Belonging and the Construction of Home in Preto’s The Last Hope School for Magical Delinquents

Abstract

This paper studies the construction of belonging and home in Nicki Pau Preto’s The Last Hope School for Magical Delinquents. The novel tells about Vin Lucas, a young mage who has experienced parental neglect, repeated school expulsions, and institutional labeling. This paper applies a qualitative literary method through close reading. By applying New Criticism theory, this study analyzes characterization, setting, irony, naming, and recurring motifs, particularly Vin’s school file and her movement between temporary residences. The selected data are taken from the novel and classified into three stages: de-homing, recognition, and emotional inhabitation. The results show that Vin’s biological family and former schools provide physical shelter, but it does not give emotional security. Last Hope becomes meaningful because its community recognizes Vin as a person, not as an accumulation of failure. The deletion of her disciplinary files, recognition of her magical identity, and her stable friendship change Last Hope from the last institution to a comfort and safe place called home. Then, in this novel, home is understood as a relational condition and ethic that are built through recognition, care, continuity of relationships, and freedom to grow without threat of exclusion.