Nostalgia in John Fante's "Home sweet home"

Abstract

"Home Sweet Home", which was published in 1932, is one of John Fante's most significant short stories. In terms of plot and character development it reveals the great awareness that underlies the author's artistic approach. Besides presenting the prominent features of his literary exploration, "Home Sweet Home" clearly anticipates the characteristic themes of Fante's novels. His explicitly nostalgic representation of his Italian roots (Torricella Peligna, in Abruzzo) can be distinctly noticed in the relationship between Jimmy, the protagonist, and his fiery father. As a young writer, Jimmy views his father as a model of excess and masculinity as well as an anti-model from whom he wants to detach himself in order to follow his own path away from the narrow prospects of his family. Tellingly, the story is narrated by Jimmy in the future tense because, by dramatizing his expectations of a euphoric return home, Fante succeeds in evoking the nostalgic relationship that a narrator of Italian origins maintains with his social roots and traditional culture.