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Sarah Reyner

ENG 203

9 March 2013

Essay 2

“I have read, understand, and am in compliance with the Academic Honesty

policy. In particular, I have not committed any kind of plagiarism. There are

no un-attributed direct or indirect quotations or paraphrases from printed

materials, websites, other students’ papers, or any other sources in my es-

say.”

Home is Where the Heart is

The difference between a “House” and a “home” is distinguished in the eyes of its occu-

pants. Bani Basu’s story “Aunty” (1994) demonstrates a deeper interpretation of the idea behind

“home” and the detriment that occurs when a home is lost. Through the tragic story of the main

character Aunty, Basu illustrates how losing a home can illicit a loss of identity. Following the

death of her brother, Aunty is left under the care of his children whom she had raised following

their mother’s death. Because none of the children wanted the responsibility of caring for their

Aunt, they mutually agreed to place Aunty in an institution that housed the elderly. Aunty is

then thrown into an entirely foreign environment. As she is taken away from her home, Aunty

becomes lost. She is overcome by this dementia-like demeanor because the house that she raised

her brother’s children in meant more to her than a space filled with belongings. Her home con-

tained her life history and provided her with a sense of purpose, one that had shaped her identity.

Following her brother’s funeral, Aunty is left without anyone to care for and conse-

quently she is illustrated as “suddenly [looking] eighty” (Basu 188). Basu describes Aunty’s

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poor physical state as “Helpless, immobile, like a bundle. With eyes that didn’t see, feet that

couldn’t move” (Basu 188). However, even with these handicaps, she remained cognizant, bat-

ting down the children’s nagging comments, by stating “I last out on the strength of mind, not of

my body any longer, my sweets” (Basu 188). In other words, her endurance is fueled by her will

to live. She upholds this fortitude until she is aware that she has no choice other than to leave

her home. The text’s portrayal of Aunty as “Evening fell on her face, then night. In just a few

hours, Aunty became ten years older” (Basu 196), suggests that the mental strength that she had

previously mentioned had been compromised and her will to live had plundered along with it.

Aunty looses contact with her past as well as her present self when she is taken into the

institution. The house that was viewed as profit in the eyes of the children, was seen as a price-

less jewel in eyes of their aunt. By placing her in a foreign institution, she was stripped of all

things that proved her existence. This house represented all the memories that composed her life

story, the sacrifices she had made, and the identity she had established. It was the home of

“Aunty’s potato curry” (Basu 190) and “homemade four sweets” (191) that had earned her popu-

larity throughout the community. Because she had not established a family of her own, this

house was her mark on the world. Its walls housed the images of her nieces’s and nephew’s

childhood and the last moments she shared with her dying brother. With a minuscule amount of

possessions, these memories are all that she had left to recollect her life on. The loss of her home

resulted with the departure from her only window to the past.

Each of these memories that she cherished unified into Aunty’s sense of self. As a

fortress that had sheltered the life she had shared with her brother, her home had became a form

of establishment. Aunty lived a life devoted to her brother and his children. Instead of having a

life of her own, “She kept her elder brother confined within the shelter of her arms, and never let

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the children feel the absence of their mother” (Basu 187). This initial identity of “mother” was

transformed into both a nurse and friend once the children matured and left Aunty’s home. Dipu,

one of her nephew’s, explains this shift in care from the children to her brother as, “It was only

because of Aunty that he didn’t become an invalid, didn’t have bedsores.” He continued to de-

scribe their friendship as “The two of them would shuffle up to the terrace together twice a day

and look after the plants” (Basu 190). These daily walks became Aunty’s duty to prevent her

brother from self destruction and to keep him active and healthy. She had a responsibility to

care, and therefor a purpose.

Auntie knew that she would never bear children nor have a family of her own. Caring for

her brother’s family and the people of the surrounding community gave her the sense of belong-

ing and purpose that families provide. Her maternal role and her home with her brother became

the ways in which she identified herself. She was a mother, a care provider, and a friend. Her

brother’s death stripped her of only part of her identity, which was represented by her increas-

ingly aged appearance immediately following the funeral. The loss of her home elicited her true

loss of self and livelihood. When she loses her home, she loses everything in which she has de-

fined herself with.

Basu’s representation of Aunty’s process of deterioration offers an internal scope on the

idea of home and how sacredly it can be valued. Her brother’s house was more than a shelter, it

was an institute that housed her identity. Consequently, the loss of her home virtually destroyed

her integrity. This house represented all the memories that composed her life story, ultimately

becoming the only window to her past. Additionally, when she lost her home, she lost the only

ways she could define herself: as a mother, a caregiver, and a friend. Ultimately, Aunty’s deteri-

orated sense of self is the defining consequence of losing “home.”

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Works Cited

Basu, Bani. “Aunty.” Global Crossroads A World Literature Reader. Ed. Luis A.

Iglesias, Michael Mays, and Linda M. Pierce. Southlake, Texas: Foun-

tainhead Press, 2008. 184–201. Print.