50 pages • 1 hour read
Harlan CobenHome
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Home
The motif of home represents safety, belonging, and the desire for stability. Each character possesses a different definition of the concept of home, reconciling the difference between home representing a physical place, a state of mind, or the presence of loved ones. Win, whose family fortune entitles him to many physical properties, has limited friendships and emotional connections. He finds it easy to bounce from place to place unencumbered by the needs of others and doesn’t feel the concept of home deeply. Deeply emotional Myron finds reassurance in returning to his parents’ house, a sacred place for him. Mickey has been wounded by his parents’ drug use; he finds a home with his grandparents. Brooke’s home can never be a sanctuary for her; it will forever be the place where her baby boy was taken from her. The Moores’ home was shattered by Nancy’s horrible crime, forever fragmenting their family. Clark and Francesca find a home with each other, bound by the shared trauma of losing a sibling. Both felt neglected by their parents but benefited from the presence of the one other person who knew what they were going through.
The novel also considers the fragility of home—because it is more than just a physical place, although the Moores and Baldwins wanted their boys to come home, this would never be possible for either family. Nancy’s attempt to protect her son by faking a kidnapping completely shattered the lives of two families. In her attempt to create a safe home for Patrick, she destroyed the home that he knew. The Baldwins’ home was destroyed by Nancy’s choices; although they still live in the same house, the sense of it as a home disappears with Rhys.
Basketball
Basketball acts as a symbol that connects the past and future. Myron is nostalgic for basketball and viewing his nephew’s games in the gym where he once dominated is a very bittersweet experience for him. The game once defined his life, and ending his career with a traumatizing injury was an extremely painful experience. Though Myron’s unexpected injury meant that he could not continue in the NBA, it led him to go to law school and start a sports agency, showing its continued influence in his life. Myron regrets his missed opportunities but is grateful for what he has experienced. Al, Myron’s father and Mickey’s grandfather, reflects that while his grandson has the same raw talent as his son, his son was the superior player because he was more devoted to the game. Myron’s injury evokes similar regret for his father. Al is thankful that the sport gifted Myron with the capacity for leadership.
Basketball acts as a vehicle for Myron to connect to others. The ESPN documentary highlights Myron’s achievements and creates a sense of legacy. Basketball reconnects him with people from his past whom he knew through the game, and it generates sympathy in strangers. Myron’s insider status in the sports world allows him to earn the trust of authority figures who otherwise might not be motivated to talk to him. While the trajectory of his basketball career did not open the doors that Myron once expected, it did enable him to become more emotionally intelligent and a better investigator. He reflects that his unexpected relationship with the sport helped him become a better person.
School
The motif of education representing a safe space appears several times throughout the novel. As fifth graders, Francesca and Clark both came from unhappy homes where their parents did not pay adequate attention to them. After their brothers’ disappearance, they were even more neglected. Mr. Dixon, their fifth-grade teacher, paid such close attention to them that he could speak about their clothing and personal preferences. Although they weren’t getting the support they needed at home, they found it at school. Francesca and Clark became friends in the context of school, as they faced the same questions and sympathetic looks, and their friendship deepened even more in college as they became roommates at Columbia.
As Myron looks for Francesca and Clark on campus, he is struck by the beauty and simplicity of sitting in the quad, marveling at the level of privilege that allows a student to do so. Myron warmly regards his own college days at Duke, where he was a star basketball player and met his best friend Win, illustrating the positive connotations and support of school. Duke served as an essential setting for their coming of age, again highlighting the importance of the school environment in his development.
For Patrick, the Swiss boarding school he was sent to became a safe space, both literally, as he was in hiding, and metaphorically, as he processed his part in Rhys’s death. Though he was on the run from the law, school created an authentic experience for him to make friends and try to recover from his traumatic accidental homicide.
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By Harlan Coben
