Home

The family home holds the memories of multiple generations of the Boughtons and is a symbol of the family’s rich and tumultuous past. Reverend Boughton cherishes his home as it embodies “for him the general blessedness of his life, which was manifest, really indisputable” (3). He relishes in the memories of his eight children and his deceased wife and mourns the loss of this simpler time. Now at the end of his life, Reverend Boughton clings to the memories of his past health and success as a clergyman and active father. Upon arriving home to care for her father, Glory describes the house as “abandoned” and “heartbroken” (4). She dislikes the crowded and outdated style of the house filled with souvenirs and mementos. Glory dreams of owning a home of her own that is “a modest sunlit house, everything in it spare and functional, airy. Nothing imposing about it at all” (305). While the Boughton family home symbolizes the past and the memories of the past, Glory’s home symbolizes her hopes for the future. She hopes for a blank slate that will allow her to create a new life of her own away from the influence of her parents, their religion, and the traumatic past.