Home: "Conflict"

Home: “Conflict”

Overview

• “Home: Conflict” is a compelling short story by Iain Crichton Smith that explores the difficult themes of displacement, identity, and duty.

Main Character Profile

• Angus: He is the central character who is torn between his longing for Scotland and his duty towards his wife and children in America.
• Angus’s internal conflict between duty and desire forms the very bedrock of the story.
• His character embodies struggle, confusion, longing, and the pain of losing touch with one’s roots.

Key Relationships

• Relationship with Wife and Children: His emotional disconnect with his immediate family mirrors his ambiguous ties with his homeland.
• His wife and children, inhabiting a different emotional universe, represent his obligations in the American setting which is starkly contrasted with his yearnings for a Scottish identity.

Themes

• The main themes catered in the story are displacement, cultures and identities, as well as the tension between duty and desire.

Symbolism

• Angus’s predicament symbolises the universal human condition of being caught between different worlds, responsibilities and dreams.
• Scotland symbolises origin, homeliness and lost identity – a paradise lost, whilst America represents duty, obligation and a certain kind of entrapment.

Role in the Story

• Angus acts as a mirror reflecting the larger issues of diaspora, emotional and cultural rootlessness and the unending battle between duty and yearning.
• Through his character, Smith effectively raises questions about the meaning of home, the power of roots, and the tension between personal desires and societal expectations.

Conclusion

• Angus’ character serves as a promoter of the deep-rooted themes in the narrative.
• His internal struggle transports the readers into a psychological landscape where duty and desire are constantly at loggerheads.
• Through Angus, Smith effectively voices the struggle of lost identities and their attempts at retrieval.