Accumulated Lives: Metaphor, Materiality, and the Homes of the Elderly

The representation of personal history and identity in the familiar spaces and objects of the home is a common imaginative practice that is particularly apparent, and particularly critical, in the homes of the elderly. Gerontologists who study place attachment among the elderly employ the contradictory metaphors of navigation and amalgamation to describe the complex relationship that exists between self, space, and habit when elders identify with their homes. By analyzing novels that both address and employ the operation of home-based metaphors of identity, as well as philosophical studies of memory and space, this essay attempts to investigate the relationship between metaphorical and material apprehensions of the self in order to better understand the determination of many elderly people to remain in their homes.