the author makes herself at home in her house.what does this mean?how does she do it?(coming home)

[Kanha]

From contemporary english :an anthology for undergraduates-1

[fredpuli47]

Whose is 'her house' ? Not, presumably, the author's . We would say 'make yourself at home' to a visitor to our house because it means 'make yourself comfortable here, just as you would if you were in your own home'. We might say that if we are leaving the visitor there, in our home, whilst we went out or if we were busy and working, or doing something elsewhere in the house, and would not be with them to be the perfect host, to entertain them or have a conversation with them for a while. We might say 'Make yourself a cup of tea, make yourself at home.' too.The sentence means 'The author makes herself (=the author) at home in her (=someone else's, the person in whose house the author is) house.
The sentence would not make a much sense if it meant the author made herself at home in her own house! Nobody would normally 'make themselves at home' in their own house, their own home, because they'd be at home already and not have to do anything to make it, or treat it, like home!

[Seadragon]

This is interesting. It could refer to her mental state? Such as the author having left her home - whatever material she wrote or how different it is to her life, but leaving it and returning to her life in which case she is back at home in her house? Kind of gone on a diversion? Or she has written something close to her real life that she is in comfortable territory? I don't know if this makes any sense, just another perspective.

[fredpuli47]

Well, Seadragon, I don't know how subtle this writing is, without some context. All we've been given is one sentence to explain. The 'translation' I've given is the only obvious one, the one a native English speaker would give.

If the author has been away from her own house for a long time, or she has been prevented from living in it, and it was no longer her home, perhaps because someone else has been living in it, and she the returns to it ,to have it as her home again, then she could be 'making herself at home in her house'. However, if that was the story I'd expect the writer to put 'The author makes herself at home in her own house' to make it clear , and emphasise that the house is her house and now she is making it her home, treating it as her home .

One could envisage such a case. 'A house is not a home' we say. She could be , in her mind, claiming tne buliding, her house, as her home, thinking and asserting by her conduct that she is making herself 'at home' in it.

[Seadragon]

Well Fred......there are alot of 'homes' and 'houses' in your above post. But I have to agree, we don't know the context in which the statement is made.