Homecoming

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. The speaker in “Homecoming” returns to a place that feels simultaneously familiar and foreign. When have you returned to a place that has changed—or perhaps you changed—making it feel both familiar and strange?

2. The poem explores how the speaker’s education leads them to see their family’s exploitation of workers. Have you ever had an educational experience that made you critically reexamine your family’s values or practices?

3. In the poem, different characters express their cultural identities through dance. How do you express or maintain cultural connections in your own life?

4. The speaker is inappropriately touched by their uncle. How have you navigated situations where gifts or opportunities came with uncomfortable expectations?

5. The speaker reflects on the timing of their awareness about class exploitation. Can you recall a moment when you gained an important insight that seemed to come either too early or too late in your life?

Explore broader implications and cultural relevance.

1. “Homecoming” was written in the 1980s but addresses issues of labor exploitation in the sugar industry that continue today. How have attitudes toward labor practices and workers’ rights in agricultural industries evolved or remained the same since the poem’s publication?

2. The poem depicts cultural tensions between the Caribbean and the United States. In what ways do these tensions reflect larger patterns of the relationship between the United States and Caribbean nations?

3. Alvarez portrays the wealth disparity at the wedding with details like guards taking guests’ jewelry while workers serve the guests. How does this portrayal connect to broader discussions about wealth inequality in global economies?

Examine technical and thematic elements.

1. “Homecoming” is written in free verse with extensive use of enjambment. How does this formal choice enhance or complement the poem’s exploration of boundaries—cultural, class, and personal?

2. The wedding cake serves as a central symbol in the poem. What does this symbol reveal about the relationship between consumption, labor, and ownership in the poem?

3. Alvarez uses specific sensory details throughout “Homecoming,” from the “talcum” on the dance floor to the “cream roses” on the cake. How do these details contribute to the poem’s exploration of class and cultural differences?

4. The speaker describes their uncle inappropriately touching them while saying, “all this is yours!” How does this juxtaposition develop the theme of gendered entitlement to places and bodies?

5. How does Alvarez use the motif of dance throughout the poem to illustrate cultural differences and social status? What significance do you see in the specific dances mentioned—merengue and Charleston?

6. The poem ends with the image of workers eating “windows, shutters, walls, pillars, doors, / made from the cane they had cut in the fields.” Analyze the effectiveness of this final image in conveying the poem’s themes.