Dinner At The Homesick Restaur Essay Research

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Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant

There are two main symbols in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. These symbols are the restaurant and the Monopoly game. The symbols are a big part in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. They bring out character s personalities and influence literary elements in the novel.

The restaurant is brought up many times throughout Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. It is a symbol of togetherness in the family. Both the restaurant and the Tull family are not very stable. They both have Ezra trying to keep them together. Ezra takes over the restaurant from Mrs. Scarlatti and tries to fix it up and keep it running. He changes the sign. He wants a lot of people to eat at his restaurant.

Ezra also tries to bring the family together. He brings them to the restaurant for a family dinner many times. He sets up many family gatherings. Ezra never tries to cause fights in the family, nor does he ever partake in any fights. He would rather live his life as a liquid. (165)

At the restaurant, the family can not finish a complete dinner together. They can always start of all right, but then the family ends up arguing over something. Someone in the family leaves the dinner table. In the Tull s life, they find it very hard to stay together throughout the novel. At first, Beck leaves the family, on business, to take care of themselves, except for a small check he sends them every month. With out Beck, the Tull family has to struggle. Pearl has to get a job in order to take care of her house and kids. This struggling causes the family to have to be apart for much of the time.

When the children grow older, the family has a very hard time of staying together or getting together at all. Jenny goes to school, gets a job and a husband, and has kids. Cody goes to school, and gets a job and a wife. Ezra joins the Army, and then comes home and takes care of Pearl. With all of their separate lives it is almost impossible to get together.

In the last chapter, the family finally gets together for a dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. Even Beck shows up. The family is not fully together because Pearl had passed away. During the dinner, the family got into an argument. Beck left and the dinner was never finished as a family. (297)

The restaurant is a symbol for togetherness. It brought the family together many times, but in the end, it brought them apart even further. The Tull s could not stay together for a long time. They would only start to fight. The restaurant only caused more anguish in the Tull family.

The Monopoly game is a symbol for how the family acted when they were together. Cody played to win and would do anything he could (even cheat) to do so. Ezra played because it was a family activity. Jenny played for fun. Pearl played to keep the kids happy.

In life, Cody does what he can so he can be better than everyone else, especially Ezra. He tries to get Ezra in trouble, for example, by taking pictures of him sleeping with alcohol bottles around him. (Chapter 2) He also tries to steal every girl that ever liked Ezra from him. He succeeded by stealing Ezra s one true love, Ruth. Cody is the black sheep of the family and it shows off in his conniving ways in playing Monopoly.

Ezra likes to stay neutral in the family. He likes when the family does things together and does not fight. He plays Monopoly willingly and fairly. When he catches Cody cheating, he gets mad.

Jenny plays Monopoly for fun. Just like in life, she just goes with the flow of things. She makes some mistakes, but is not mad at herself for them. Jenny does not get very discouraged at the family in life. She participates in family activities, but it seems like her heart is not in it. She understands that the family is dysfunctional and cannot do anything together.

Pearl plays Monopoly to make her kids happy. All throughout life, she only wants her kids to be happy. She has a plan for each child even though the children do not follow her plan at all. He children are never really happy. Her life is somewhat meaningless, just like the game.

When Cody cheats, the game is over and the family is fighting and mad at each other. This is just like in life. One person gets the rest mad and a huge fight breaks out from it. The family ends up apart. They cannot stay together.

The symbols of the restaurant and the Monopoly game are big parts of Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. They symbolize the family s togetherness and the different personalities of each character. Both symbols have the family broken up and fighting at the end. No matter how hard the Tull family tries, they would never be able to finish anything together as a family.