The Heart of the Matter Homework – Martin Pham

RR: Ultimately, the extract encourages contemporary responders to redefine the one-
dimensional perspective of home as a source of shelter and instead consider home as an
environment which offers emotional, physical and spiritual comfort, ultimately crystallising
an individual’s multi-faceted self-identity.

LS: Read purposefully subverts traditional narrative style through vignettes to compellingly
ensconce an individual’s self-identity as a product of home and powerfully exemplifies the
axiomatic relationship between home and self-identity.

Short Vignette
Home can be at school:
It sounds unbelievable that home can be at school; a place where you feel as if you’re
constantly anchored with dread with each passing period. But the unequivocally ephemeral
moments of laughter and chatter while I’m gathered at the lunch table with my friends is
uplifting. The rich depths of conversations in a knit-tight group with my friends, elbows on
the cheap wooden tables while awaiting for the teacher. When you’re at school, it feels as if
there are no boundaries restricting on what you express and speak. Intertwining friendships
can be made. Made to divulge all your personal secrets.