Of course, the title of this excellent and poignant short
story merely serves to emphasise the irony of Krebs' return. Although he has returned
"home," it is clear that "home" has changed because of his experiences, and he is now
not able to relate to home at all in the same kind of way. One of the most significant
moments of the story comes towards the end when his mother forces him to engage once
more in life. Note what the narrator tells us in the last
paragraph:
So
his mother prayed for him and then they stood up and Krebs kissed his mother and went
out of the house. He had tried so to keep his life from being
complicated.
Note the
significant shift from "home" to "house." To Krebs, his home has become merely a house
to him now. The associations of warmth, security and safety in the title have now
vanished and are replaced by an impersonal, detached world that, like Krebs himself,
does not contain any emotion. Thus the title serves to emphasise how un-home-like Krebs'
home has become through the trauma of war.
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