Sons For The Return Home



In Albert Wendt’s Sons for the Return Home, the idea of home is often created by the interpersonal relationships each character has. Before jumping into the aspects of relationships in Sons for the Return Home, I will talk about how this has created homeland(s) for me. 
One of my many homelands is Loyola University. Before physically coming to Loyola, all I knew was that I would be on a cross country team and I would be in the Honors Program learning about Political Science. This was what Loyola was to me before I met anyone or any created memories here. On the surface, my experience here at Loyola is very similar to what I just described. Yes, I am on the cross-country team; yes, I am still studying political science to some degree. However, beneath this surface-level analysis is a web of relationships that make this my home. I could do those surface-level things at 95% of the other colleges and universities in America, but what makes this place special is the people. Creating relationships with my teammates and coaches and other student-athletes was something I expected to happen before coming to Loyola, but what was unexpected was the relationships with professors. At Loyola, this is a huge part of why I love to call this place home. Not only are these people teaching me, but they are committed to helping me grow holistically. These relationships challenge me to be more than just a student-athlete. They challenge my identity and place in the Loyola community and the world as a whole. I am open to these challenges which makes my identity grow stronger with more questioning not weaker. On the surface this university is a group of buildings that I come to receive an education at, but under this topical view is a community of people committed to creating a better “Nathan” for the world.
            In Wendt’s Sons for the Return Home, these connections are just as important and, in a way, they mirror my own experiences here at Loyola. Wendt develops this character, the boy who is in college, in a way that makes him distant initially. Our first interaction with him is a scene where he pushes away any interaction with a girl that he will eventually love. He is quiet and reclusive as this girl is trying to interact with him (Wendt 2-3). He even is disjointed from his family. In the next scene, Wendt parallels the interaction he had with the girl at the university to the interaction with his mother. This gives us a basis for how this boy/man acts. Wendt then allows his character to blossom into someone with deep connections to his community. He falls in love with this girl and little by little Wendt allows him to crack open. Simultaneously, Wendt gives us background into the boy’s life and the boys family’s life. It lets the reader gain insight as to why the boy at the university was so antisocial. His childhood experiences with racism and the split identity he has developed. He had been almost fetishized by the papalagi (whites) throughout his childhood. They loved him for his rugby skill and academic prowess but still saw his people as less than human. He struggles with this when he meets the girl, but because of her love, he begins to find himself. She pushes him to try new things and to break out of his shell. The reader can see his beautiful development while understanding the reasons behind what some would characterize as dispositions. Wendt makes it clear that his home and what he considers to be his identity is shaped by the experiences he has with the people around him.

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