
Sometimes, life gets really rough. You're in a particularly nasty course or practice seems to be dragging millisecond by millisecond. You stay UP until the wee hours of the morning, sometimes getting only an hour or two of sleep. Despite all of your hard work, things keep going wrong. Life is and forever will be a bottomless whole of misery. Or so we sometimes think. How do we keep the insanity at bay? As simplistic as it sounds, we share our burdens with those going through the same thing. We commiserate with our community.

I could probably write several pages about how brilliant and interesting this article was. In short, though, I would say "Home At Last" by Dinaw Mengetsu is about finding a place where you belong. The essay is an anecdote detailing Mengetsu's experience as an outsider, as someone who could never belong. His descriptive words let the reader get inside his head and see what he was able to see.

I would say that the tone of the piece is hopeful... Whaaaaaat? No, I did not miss everything he said about having no place to call home. I did not miss the isolation within Mengetsu's family itself. I especially did not miss Mengetsu saying he "had wanted and found in them" that which he had always been searching for. I feel that throughout the essay he speaks of the slow differences that were changing his life for the better. The ending sounds especially hopeful to me, and perhaps a tad bit romantic, though not in the lovey-dovey sense.

As to what Mengetsu's purpose was, I think his purpose was to show that no one is really alone. There is always a place to call home. Even if it feels like you are different and do not belong, you are able to have friends. Everyone has the right and capability to be "attached to something".

Mengetsu's piece is very easy to relate to. Even if a person is not from a foreign country, at one time or another they often experience loneliness. The desire to belong is one most people share. Mengetsu has expertly written a resonating piece that leaves the audience thinking about their connections and how they are a part of their communities because, believe it or not, everyone has them.
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UnknownApril 18, 2014 at 12:17 PM
After reading "Home at Last" by Dinaw Mengestu, I came to a realization: community is what you make of it. At first, this essay seemed to be filled with only feelings of despair. Dinaw felt very lonely, like he never belonged or fit in. Dinaw also sympathized with his parents because they had to leave Ethiopia; however, he never believed he was "from" there. He did not share their culture or traditions like his parents did. He could not relate to the other immigrants in Washington, D.C., and he could not relate to the Americans.

So where did he belong? After sounding a bit hopeless, there was a dramatic shift in the essay. He realized he was not alone. Dinaw looked around and realized that there are plenty of other people in this world just like him. At first he considered himself an outsider, but later he realized that he was attached to Brooklyn. Everyone wants to feel like they belong; it is a part of human nature. Dinaw Mengestu began to express positive and optimistic feelings, which directly affected the tone of this piece. Overall, his purpose was to show that we are all a part of a much bigger picture, a community. However, people are often too close-minded and tend to shut themselves out from it. A community is what we make of it.

This essay was very relatable because he wrote about his own personal experiences in an extended anecdote. Everyone goes through times where they do not feel as though they belong. However, these individuals are not alone. Communities are not strong because they consist of people with the same race and background; they are strong because people each have their own struggles, interests, and traditions that can be shared. Dinaw Mengestu felt foolish after he discovered that he does belong in Brooklyn after all. He realized that communities can include individuals from different countries even though they are not in their home countries anymore. People can build and belong to communities even in a new place. Everyone, including himself, has a place to call home and a community to connect with. Rather than being filled with despair, Dinaw Mengestu, for the first time, was filled with joy when he discovered that he belongs to something.
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UnknownApril 18, 2014 at 5:51 PM
Dinaw Mengestu's essay, "Home At Last", was very eye opening to say the least. I can conclude that at least for myself that I take my community for granted. I could be considered a lucky person: I never underwent all the stresses of moving from one town to the next, or even to a different neighborhood in the same town. I grew up around the same people, I went to school with the same kids, and I could go to bed at night knowing that I had a place in my community and that people loved and cared for me.

Well, for Dinaw Mengestu, life was anything but predictable. After being born in Ethiopia, and having to move to the United States at such a young age, it can be quite an adjustment. Dinaw never felt like he belonged in his community, he felt isolated and afraid. On the other hand, he felt that he really couldn't relate to the Ethiopian culture either because he only lived there when he was young. It is encouraging to know that Dinaw was able to overcome all of this, and make something of himeself. It is quite an accomplishment to graduate from Georgetown University.

