Space: The First Frontier 1 Running Head: Space The First Frontier

Space: The First Frontier Guillermo Medina DeVry University

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While all the stories we have read have the theme of home in it, there are other main points of these stories. Usually for all of us, our most memorable space is our parents house. In there is where most of our own space is, our memories, and identity is formed. In They All Just Went Away, Oates knew her space was in her familys farmhouse. According to her, My happiest hours were spent trampling desolate fields, woods, and creek banks near my familys farmhouse (Oates, 1995). For most people, when they are born, the first house they go into is the house that they grow up in. Growing up in the town I was born in, I didnt really like it. After the move to Wayne, I felt at home. Eventually, after Im an adult I will have a brand new space with my own family and the cycle starts again. I believe space and a house can be almost the same thing. Your home is where the people you care about live and where you feel, well, at home. In This Old House, the author kept talking about the homes beautiful dining room, The Buffet, like the table,was an exercise in elegant simplicity(Sedaris, pg.1). In ones home, some of your worst or best memories are formed. In Westbury Court, Danicat question her memory about that day in the fire, Do you remember the children and the fire at Westbury Court?(Danicat). That was home to her whole family. She said, I never dreamed of leaving Westbury Court until the year of the fire (Danicat). Memories of my old house werent the

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best. The ceiling leaked of water from the faulty pipes. My neighbors were always so loud and didnt respect anyone else. This apartment building being a Spanish orientated building, didnt feel that welcoming even though they were my own people. In They All Just Went Away, near the end of the story Oates can remember the Wiedel family and about the girl in her school who was Mr. Wiedels daughter. The memory of the house and Ruths family made Oates very curious so, I sat with Ruth at lunch in the school cafeteria and eventually I asked her about the house on the old Creek Road, and she lied bluntly, to my face, insisting that an uncle of hers had owned that house(Oates, 1995). Ones identity is determined greatly by how you grow up. If you grow up in a bad home, you could lead the same life for your family in the future or you could change that and learn from your past. At home, your parents usually support you, in any of the choices you make. They try to guide you in the right direction so you dont make wrong one. They dont want you to have an identity of a thief or a murderer. They want you to be John Smith, the teacher, the lawyer, or even a doctor. Your identity is your own and at home our parents help us find ours. In my own life, I never knew what I wanted to be. To this day I still dont really know if a life working on making games is what I truly want to do. I am hoping that going down this path is a good thing and I didnt make the wrong choice.

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References Page
Danicat, E. (n.d.). Westbury court. Retrieved from October 19, 2013 http://english.basd.k12.wi.us/mocarski/collegeenglish/WESTBURYCOURT.rtf. Oates, J. (1995, October 16). They all just went away. Retrieved from October 19, 2013 http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1995/10/16/1995_10_16_178_TNY_CARDS Sedaris, D. (2007, July 9). This old house. Retrieved from October 19, 2013 http://www.mikecraver.com/sedaris.html