Human Comedy -- a Comedy

Human Comedy -- a Comedy and a Tragedy

William Saroyan's novel The Human Comedy depicts the effects of war on the lives of a common, ordinary American family. Most of the family it set on the home front, although there are also scenes of what life is like for the soldiers fighting abroad. The main protagonist, Homer Macauley, is a young boy living in California with his widowed mother. His mother Katey is struggling to feed Homer and his three siblings. The eldest boy, Marcus, is away for most of the novel, fighting in World War II, and Bess, the only girl is studying at college. At the beginning of the novel, Homer simply dreams of becoming the fastest telegraph operator in the West. By the end of the novel, Homer's sense of morality has grown deeper and sadder, as he realizes that now he is the man of the family, after his brother dies.

Character Analysis:

Homer has already had to assume some of the duties of the man of the family, while Marcus has been away. Besides attending to his own education, Home works delivering telegrams after school. When delivering these messages, even a child like Homer realizes how quickly death can come to people he knows, when a nation is at war. Eventually, at the end of the novel, when Marcus is killed, the Macauleys realize that even their family closeness cannot keep them safe from the inevitable tragedies of war.

The book constantly stresses the theme of homecoming. Homer's name contains the word home, and his name recalls the poet of the "Odyssey," as does the name of the Macauley's youngest son Ulysses. The family and their Californian community are made up of second-generation immigrants, so everyone is still making their new home in America. But tragically, Marcus never returns home.

Key Passage:

When Marcus and a fellow soldier, Tobey, who is in love with Bess, are talking about what constitutes a home, and what makes a person American, the themes of the novel become most stark. After being assured that no matter what his original nationality, Tobey is still an American, Tobey says: "If Bess doesn't like me -- if she falls in love with somebody else -- if she's married when we get there -- I'm going to live in Ithaca, anyway. I don't know, but Ithaca seems to be my home now, too. For the first time in my life I feel I belong somewhere. I hope you won't mind. I feel like my family is the Macauley family, because that's the kind of family I would have if I could chose. (161-162)