The tone of the essay seems to change and shift throughout. For example, at the beginning, the tone seemed more sad and lonely. Dinaw was lost, and he was craving to be felt belonged and a part of a community. Then towards the end of the essay, the tone shifts to a more happy feel. He felt more satisfied with his position at the end. He felt like he belonged somewhere.

Dinaw also had a great purpose for writing this essay as well. First of all, I think he wrote this piece to inform other people like him who are struggling to find a place in their community that there is hope. As one could see from reading his essay, he life turned out to be quite successful. The purpose of the essay is to also show that your community is what you make of it. A person can be a part of something bigger than themselves by getting involved in their community.

Overall, "Home At Last" was very touching. I really enjoyed reading it, and I think it really fit in to this Easter weekend. Being such a Catholic community, everyone is doing the same type of activities this weekend: church services, Easter egg decorating/hunts, family get-together's, and spring cleaning if you are my family. I feel that if you a family that just moved into St. Marys, I feel that it might be hard to fit in at first, because you don't know what everyone does. However, they would branch out, go to public functions, and learn, becoming apart of the community.
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UnknownApril 18, 2014 at 7:15 PM
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UnknownApril 18, 2014 at 7:55 PM
I hope I'm not crossing any lines when I say that everybody just wants to fit in. Whether it's with a particular sports teams or just in school, no one likes to be the odd one out. I think that Dinaw Mengestu can agree very much with my previous statement. Especially that it is never any fun to feel out of the loop no matter what age you are.

The tone of "Home at Last" was actually very hopeful sounding to me. Along with hopeful, the piece had a sense of determination that kept popping out at me. He was always determined to try and find a spot where she fit in. He never gave up hope that there would be a place where she could laugh and feel like she belonged.

I think that the purpose was to tell the reader that they're really not alone while also encouraging them to keep pushing forward and searching for their right grouping. Mengestu wanted to prove that no one is really ever truly alone because somewhere else there is someone, or a group of people, that are searching for someone just like you.

I really enjoyed reading "Home at Last" because I know that at some point I felt like he described. He wrote with a purpose in kind but did not force her purpose onto the reader. He also wrote with a soft and reassuring tone which was a lot of fun to read. I think he also did a great job with tying in community.
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UnknownApril 19, 2014 at 5:30 AM
Almost everyone belongs to a community where they feel as if they do not belong, be it their family, church, or any other assortment of communities found in society. In Dinaw Mengestu's essay "Home At Last", he tells of his struggles with feeling as though he is connected with his community. Throughout the essay, the reader can sense a transition in Dinaw's attitude about his community and the tone of the piece.

Dinaw starts his essay in a sad, almost despairing tone. He discusses how he had to relocate to America from Ethiopia, a major change in scenery and culture. This would unnerve a person as it is, while being so young, Dinaw had to deal with being a kid and trying to fit into his community. He seems very lonely and sad, until his tone begins to shift towards a more hopeful and connected tone. He realizes that there are other people in his community experiencing the same troubles, and he can relate to them.

I think Dinaw's purpose is to give hope to those people who are experiencing the same troubles as he is. His audience is other immigrants who feel disconnected from their community and wish to feel like they are an important component of it. He also speaks to any person, not just immigrants who feel this way. He writes about how helping a community, and making yourself involved, despite not really feeling connected, can begin a connection between yourself and others in the community. This will allow you to slowly integrate yourself so that you can have that feeling of belonging.

This essay is very revealing about the struggles that people face with joining a new community when they are not prepared with the necessary tools and knowledge. Dinaw expresses his struggles poignantly, and slowly builds into the hope he feels knowing that he can be a part of his community. This was a great essay to read, and it really made me consider my role in community, and how I can make myself more involved and accepted in my own communities.
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UnknownApril 19, 2014 at 7:20 AM
Community is a funny thing. Sometimes you belong because you have been there long enough, and other times you search for a way to fit until you realize you always have. Dinaw Mengestu's essay, "Home at Last," describes how he tried to make America a place to call home. He struggled trying to find his place in Brooklyn, yet he belonged there all along.

At first, the tone of the essay was a mix of nostalgia and hopelessness.He talked about how he and his family moved from Ethiopia, and how many times he moved around. Dinaw also mentioned how he wanted to be able to call Brooklyn his home. As the essay went on, though, the tone shifted. He seemed positive and hopeful about living in Brooklyn. He was excited that the people who worked at the restaurants recognized him after awhile, and that they seemed to accept him into the neighborhood.

