At the end of most adventure stories, there is a
homecoming. Often this homecoming is used to compare the adventurer to his or
her previous self. It shows how much the adventurer grew during his or her journeying,
and what they see differently now that they have come back to their previous
life. Usually in story, this homecoming has a little bit of an edge to it
because the hero is unable to truly return to his or her previous state of
being. This is often how it is in reality, since we grow and change when we leave
stages of our life behind. Many people long for the relatively carefree days of
childhood, and for homecomings that they can never truly experience. “The Wind
in the Willows” describes several kinds of longed-for homecomings which
satisfied my need as a reader to return home.
One kind of homecoming that is rarely experienced is a
homecoming where everything is untouched. While traveling through the forest to
Rat’s house, Mole catches the scent of his home, and knows it is nearby. He and
Rat search for it and find it exactly as Mole left it nearly a year before. He
and Rat spend the night there, and Mole is grateful he will always have this
simple home to return to. So often when we go back somewhere, things have
changed. Our friends have made new friends or our old house has been remodeled.
We would like things to be familiar and comfortable when we return, as if
nothing had changed at all.
Another way to keep our home familiar is to refuse to go
too far from it. Adventures are fun, but home is safe and comforting. Rat never
has much of a desire to leave. There are times when he considers it, but he
will always stay close enough to his home that he can return to it. I’m sure
there are people who wish they could just stay in their childhood. They wish
they could still be taken care of by their parents and spend time in the places
they’d always spent time in. Sometimes, after being away from home for a long
time, I’m sure there are people who wish they had stayed.
A more common type of homecoming in fiction is to win
back your home at the end of the adventure. In Toad’s absence, Toad Hall is
occupied by a clan of weasels. In order to return to it, Toad has to forcibly
evict the invaders. He is successful in his endeavor, and learns from it. In
our absence, it seems things change a lot. The children of today are different
from the children of twenty years ago, who are different from the children forty
years ago. Places change, as trees are cut down and replaced and houses and
roads are rebuilt. Progress marches steadily forward, keeping us from truly
going back to live where we did before. We all wish we could fight that and
bring things back or get rid of new things we don’t like.
“The Wind in the Willows” is a book that focuses on home
and homecomings. It advocates a return to simple happiness. It doesn’t speak
out against going on adventures, but its homecomings are the most pleasant and
rewarding parts of the book, and it induces feelings of nostalgia as its adult
readers remember homes and times they have now lost and would like to return
to.
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