[The] image of home unifies Not Without Laughter. Hughes works within a long tradition, ranging from Homer to Baraka (Jones) in verse…. [The literature of this tradition attempts] to define home and man's relationship to it. This effort indicates a movement from innocence to experience. It implies alienation, happiness or despair. (p. 362)

Not Without Laughter emphasized home and the three levels on which this image has meaning: the mythical, the historical, and the social….

From an initial situation of home, the reader moves first to a disintegration of the Williams family and then to a process of the family's re-creation. (p. 363)

The structure of Not Without Laughter reveals a continual process of venture and return. The first chapter strikes a biblical tone. To this, the implied author will return at the end, but then Sandy will understand more about life. Simple narrative merges with mythic symbol. (p. 364)

In...