I think that the purpose of the essay was to show that building onto a community can help a person feel connected with the people around them. Being part of a community can also aid in finding the bigger picture of life. I believe that Dinaw expressed his feelings about this idea in a great way.

Overall, Dinaw's essay was one that I really enjoyed to read. We are all trying to find our place in this world, and he made it clear that it isn't always easy. He also established how important a concept community is, and how it can be related to finding yourself.
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Erin PetroskyApril 19, 2014 at 8:44 AM
Community is a funny word, if you ask one hundred people what it means to them most likely you will end up with one hundred different responses. Does this mean they are all wrong? No, it just means everyone has had different life experiences to influence their definition. Dinaw Mengestu spent the first twenty-one years of his life eliminating pieces and refining his definition until it suited his life.

I feel there are two distinct tones in "Home At Last." In the beginning half of the piece, Dinaw Mengestu seems desolate, struggling to feel accepted in both worlds, the Ethiopian immigrants' and the American citizen. Because of his youth when his family emigrated and his family's lack of integration he felt lost in the middle, unsure where he belonged.

The second part I feel it a tone of hopefulness and acceptance. After moving to Kensington, Dinaw was a part of a neighborhood filled with immigrants from all of the world. At first he felt disconnected but the longer he lived there the more he began to realize ethnicity is only a word not who you are. People who are Chinese, Pakistani, Ethiopian, and any other nationality can intermingle and create their own community just as Kensington is composed of them all. At last Dinaw understood it, accepted it, and found his true home amongst different types of people.

The purpose of this piece is to show the ultimate search for acceptance and finding a true home and realizing your true home is your community, no matter what you make of it. Do not be afraid to discover your definition of community just as Dinaw Mengestu was not afraid to. Community is what you make it to be.
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UnknownApril 19, 2014 at 9:12 AM
Studying community has been a very interesting subject to talk about and think about. What is a community? I use to think my church, school, family, friends were all different communities, but now I am realizing that your community is whomever or whatever you choose to make of it. "Home at Last" by Dinaw Mengestu was also a good passage to express another look at community. We all want to belong to some community and fit in as best as we can. Dinaw Mengestu felt like he never fit in to any community and he continuously tried to.

The beginning of the story was Dinaw Mengestu discussing how he did not fit in with anybody. He could not meet the standards of his Ethiopian culture or the American culture. So, he was really hopeless and felt like he did not belong anywhere, and was alone in the world. He felt left out of everything and became sad and lonely. Then, there was a shift in the story. When Dinaw moved to Brooklyn, he went from being hopeless to hopeful. I think he realized that he really was not along and that there were many people in the world similar to him and dealing with the same situation. He spent the whole beginning of the passage feeling alone and searching for a home, but then later realized that he was not alone and could make a home or community for himself.

I think the purpose of Donaw Mengestu's article was to express how he felt about what a community really is. Just as we've been learning, a communtiy is not set in stone what it has to be. It is important for everyone to make the best out of every location or place they are in. Dinaw related to his audience through his personal experiences and anecdotes to express that you should never feel alone. Everyone has the ability to be a part of something, it's just how hard the person works for it and does the best to fit in and be a part of something.
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UnknownApril 20, 2014 at 6:48 AM
I think it's safe to say that almost everyone has felt as if they don't belong at one point or another, I know I have. We all try to fit in and find our own place in society and in the community, when more often than not we've had our own spot and belonged all along. Dinaw Mengestu's essay "home at last" was about exactly this, his life in Brooklyn, a city he thought he didn't belong in.
In the beginning, Dinaw's tone was very say. There were even hints of hopelessness thrown in. After his family moved from Ethiopia, he hoped to call Brooklyn his home. He didn't feel like he belonged in Ethiopia, he didn't feel like e belonged in Brooklyn either. He didn't know where he belonged, but then he went on to realize that people recognized him and people accepted him and this took his essay for a hopeful twist.
I think the purpose of this essay is to give hope to the reader. Wherever you go, you can be accepted and you belong. Your community is what you make of it. You play the role you want to have, and you make wherever you are your home. Overall, I really enjoyed Dinaw Mengestu's work.
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UnknownApril 20, 2014 at 6:54 AM
In “Home at Last”, Dinaw Mengestu made it his goal to fit into a community after he moved from Ethiopia. He worked very hard to reach this goal. Dinaw didn’t care which community he was going to be in, he just really wanted to be a part of a community. There is no doubt about it that most people believe that a community is a specific thing, but actually a community can be many diverse things. The essay was interesting because it allowed the audience to learn about community. Every person does not have the same idea about what a community truly is. This passage helped the readers to understand the meaning of a community.

