"Eden is that old-fashioned House." Adam and Eve had the honor of living in that House. The Garden of Eden was perfect, but they couldn’t see that. In Emily Dickinson's poem, "Eden is that old-fashioned House," the "old-fashioned House" is a symbol of tradition and your home. The Garden was all Adam and Eve knew. It was their home. They didn't "suspect... [their] abode" because they didn't know any better. Adam and Eve had complete innocence. They didn't know good and evil or that there even was such a thing. I think "[not] suspecting our abode" has to do with thinking that your "old-fashioned House" will never change. Their entire world was perfect, and they had no reason to believe that they could ever lose it. But it is curious that in her poem Dickinson would use a word such as "sauntered" to describe leaving the "Door", which no doubtedly represents the "old-fashioned House", when it seems God banished Adam and Eve. The word "sauntered" connotes a casual tone that could describe how Adam and Eve take the serpents word without questions. The act of “[seeing] that the tree [was] good food” (Genesis 3:6) and leisurely eating the apple was them “saunter…[ing] from the Door”.
I think everyone goes through this experience. We all have our “old-fashioned House”, that place where we feel safe, comfortable, and, most importantly, at home. It’s not about a physical house. It’s about the environment we feel safe in. Soon, I will have to make the big step, I will have to “saunter… from the door”. I, like Adam and Eve, didn’t appreciate all that I had, and even as I type this up and am trying to appreciate it, I doubt I could ever truly see all that I have. I never once thought about how the fridge was always full, how the house was always warm, or how I was going to pay for college. Getting a “B” on my report card was my biggest problem. I never saw how good I had it and thought “the grass was always greener on the other side.” As I look forward to college, I hope that I will still be able to come back and fit right back in during the summer and see all my friends, but in truth, many of them may not be back and there won’t be any returning to my “old-fashioned House”. But like Adam and Eve, I believe that it is necessary for everyone to “saunter… from the door”. Parents help you create your “House”, but there comes a time that you have to experience the world and create your own “House” for yourself and maybe a family of your own, eventually. As I “drive away” I realize this, and that I need to make an “old-fashioned House” so that one day my children can “dwell in [it]” and “saunter… from the Door” I made.
My biggest fear is not that things will change because that is unavoidable, but that I won’t be important to people when I return. My parents always told me that my brother looked up to me, and I know it’s true. I used to complain about not being able to do things because it didn’t set the right example, but now I find myself worrying that I won’t mean the same to my brother when I come back. The closer I get to leaving, I realize how much I love meaning something to someone, and I don’t want to come back to a brother who looks up to someone else. In a way I am experiencing the empty nest syndrome that parents get when their last child leaves the house. Eventually my brother will grow up just as I am growing up and won’t need me to lead him anymore. There comes a point where I will have to turn my head on the old-fashioned House” completely and make room for my old family in my new home.
