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Nomi and her sister Tash grow up in a small bungalow in the remote town of East Village. In Nomi’s childhood memories, the house is cozy and well-maintained. When she comes home from school Nomi always finds her mother, Trudie, reading on the couch; her father, Ray, takes pride in cultivating his garden outside. However, Nomi’s relationship to her house changes after both Trudie and Tash leave the community and their family. Nomi tries to take over tasks like cooking and laundry, but she dislikes keeping house and, with no one to stop her, often defaces her room with markers or even blood. Meanwhile, Ray sells most of the furniture and, out of apathy, allows the house to fall into disrepair. Through these shifts, the house symbolizes the former happiness and current fractured state of the Nickel family.
By the end of the novel, the house is completely empty. Ray, who has left town, instructs Nomi to sell it before she departs as well. The house’s sale is a concrete reminder that Nomi’s entire family has given up on life within the Mennonite community. However, it’s only at this point that Nomi starts to feel hopeful about reuniting with her family again, a feeling she demonstrates through her final, lyrical recollection of childhood nights falling asleep “listening to the voices of my sister and mother talking...and my dad poking around in the yard.” It’s only by relinquishing her family’s former life, represented by the house, that Nomi is able to imagine a new future.
Nomi’s House Quotes in A Complicated Kindness
The A Complicated Kindness quotes below all refer to the symbol of Nomi’s House. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter Twenty-Three
Quotes
I asked him why he was getting rid of the furniture and he said he liked empty spaces because you could imagine what might go in them someday.
We were quiet for a long, long time. Then I told him I wasn’t going anywhere. That I’d never leave him.
Related Characters:
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Get the entire A Complicated Kindness LitChart as a printable PDF.
Nomi’s House Symbol Timeline in A Complicated Kindness
The timeline below shows where the symbol Nomi’s House appears in A Complicated Kindness. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter One
Nomi Nickel lives with her father, Ray, in a small bungalow near the highway. Ever since her mother, Trudie, and sister, Tash, left town, life has...
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Chapter Nine
...the driveway: “Life being what it is, on dreams of revenge.” Her neighbor, an “unhappy housewife,” walks out to look at it. She complains about living in a house filled with...
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Chapter Ten
...with Tash’s Valium and some cigarettes, Nomi prepares to walk to Abe’s Hill. Outside her house, she sees the little neighbor girl playing. Nomi stops to pick her up and spin...
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Chapter Eleven
Nomi’s grandmother often reprimands Trudie for letting the house get messy. When the Rapture occurs, she tells Trudie, Jesus will be able to tell...
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Chapter Fourteen
...like everyone should have been happy; but Nomi felt that something was wrong in her house, even though she was too young to understand exactly what it was. One day, she...
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Chapter Fifteen
...Superstar while Ian accompanied her on the piano. When she would stride out of the house in her skimpy tank tops, Trudie assured Ray that it was just a phase. After...
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One day, Mr. Quiring visited the house to tell Trudie and Ray that Tash had been skipping school and ignoring her assignments....
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Chapter Sixteen
...God or his father more, and his mother answered God. When they arrive at Nomi’s house, they listen to the radio in the car for a while. Nomi muses that music...
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Chapter Twenty
When Nomi and Ray return home, they find a bullet hole in the house’s picture window. A policeman comes to survey the scene and says that kids have been...
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The Mouth often came to Nomi’s house to pray with her parents. Both he and Nomi were shocked to find out that...
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...she refuses to go because he used the word “flat,” and stalks back to her house, where Ray is sitting in front of the bullet-shattered window working on a watercolor painting....
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Chapter Twenty-Four
Dragging her French horn, Nomi walks all the way back to her house, where Ray is intently examining a pile of coupons for fabric softener. He informs her...
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Chapter Twenty-Seven
...to make some tea and lie down. Nomi says that all the furniture in her house is gone, but the nurse just shakes her head.
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That day, The Mouth comes over to Nomi’s house. He announces that the church has decided to excommunicate Nomi for skipping church and setting...
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Chapter Twenty-Eight
...and stereo, a French horn, and an official document testifying to her ownership of the house. Ray has only taken his new suit, his plastic bird, and his Bible. He’s left...
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...Nomi says to Mr. Quiring, she hasn’t quite left yet; she has to sell the house yet. Really, Nomi says, the story ends with her sitting on the floor of her...
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