A Duet For Home

June and Tyrell have different definitions of family and home; although June is still struggling with her family’s traumatic transition to Huey House, Tyrell has already been living there for some time and has become comfortable with the connections he has made here, even if his situation is not ideal. At the beginning of the novel, June associates the concept of “home” with the presence of her mother, little sister, and father amid their familiar routine in Chinatown. When she is forced to move to Huey House, she immediately senses that these lodgings hold hidden challenges and threats and wants to leave immediately, and her sister, Maybelle, compares it to a prison. Conversely, Tyrell believes that Huey House is a home because he feels comfortable there and has close, positive bonds with people like Jeremiah and Ms. Gonzalez. Notably, he refers to himself as a “permanent resident” of this very temporary housing, and unlike June, he doesn’t want to leave until he turns 18. While June is made uneasy by Huey House’s flaws and restrictions, Tyrell becomes unsettled by examples of traditional families. For example, when he sees the Yangs embrace one another at the Mott Street Animal Shelter, he experiences a “familiar loneliness” and hears a “voice that whisper[s] that no one [i]s in his corner” (330).