In “The Homecoming,” Rabindranath Tagore creates a story that leads readers to examine their experiences as adolescents, their treatment of the young people in their lives, their concept of home, and their attitudes about real love. To do so, he relies heavily on a richly described setting and frequent uses of irony. Further, the author sets up a distinct point of view that carries readers through a narrative arc to a perhaps not completely satisfying resolution.

First, this story makes excellent use of its setting to help present its themes and plot. The tale begins in a small village where Phatik is the proverbial big fish in a small pond. He is the leader of a group of boys, which makes him rather arrogant. He takes his position for granted and can get away with mischief easily, as everyone knows him and is unlikely to kick up a fuss over his antics. 

However, when Phatik finds himself in Calcutta, he quickly realizes that he is now a very small fish in a very big pond. No one cares anything about him; he is merely a nuisance, a country bumpkin who cannot get anything right. Phatik’s new environment leads to a shift in his perspective, as he recognizes how much he actually appreciates his home and family. As much as he longed for a new life away from the village, the city with its enclosing walls and houses is not at all what he expects. He longs for the true freedom of his village home.

Tagore also employs irony to promote his story’s message. Irony presents the opposite of the intended, actual meaning. Makhan, for example, looks like a “young philosopher meditating on the futility of games,” but he is nothing of the sort, simply a little brat trying to annoy his brother.

Further, Phatik is anxious to leave home, thinking he will find a better life elsewhere. But there is irony here, too, for readers already have a good idea that Phatik is not going to discover what he wants. The results may surprise him, but they do not necessarily surprise readers, for, ironically, Phatik realizes that what he had at home was exactly what he has always longed for.

Even the story’s title, “The Homecoming,” offers a rather sad irony. Phatik does not return to his village at the end of the tale. In fact, the author implies that he will not return at all, for his prognosis is not good; death is a real possibility. So in one sense, he never gets a real homecoming, back to the world he once knew.

Yet, Phatik does get a homecoming of sorts. He gets a loving mother who finally expresses her true feelings for her son. He gets the personal connection that deep down he has longed for and finds a home in his mother’s arms.

Along with setting and irony, Tagore chooses a particular point of view to drive his story along. For the most part, readers see the action through Phatik’s eyes as he leads the boys in the mischief about the log, prepares for his move to Calcutta, enters into the misery of life in the city, and ends up sick and longing for home. However, other perspectives occasionally break into the narrative, filling it out and providing important details. For instance, the narrator explains that Phatik’s mother is relieved to get rid of her son because she fears that he will harm his brother. At the same time, the narrator explains, she is upset he is so eager to leave.

After Phatik reaches Calcutta, his aunt’s...