The home: its work and influenceGilman, Charlotte Perkins
General
The home: its work and influence
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins
Home
With the graminivora there is no thought of home. The peaceful
grass-eater drops foal or fawn, kid, calf, or lamb, where chance may
find her in the open, and feeds at random under the sky. Vegetable food
of a weak quality like grass has to be constantly followed up; there is
no time to gather armfuls to take home, even if there were homes--or
arms. But the beasts of prey have homes and love them, and the little
timid things that live in instant danger--they, too, have homes to hide
in at a moment's notice. These deep roots of animal satisfaction
underlie the later growths of sentiment that so enshrine the home idea
with us. The retreat, the shelter both from weather and enemies, this
is a primal root.
It is interesting to note that there is a strong connection still
between a disagreeable climate and the love of home. Where it is
comfortable and pleasant out of doors, then you find the life of the
street, the market place, the café, the plaza. Where it is damp and
dark and chill, where rain and wind, snow and ice make it unpleasant
without, there you find people gathering about the fireside, and
boasting of it as a virtue--merely another instance of the law that
makes virtue of necessity.
Man began with the beasts' need of home and the beasts' love of home.
To this he rapidly applied new needs and new sentiments. The ingenious
ferocity of man, and his unique habit of preying on his own kind, at
once introduced a new necessity, that of fortification. Many animals
live in terror of attack from other kinds of animals, and adapt their
homes defensively as best they may, but few are exposed to danger of
attack from their own kind. Ants, indeed, sometimes make war; bees are
sometimes thieves; but man stands clear in his pre-eminence as a
destroyer of his own race. From this habit of preying on each other
came the need of fortified homes, and so the feeling of safety attached
to the place grew and deepened.
The sense of comfort increased as we learned to multiply conveniences,
and, with this increase in conveniences, came decreased power to do
without them. The home where all sat on the floor had not so much
advantage in comfort over "out-of-doors" as had the home where all sat
on chairs, and became unable to sit on the ground with ease. So safety
and comfort grew in the home concept. Shelter, too, became more complex
as door and window and curtain guarded us better, and made us more
susceptible to chill. Peace became more dear at home as war increased
outside; quiet, as life waxed louder in the world; love, as we learned
to hate each other more. The more dangerous and offensive life outside,
the more we cling to the primal virtues of the home; and conversely, in
our imagination of heaven, we do not picture the angels as bound up in
their homes--if, indeed, they have any--but as gladly mingling in the
larger love which includes them all. When we say "Heaven is my home,"
we mean the whole of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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