Home Character Analysis

What truly makes a house a home? The story “Home” is about a prosecutor named Yevgeny. He realizes one night coming home that his son, Seryozha, has been smoking from the nanny. When he went to go and talk to his son about it his son lied and said he had only done it once, when in fact he had smoked twice. Yevgeny tried to explain to his son throughout the story that smoking was bad in a way he would understand. At one point, he tried to tell him that it’s not okay to take others things without permission, because he took the tobacco, and used his son’s toys as an example. This led to his son saying that his father could keep his toys. To finally get his son to listen his father told a story for bed about a boy that died at 20 because he smoked, which got Seryozha to go to bed and quit smoking. Analysis of “Home” through a psychoanalytic lens reveals Seryozha to be an impressionable character, as revealed by his conscious and unconscious mind, defense
In the story is says, “’Oh yes,’ Seryozha recollected, and his eyes smiled” (Chekhov 3). When Seryozha was telling his father about his smoking he did not seem displeased with himself. He smiled because he did not think what he did was wrong and he enjoyed it. Because he likes smoking, it is implied that he is stuck in the oral stage of psychosexual development. This can be backed up by the attachment to his father through the story too. Wanting his father to love him and be proud of him, but also wanting to stay alive for him. He may be acting out this way so that his father will pay more attention to him. Knowing whether the other stages are present is uncertain because his mother is not in the story, and it seems as if his father may not be around that often. Although psychosexual stages of development play a big part in Seryozha’s psychological personality, there are many pieces of psychoanalytic criticism that pull it all