Home

The backwater town of Lotus is a crucial symbol in Home. The town’s name is symbolic because a lotus is an eastern flower that grows in mud. Therefore, when Cee and Frank return to Lotus to face the harsh, mucky truth and heal, they are like the lotus, becoming better people in unbeautiful conditions. It is also symbolic that agrarian Lotus is named after a flower, and when Frank returns there after a long absence, he is struck that “it was so bright, brighter than he remembered,” with the hot sun’s prominence, the sound of children’s laughter, and the “crimson, purple, pink, and China blue” flowers (117). The natural abundance bodes well for Cee’s healing and revival. The labor Frank can do there is natural, agricultural cotton picking that “broke the body but freed the mind for dreams of vengeance, images of illegal pleasure—even ambitious schemes of escape” (119). It is backward labor, reminiscent of the era of slavery, but Frank feels that the hard toil gives his mind more strength to rebel against the system.

The Ford is brought to the Money family through one marriage (Salem and Lenore’s) and is lost to them through another (Cee and Prince’s).