Drama of the Burbs

[Rachel-K]

In her welcome, Marisa talks about how compelling she finds the desire to build a "home" that drives so many people to the suburbs. How are Cornelia, Piper, and Lake doing that?

Do you recognize this hunger for the sprinklers and green lawns and the chorus of mothers' voices that Cornelia is driven to find or build in this new home? Or do you need the endless teeming mix of life and adventure in the city? This is a favorite quote along those lines from Frank O'Hara:

"One need never leave the confines of New York to get all the greenery one wishes--I can't even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there's a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life."

[IBIS]

It's interesting that the characters look for home in the suburbs.

Home is a variable concept... for example, Teo thinks of home as the smalltown where he and Cornelia grew up, and where his parents still live. To him it's a fixed address.

For Piper, her search for home is how appropriately things fit into place... the perfect lawn, the perfect hydrangea bush... the appropriate outfit for a parents' meeting... her trust of what is appropriate is what someone else's trust in God would be... indomitable and absolute.

I can understand how Piper would imagine homelessness to be... as bottomed-out and a desperate state... like a character out of Waiting for Godot by Becket, or that painting The Scream by Edvard Munch.

Cornelia's idea of home is more a search for interconnectedness... raising her family, connecting with the community, wanting to feel enfolded with the protectively familiar, with some sense of belonging.

That's why her initial excitement of moving to a new neighborhood died quickly courtesy of what she perceived was a frosty reception by Piper and other suburban wives. She felt that her search to be connected might be an elusive dream ... thinking that others would be as glad to have her as she was glad to be there.

My idea of home is more along the line of the poet Czeslaw Milosz ... "To find my home in one sentence--concise, as if hammered in metal." 

Home is not always a matter of real estate.

IBIS

Message Edited by IBIS on 05-06-2008 04:36 PM

[Fozzie]

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rkubie wrote:

In her welcome, Marisa talks about how compelling she finds the desire to build a "home" that drives so many people to the suburbs. How are Cornelia, Piper, and Lake doing that?

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I think Piper lives where she does because it is best for the entire family --- good schools for the kids, appropriate playmates nearby, and like minded parents with the right degrees and jobs all striving for the American dream.  I don't think she ever expected to be anywhere else.

Cornelia and Lake both move to the suburb escaping something as much as working to create something new.  Lake seems to be escaping Dev's bad school experiences and something mysterious (don't want to be a spoiler).  Cornelia seems to be escaping the failed attempts at pregnancy and having a child.  Both Cornelia and Lake seem to be hoping that living in "the right place" will change their luck.