The Meaning of Home

American Woman

This flow traces the characters’ competing ideas of home, from family estates and prison camps to temporary refuges, shared apartments, and remembered landscapes.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

An Estate as Inheritance An Estate as Inheritance from "American Woman". An Estate as Inheritance Private Kingdoms Pauline grows up around family estates that embody wealth, privacy, and inherited social power.

An Estate as Inheritance from "American Woman". An Estate as Inheritance Private Kingdoms Pauline grows up around family estates that embody wealth, privacy, and inherited social power.

An Estate as Inheritance Private Kingdoms Pauline grows up around family estates that embody wealth, privacy, and inherited social power. These houses promise security but also bind her to a family whose public image will define her long after she leaves home. A Complicated Escape Her flight from the family does not erase the advantages the family has built around her.

A Home Lost to Incarceration A Home Lost to Incarceration from "American Woman". A Home Lost to Incarceration A Family Displaced Jim Shimada’s family loses its home and produce business while incarcerated and unable to make payments.

A Home Lost to Incarceration from "American Woman". A Home Lost to Incarceration A Family Displaced Jim Shimada’s family loses its home and produce business while incarcerated and unable to make payments.

A Home Lost to Incarceration A Family Displaced Jim Shimada’s family loses its home and produce business while incarcerated and unable to make payments. The loss connects political policy to the practical destruction of a family’s ability to return to ordinary life. Home as a Question The meaning of belonging becomes inseparable from who is allowed to remain in a place.

Wildmoor as Refuge Wildmoor as Refuge from "American Woman". Wildmoor as Refuge A Borrowed Home Jenny takes shelter at Wildmoor and restores parts of the house while living under an assumed name.

Wildmoor as Refuge from "American Woman". Wildmoor as Refuge A Borrowed Home Jenny takes shelter at Wildmoor and restores parts of the house while living under an assumed name.

Wildmoor as Refuge A Borrowed Home Jenny takes shelter at Wildmoor and restores parts of the house while living under an assumed name. The place gives her work and a landscape to inhabit, but it never becomes fully hers. A Refuge with Conditions Dolly’s rules, delayed wages, and visitors make the house a precarious home.

The Farm as an Island The Farm as an Island from "American Woman". The Farm as an Island Shared Shelter The fugitives and Jenny build routines at the farmhouse, using training, meals, and the landscape to make a temporary…

The Farm as an Island from "American Woman". The Farm as an Island Shared Shelter The fugitives and Jenny build routines at the farmhouse, using training, meals, and the landscape to make a temporary…

The Farm as an Island Shared Shelter The fugitives and Jenny build routines at the farmhouse, using training, meals, and the landscape to make a temporary life. Their isolation creates closeness but also concentrates conflict within a small, dependent group. An Unstable Home The landlord’s arrival and the robbery plan reveal that the refuge cannot last.

A Room Chosen Freely A Room Chosen Freely from "American Woman". A Room Chosen Freely A New Place Jenny chooses a light-filled room in a Berkeley house after prison and years of flight.

A Room Chosen Freely from "American Woman". A Room Chosen Freely A New Place Jenny chooses a light-filled room in a Berkeley house after prison and years of flight.

A Room Chosen Freely A New Place Jenny chooses a light-filled room in a Berkeley house after prison and years of flight. Unlike Wildmoor or the farmhouse, the choice begins with her own preference rather than immediate need. Home Without Certainty The modest room offers no final resolution, but marks a change in how Jenny imagines the future.

Before Pauline’s abduction

During Jim Shimada’s wartime incarceration

Late 1972 to 1974

Summer 1974

Two years after Jenny’s release