My Oedipus Complex

“The war was the most peaceful period of my life.” 

The narrator, Larry, delves into the verbal irony of his father’s homecoming by contrasting the “war” with his own “peaceful” existence. His blunt honesty captures his obliviousness and introduces the theme of the Innocence of Children During Wartime.

“Ours was the only house in the terrace without a new baby, and Mother said we couldn’t afford one till Father came back from the war because they cost seventeen and six. That showed how simple she was.”

Central to Mother’s work as provider and homemaker during the war was the paradox that if she is doing her work well, her child doesn’t notice how she is struggling. Larry insulting Mother as “simple” by suggesting such a specific amount, not only adds to the humor that she alone can share with the reader, but it also confirms her characterization as practical, hardworking, and a person with connections and relationships outside of Larry.

“The window overlooked the front gardens of the terrace behind ours, and beyond these it looked over a deep valley to the tall, red-brick houses terraced up the opposite hillside, which were all still in shadow, while those at our side of the valley were all lit up, though with long strange shadows that made them seem unfamiliar; rigid and painted.”

The vivid imagery places the narrator and his family’s home in a place of importance by having them looking down at all the neighbors in the valley. The metaphor of his home being placed in sunlight, but made to be “unfamiliar” represents how Larry has come to feel within the family.