From Traveling to Dwelling: Another Home-Away-Home in Allen Says Picturebooks

Grandfather's Journey, Tea with Milk, and Erika-san

Conference Proposal
Yen-Chen Liu
Abstract
In this term paper I put Allen Says three contemporary realistic picturebooks
Grandfather's Journey (1993), Tea with Milk (1999), and Erika-san (2009) in the
discourse of Home-Away-Home with other Western classic childrens fictions.
Whereas Home-Away-Home is usually a circular journey in many Western classic
childrens books, the three protagonists in Allen Says picturebooks regard their
adventures as their new homes, and then construct their hybrid cultural identity there.
The three protagonists in Allen Says stories are aware of their actions before and
during the adventures, and consciously/unconsciously identify themselves as
immigrants. In fact, Allen Says distinct Home-Away-Home pattern reflects the issues
of transnational migration in this global world. As the mobility dramatically increases,
immigrants can have more than one spiritual home as protagonists in Grandfather's
Journey, Tea with Milk, and Erika-san.
Theoretical Framework
This term paper is primarily based on textual analysis from literary and
psychoanalytical approaches. My focus on Home-Away-Home is rooted in Aesthetic
Approaches to Childrens Literature: An Introduction (2005) by Maria Nikolajeva and
Hidden Adult: Defining Childrens Literature (2008) by Perry Nodelman, with a focus
on Home-Away-Home. Nikolajeva synthesizes perspectives of Home-Away-Home
from many scholars. She elaborate Home-Away-Home with binaries, happy ending,
plots, motif, symbol, setting in many Western childrens fictions, and also from the
Jungian theory. Nikolajeva illuminates examples in many Western childrens fictions,
to substantiate the rule of Home-Away-Home. On the other hand, Nodelman views
Home-Away-Home from cultural ideas about childhood (Nodelman, 2008, p. 59).
In Nodelmans postulation, it is adults that imagine children to be protected and
limited by a safe space, and then adults imagine that children want to defy adults
wisdom and emerge from adults protection. At the end of the voyage, children should
choose one between the two conflicting values in being away and being at home.
Nevertheless, when children come back to the same home, the significance of home is

not the same, for what has happened during adventures reconstruct the motif of home
(Nodelman, 2008, p. 59-68).
Methods
I put three Allen Says contemporary realistic picturebooks under the
discussions of Home-Away-Home, with perspective from binary opposites, Jungian
theory, and immigrant issues. First, I extrapolate that Home-Away-Home in Allen
Says contemporary realistic picturebooks is distinct. Second, I provide examples in
many Western childrens fictions, to illustrate how the rule of Home-Away-Home
works. Then I provide counter-examples in Grandfather's Journey, Tea with Milk, and
Erika-san, with binary opposites and Jungian theory. Finally, I link the different
Home-Away-Home in Allen Says three contemporary realistic picturebooks to
immigrant issues. With the premise that Allen Says contemporary realistic
picturebooks differentiate from Western classic fantasy childrens books or
picturesbooks (fantasy) in genre, I argue that these three Allen Says contemporary
realistic picturesbooks have a distinct structure of Home-Away-Home formula in the
process of being away and the motif of home. The process of being away and the
motif of home in Allen Says three contemporary realistic picturesbooks are
connotations from traveling to dwelling in transnational migration.
Data Resources
I employ literary theories in Allen Says three contemporary realistic
picturesbooks: Grandfather's Journey, Tea with Milk, and Erika-san. The reason why
I choose these three picturesbooks is because they are categorized into the same genre
as contemporary realistic picturebooks, and most importantly, they have the same
common theme: home.
Allen Says Grandfather's Journey, Tea with Milk, and Erika-san are realistic
stories of displacement between Japan and America. Grandfather in Grandfather's
Journey moves from Japan to America, and then America to Japan, yet keeps missing
one country while being in the other. Erika in Erika-san is a White American woman
moves to Japan, looking for a location as quiet as America, and then makes a home on
a remote island in Japan. Masako in Tea with Milk is reluctant to move from America
to Japan, struggling with her cultural identity, but then feels Japan satisfy her dream as
a home in the end. Therefore, we can conclude that there is a Home-Away-Home
formula in these three Allen Says contemporary realistic picturebooks, which also
exists in many Western classic childrens fictions or picturesbooks (fantasy).

Substantiated Conclusions
The Home-Away-Home structure in Allen Says three contemporary realistic
picturebooks is a variation among other Home-Away-Home stories in Western classic
childrens fictions: It is an epitome of many transnational migrations, reflecting the
path of immigrants in this global world. People undertakes journeys in foreign lands
for millions of reasons. Once temporary travelers feel a sense of belongings for a
strange land, and then decide to dwell, the strange land can be called a home. Maybe
just like Morleys concept for home in this contemporary globalized society, Home
may not be so much a singular physical entity fixed in a particular place, but rather a
mobile, symbolic habitat, a performative way of life and of doing things in which one
makes ones home while in movement (Morley, 2000, p. 47). Thus, immigrants can
have more than one spiritual home; home can be anywhere that immigrants or
travelers are identified with. Allen Says three contemporary realistic picturebooks all
represent different immigrants around the world, with another Home-Away-Home
pattern.
Significance
My term paper demonstrates that the Home-Away-Home rule in childrens
books is not simple but rather full of numerous possibilities. Nowadays there are more
Western childrens books deviates from traditional Home-Away-Home stories, such as
Harry Potter (1997) and The Graveyard Book (2008). They have complicated HomeAway-Home plots, and they are also composed of the element of homelessness. In my
work, I unfold that Allen Says three contemporary realistic picturebooks connote a
contemporary issue of immigrants in the context of Home-Away-Home. Since
nowadays there are more transnational migrations around the world, Home-AwayHome is redefined in reality. To sum up, the adjustments of Home-Away-Home in
contemporary childrens books deserve further constructions, deconstructions, and reconstructions by young readers.