The Boy Comes Home by A. A. Milne- An Analysis

The Boy Comes Home

by A. A. Milne

The play “The Boy Comes Home” is a comedy by A.A. Milne. It discusses the generation gap in a lighter vein. The old generation thinks that the young generation is immature. It should obey the old generation. But, the young generation thinks that it is mature enough to take the right decision. In this play, Mr. James represents the old generation whereas Philip stands for the young generation.

The play opens in the house of Mr. James. In his house, nobody can have breakfast after 8.00. But Philip who has just returned from war wants his breakfast after 10 a.m. He asks Mary, the servant, to get him something to eat. At that time, Aunt Emily enters and showers love and affection on Philip. She asks about his experiences of war. Philip does not like his uncle James because of his strict rules and regulations. Uncle James is the patron of Philip and he insists that Philip should work.

Uncle James waits for Philip at the dining table and falls asleep. In his dream, Philip has come to meet him. In the dream, Philip is very rude with his uncle. He demands his money. But the uncle refuses to give him the money saying that he is just 23 and immature. Rather he asks his nephew to join him in his jam business. But, Philip wants to learn some profession. Uncle James thinks that Philip is just like a schoolboy and he cannot choose a career for himself. He threatens to use the power of the purse. Consequently, Philip takes out a revolver and a bomb out of his pocket and frightens his uncle. Philip says, "we use force to put down force".

When James wakes up from his sleep, Philip enters the room with the breakfast.  James realizes that it was a dream. He is much terrified but he hides his fear. When James asks him to work with him in his office, Philip readily agrees. Philip does not demand anything as Uncle James saw in the dream. The closing part of the play proclaims the attitude of the younger generation. Because Philip prefers to bring his revolver to the work place to deal with the manager if anything goes wrong. Though it provokes laughter, it clearly exposes the generation gap in which the youngsters try to dictate their own terms. Also, the playwright records that these two generations will never share the same interest.