Homecoming
Cynthia Voigt (1981)
“Four children are abandoned in a parking lot by their mother and walk two hundred miles down the Connecticut coast to find a home — and discover that home is not a place but a choice.”
Character Analysis
Thirteen years old, fierce, practical, and operating as a parent since before the novel begins. Dicey's defining trait is competence — she reads situations accurately, makes decisions quickly, and trusts action over speech. Her weakness is the same as her strength: she defines herself through caretaking and does not know who she is without the responsibility. The quest for home is also a quest for an identity beyond 'the one who holds things together.'
Practical, terse, observational. Speaks in short sentences. Avoids emotional vocabulary. Uses action words: walk, carry, decide, fix.