Miranda: English II, Section F

“Home, Sweet Home”
Winslow Homer
1863

Blog Response to Winslow Homer Paintings

Question: How do you understand this painting? And another question, asked by me, what does it make you think about when you look at this painting and what to you think this painting is trying to express?

Home, Sweet Home, 1863

I understand this painting as setting a scene based on experiences of civil war soldiers. It seems to me that the soldiers have just returned from a battle, which can be inferred from the group of dead or wounded soldiers in the background of the painting. It seems that the title is slightly ironic, in that the setting of the painting is a makeshift village, in which most of the tents are blankets thrown over whatever can be found. In the foreground, two soldiers wear gloomy expressions that seem to express utter despair. It seems that they have nothing…their gloomy surroundings display that they lack proper shelter and they are trying to heat something on the fire. It seems as though there are some waffles in the painting, but they are very small and seem almost forgotten when compared with the rest of the painting. I think this painting expresses the hardships and harsh lifestyles of being a soldier, and I think that the title really expresses the desperate situation that they are in at this point. It seems that they have nothing, their wounded or dead friends are lying down in the background, and yet, it is probably a relief for them to have a place where they can call home and at least feel a small sense of security and safety. I think that this idea relates to the common feeling of war, which I remember from the portion of “The Things We Carried” that we read last year in our English class, it is one of the scariest things I have ever thought about, the feeling that you have nowhere to feel safe. During the Civil War, World War I and II, soldiers probably felt this. It is a simple idea, and yet it is so frightening. This idea that you literally have nowhere to turn, and nowhere to go where you are safe, wherever you go you are in constant danger, is very frightening to me. I think that is a very scary idea. I think this partially explains why people who come back from wars are completely traumatized, or even dysfunctional from their experiences.