preview

The Heart Calls Home Analysis

Decent Essays
Open Document

Lavon Traeye
Ms. Laskowski
English 3
18 November 2017
The Heart Calls Home “The Heart Calls” is a story that took place during the Civil War about a former slave Obi Booker who tries to make a new life on a South Carolina island while waiting to be joined by his beloved Easter, who is studying in the North. Obi met two people that he really loved, Easter the girl he fell in love with and Jason, the child who lived in captivity with them on the Jennings farm. It's the spring of 1866 in South Carolina and Obi spends his break from the Union Army searching for the only family he's ever known. In that search and his journey, Obi learns the hard way that reunions don't come easily in this time of Reconstruction; People are moving, names are …show more content…

Throughout Obi’s journey, he struggles to care for Grace, Scipio, and Araba, three orphans who fled a massacre in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a black town destroyed by whites. He later then finds Easter's friends on the island of Santa Elena and learns that she has gone north to be educated as a teacher while Jason is performing in a traveling medicine show. Obi and Easter reconnect via letters; he begs her to return to marry him, and she reminds him of their people's need for …show more content…

Still, development of the main characters is good, clearly demonstrating the powerful strength of people united in love and caring. This book educates us and takes us through the journey of how Obi and Easter face the opportunities of Reconstruction and the roadblocks of prejudice. When Obi discovers they may be on the Sea Islands, he heads for New Canaan, where he begins the long, painful process of establishing a home for them. Hansen doesn't gloss over the horrors of the Reconstruction in the South (Obi adopts three children who have witnessed the hanging of the residents of Pine Bluff, including their own mother), she weaves a story of courage and hope that illustrates the strength and resilience of former slaves across the South after the Civil

Get Access