Student Question
Compare Phatik's village life to his city life.
Quick answer:
Phatik's life in his village is characterized by freedom and leadership among his peers, despite conflicts with his mother. He leaves for the city eagerly, hoping for a better life. However, city life proves harsh and isolating, with his aunt's resentment and academic struggles making him an outsider. Longing for his village and familial bonds, he falls ill, which underscores the stark contrast between his village and city life. The city, rather than offering opportunity, leads to Phatik's downfall.
Phatik is the leader of the boys in his rural home village. Yet he feels his mother does not love him and always takes the side of his younger brother. The mother does see Phatik as a problem and a nuisance, calling him wild and disobedient. She fears he will drown or hurt his brother. She is not sorry when her brother comes and offers to take Phalik back to the city to go to school. Phalik is overjoyed at the prospect of leaving home.
However, Phatik ends up longing for the village almost unbearably. His aunt doesn't want him or like him, and he does poorly in school. He is no longer the king of the hill but instead a miserable outsider. Above all, he realizes he misses his mother and that he loves her immensely. He begs his uncle to send him home, but must wait until the...
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end of the term. We learn that:
Surrounded on all sides by Calcutta houses and walls, be [Phatik] would dream night after night of his village home, and long to be back there.
When Phatik becomes dangerously ill and his mother is sent for, she tells him she loves him. We don't know if he recovers, but these are the words he has longed to hear.
In short, for all that he had many conflicts with his mother, Phatik was far happier in the village than in the city. He was at home with his own family, in a familiar place, and was respected by his peers. The main point of comparison is the conflict Phatik has with both matriarchs, his mother and his aunt, but the contrasts in his situations are far more significant.
Compare Phatik's life in the village to his life in Calcutta.
When the story begins, we see Phatik Chakravorti as a young "ringleader" in his native village outside of Calcutta. He is free to be naughty and clearly is in charge of the other local mischief-makers. However, after he is caught in the unforgivable act of beating his brother, Phatik's uncle makes a surprise visit and suggests that Phatik leave the village and travel to the city. And, at first, Phatik is eager for the change of scenery.
When his uncle asked Phatik if he would like to go to Calcutta with him, his joy knew no bounds, and he said; "Oh, yes, uncle!” In a way that made it quite clear that he meant it.
However, as soon as Phatik reaches Calcutta, he realizes that his aunt is furious at the thought of having another son to raise.
She was by no means pleased with this unnecessary addition to her family. She found her own three boys quite enough to manage without taking any one else. And to bring a village lad of fourteen into their midst was terribly upsetting.
The aunt's immediate dislike sets the stage for how Phatik will be treated in his new surroundings. Phatik is soon miserable and begins to pine for the village he left behind.
He wanted to go out into the open country and fill his lungs and breathe freely. But there was no open country to go to.
At night, Phatik dreams of the land he left behind. He thinks about the kite he once flew in the meadow and the riverbanks "where he would wander about the livelong day singing and shouting for joy."
Attending school in his new town is just as unsettling. He is caned regularly by the teacher, and even his cousins become ashamed of him. Things become so terrible in Phatik's life that he makes a secret decision to return home—something his uncle will not allow him to do "until the holidays."
Interestingly, the story's title, "The Homecoming," suggests that the boy will once again be reunited with his mother and the village he so misses. However, we see that he is simply succumbing to delusions caused by his illness in the final scenes. A once healthy and happy boy has been destroyed by a city that never accepted him.