Other Words for Home

Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Middle Grade | Published in 2019

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Vocabulary

Essay Topics

Quiz

Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “Arriving”

Part 2, Poems 1-8 Summary

On the long plane ride to Cincinnati, Ohio, Jude is amazed at how “tiny / and far away” everything appears out the window (61). No one hears her reaction of surprise to this first sight of America.

On arrival at the airport, Mama and Jude wait in a long line for Immigration. A kind man asks many questions in English when it is their turn at the booth. Jude knows it is up to her to answer since she knows at least some English, but the practice phrases she and Fatima used at home do not help her now. Mama gives the man documents; after he studies them, he asks Jude if they have come to visit her uncle. She tells him yes: “One word in English, but it seems to be enough” (65). Mama says they are lucky as they continue through the airport to meet her brother. Jude understands but still feels sad to be so far from home.

Mama’s brother looks polished in his suit; he has a big car and speaks “perfect English” (67). His wife Michelle reminds Jude of a movie star; their daughter Sarah is there as well. Mama embraces her brother, but Jude crosses her arms; she suddenly does not want them to see her as “a stray animal they need to adopt” (68). Aunt Michelle puts her at ease with a hug and a sincere welcome. In the car ride home, Sarah laughs at the way Jude pronounces “Clifton,” the name of their neighborhood. Aunt Michelle says Sarah’s name warningly. Jude realizes she wants Sarah, with her lip gloss and ripped shorts, to like her, but Sarah doesn’t seem to care what Jude thinks.

Uncle Mazin goes to work as a doctor in a hospital while Aunt Michelle takes Mama and Jude on a walk around the neighborhood. Sarah trails along, “sulking a little” (73). Mama and Jude share a bedroom on the third and top floor of the large, old house; soon Jude likes the house’s creaky noises and thinks of it as a friend.

Uncle Mazin shows care and concern for Mama, asking her if she needs water frequently. He tries to interest Jude in technology like a wireless stereo set-up and a big computer, but Jude attempts to hide her amazement, which feels like “a betrayal of Baba, / a betrayal of home” (76). Jude wonders if she and Sarah are becoming friends, especially after she watches an American show about well-dressed teens trying to solve a classmate’s murder. Mama tells Jude not to watch it again, but Jude does. She feels that Sarah is far more mature than she is. One night she overhears Sarah telling Aunt Michelle that Jude cannot start school in the fall because “she doesn’t even speak English” (78). Jude tells herself repeatedly that she can speak English while locked away in the bathroom.

Part 2, Poems 9-14 Summary

Aunt Michelle takes Jude and Mama to a big mall, and the materialism in America amazes them. However, when Jude claims the mall is bigger than their whole town, Mama insists it is not. Jude also begins to notice homeless people and poverty.

Mama and Jude talk to Baba on Uncle Mazin’s computer. They are thrilled to see one another, and Mama and Jude tell Baba about the sights in America. Mama asks about the store, and Jude immediately senses a new fearfulness in Baba, though he says everything is fine. Jude wants to ask about Issa; she is afraid for him. She waits until they are off the call, and Mama tells her not to worry, though it is clear that Mama is worried herself.

Jude becomes enamored with the clean white furnishings and sunny interior of Aunt Michelle’s house; she also loves the dishwasher, the garden, and the fact that she can ask Aunt Michelle to play any song while they sing together in the kitchen. To Jude, Mama comments that Aunt Michelle has “too much white” in the house (88). Mama asks Uncle Mazin why he has nothing from home in the house. He tells her, “This is home” (104).

Jude learns that Aunt Michelle studied French literature at a university where she met Uncle Mazin. Mama tells Jude that Aunt Michelle is “too American” and “made Mazin forget his home” (89-90), and Jude tries to stick up for her aunt. Jude goes to a French restaurant with Aunt Michelle and Sarah. She would like to try ham but does not, knowing her mother would not approve. Food in America has labels like “French” and “Italian." “Middle Eastern” is a label as well, not only for the food Jude has always eaten, like feta and hummus, but also for her.

A strong thunderstorm rolls across the neighborhood the night before school starts. Jude comments on the storm’s fierceness, and Mama reminds her that they have big storms at home. Jude asks if Mama wants her to dislike America, and Mama says she does not want Jude to forget home. Jude boldly says, “If you didn’t want me to forget, we shouldn’t have left” (96). Mama gently tells Jude that it is painful to know that Jude will have a better life in a place that is not her true home.

Part 2 Analysis

As the subtitle of this part of the novel suggests, its events surround and then stem from “arriving.” Jude’s arrival in America involves a steady stream of new and different sights and sounds, making her skills in observation increasingly apparent. She notes America’s glamorous side—its “glittery[…] in-your-face / things” (80)—in details small and large, from Sarah’s lip gloss and intentionally ripped clothing to a trip to the local mall where every store is “each one bigger / fancier / than the last” (81). Jude sees too how dichotomies exist in America; despite all the wealth and materialism (as evidenced by Uncle Mazin’s technological gadgets and wonders), Jude observes people who are tired, poor, or down on their luck. More subtly, she also comes to understand that America’s newness impacts its culture. The fascination and pride Clifton residents feel for their old, historic houses is a case in point; in Syria, new homes are more desired than old homes. Mama tells Jude, “American don’t have much history / so they like things they think are old” (74). This juxtaposition between relative “oldness” alongside everything that is shiny and new contributes to Jude’s difficulty in feeling at ease in an unfamiliar place.

After a few weeks go by, a new conflict surfaces: Mama’s intention to promote and hold onto the idea of home. Jude misses her father, brother, and Fatima very much, but she finds appeal in Aunt Michelle’s slightly movie-star demeanor, the sunlit house and bright furnishings, the easy access to songs, TV, etc. Mama’s barely-contained disparagement of Aunt Michelle, her speech, and her interior decorating masks what she (Mama) truly resents: her brother Mazin’s loss of identity as a Syrian (as she sees it). She questions why nothing from home appears in the house and blames Michelle for making Mazin “forget his home” (90). Mama then seems all the more determined to continually remind Jude of home. Jude, in her increasing perceptiveness regarding those around her, claims to Mama the night before she starts school that it seems Mama wants her to hate the US. Mama tries to explain the paradox to her: “I know you will have a better life here, / but that breaks my heart” (96). Mama’s torn feelings and Jude’s resulting internal conflict over the notion of “home” foreshadow the conflicts in the next three parts of the novel.