“Two Little Soldiers” encourages readers to reflect on what home means to them. Jean and Luc are far from home. They are in a strange town under army discipline with very little in their lives that is comfortable or familiar. So they search for home among the smallest things, and in their Sunday walks, they find a little piece of home as they relish the fishing boats, the river, and the little patch of woods where they take their simple meal.

Jean and Luc find another little piece of home in the farm girl who walks past their resting place each Sunday. She recognizes their homesickness and helps combat it with her offer of milk and simple peasant ways that mirror their own. The girl draws out their personalities in a way that might have happened if they were at home, at ease in familiar surroundings, and able to let down their guard.

However, the two young soldiers mostly find home in each other. Since they are both Bretons, they cling to each other for support and comfort. Each sees home in his companion’s face. Each knows what to expect from the other. They cannot be at home physically, but they can be at home together, even in the barracks.

But this soon changes when Luc discovers romantic love. Unintentionally and unknowingly, he leaves home in a much deeper way than he ever did when he traveled out of Brittany to join the army. His focus shifts and the girl becomes “home” to him. Jean is left behind, his own sense of familiarity and comfort shattered by his friend’s abandonment.

Jean loses his real home: his friend. At least, this is how he perceives the results of Luc’s connection to the girl. The last incident at the bridge may or may not have been deliberate, but it is final, for it ends Jean’s life. There is no going home again for Jean or Luc.

Friendship, love, and their connections and conflicts are central to human life and “Two Little Soldiers.” The story revolves around a deep friendship. Jean and Luc have only each other, for they have been uprooted from everything familiar and dropped into a completely new environment. This experience strengthens their bond as each relies on his friend for support and consolation. They do everything together, falling into a comfortable routine, and their friendship seems solid, even unbreakable.

What happens next, though, reveals the fragility of many friendships. A new element walks into the two soldiers’ lives in the form of a pretty girl. At first, she seems to be only an external interest, but soon, she begins sharing Sunday afternoons with Jean and Luc. She becomes friendly, and the young men are attracted to her, but at first, this attraction occurs within their friendship. They approach her as a pair of friends.

This friendship soon changes, though, when Luc begins to feel something other than friendship for the girl and her for him. He forgets Jean; their friendship slides into the background as romantic love takes center stage. Luc begins going off on his own, not even bothering to tell Jean where he is going or what he is doing. He shuts out his friend; he turns his back on their bond, and it starts to crack.

Jean is left confused and upset. Luc has “quite changed” toward him so abruptly that it has turned him upside down. The friendship he has relied on seems shattered, and he does not even know why. Then he realizes exactly why when he sees Luc and...