The transition in the essay was when Dinaw Mengestu moved to Brooklyn. Before he moved, he was beginning to give up because he felt that he was unable to meet the requirements for any community. This was when the tone was very sad because it seemed as though there was not a community that was right for Dinaw. When Dinaw moved, he began to think that it would be a new opportunity to make a difference. He figured that this would be his best chance to fit into a community.

When Dinaw Mengestu moved to Kensington his entire life changed. It all changed for the better. He moved into a neighborhood full of immigrants. The neighborhood near Dinaw, had many different ethnicities. This was the best thing that could have happened. Dinaw would no longer have to feel like there was not a community for him. This was definitely the best fit for him. Dinaw was able to interact with all different kinds of people, and he wouldn’t feel lonely or left out because every person was unique. This is when the tone was happy. Dinaw felt accepted and life was good.

The purpose of “Home at Last” was to explain that no matter what a person should continue to keep trying to be accepted by others. Dinaw could have quit and never found a community that was right for him, but he persevered and fought through the tough times. In the end, Dinaw could not have asked for a better community. It was everything that he always wanted. The other message in the passage is that if a person works towards a challenging goal and reaches it, it could change their life forever.
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UnknownApril 20, 2014 at 7:47 AM
The essay "Home at Last" was a very interesting read. Especially where we all live everyone is very similar. We are all white, we are all catholic, and I think this gives the group of people who live in the area a more at home feeling. But as said in "Home at Last" are we even ever truly home?

This essay was also extremely interesting to read in the ways he tried to feel more at home especially in Brooklyn. He learned that no matter how much he learned bout the area or became used to the area he still never felt at home. Even as he was accepted in the groups he never was at home still.

I think one of the major purposes for writing this essay is to get people to sympathize with his cause. He has a feeling of homelessness and lost and therefore he wants to make other people feel the same in order to perhaps make himself feel more equal to others and creating a similar relationship.

Feeling lost is a terrible feeling. To feel like this all the time would be terrible. Dinaw Mengestu felt like this for all of his life. His paper "Home at Last" does a good job at creating a mutual feeling of homelessness and driving his point home so that people can sympathize with his attitude.
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UnknownApril 20, 2014 at 7:55 AM
Dinaw’s “Home at Last” got me thinking about what community means to people outside of what I know. I always thought that people had a type of community that our school and this whole county has. People associate themselves with being from Elk County all the time, and it gives them something to relate themselves with. Dinaw, however, had no such community. He did not have anybody to talk about hunting or fishing with. He was alone until he realized that communities can be rebuilt all the time by people who share common interests.

Dinaw’s audience in this piece is mainly immigrants, like himself, who have moved to the United States and lack a sense of belonging to a community. Dinaw expresses a feeling of isolation from everyone else. So, in a way, the audience does not really have to be immigrant exclusive, but rather anyone who feels as if they do not belong. Dinaw worked very hard to become a part of a community. He did not really have any strong ties with his Ethiopian heritage, and nor did he feel that he was actually “from America”. Thus, Dinaw’s purpose is to show that by rebuilding a community, one can be a part of something much greater than themselves.

Dinaw’s tone in the beginning of the essay is somewhat a tone of desire or longing. Dinaw wants to feel like he belongs because he could not associate himself as an American or Ethiopian, in the sense of community. However, towards the end of the essay is when his tone of wanting and longing shifts to that of a tone of being satisfied and hopeful. Dinaw moves to Kensington and learns that immigrants can build communities and bring together common ties. Once Dinaw rebuilt a sense of community in his life, he felt connected and attached, something which brought him joy.

This essay really left me thinking about the community most of us will be leaving behind at the conclusion of our senior year. We are going to lose something with which we felt comfortable with for so many years. It will be hard to say goodbye to a community that has served us so well and shaped us as human beings. However, as Dinaw talked about in his last paragraph, we are not losing out on community forever, we are rather leaving one community with a chance to rebuild and make something of ourselves in a new one. It should not be sad that we will be leaving a great community, but rather hopeful, because we have a chance to experience something new and something that will broaden our sense of community.
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