Patrick Deneen’s new book explores how home makes us human. Reviewed in Modern Age Journal
Twenty twenty-six may be the year of “home.” In July, Americans celebrated the 250th anniversary of our homeland’s independence from Great Britain. Later that month, people flocked to the theaters for Christopher Nolan’s cinematic depiction of Homer’s tale about a Greek warrior-king and his journey home. Then at the end of August, Wendell Berry passed away. From his home in Port Royal, Kentucky, the farmer and writer had taught multiple generations to love the particular places they call home, and his death inspired outpourings of gratitude from the right, left, and center of the American political spectrum.
Among those tributes was a moving piece in UnHerd by Patrick Deneen, professor of political science at Notre Dame. Deneen credits Berry with his decision to move his young family out of the hustle of Washington, D.C., to a simpler life in South Bend, Indiana.
However, his tribute to Berry was not the first time that Deneen has written about a man setting out to find home. His latest book, American Odyssey, based on his doctoral dissertation, explores the connection between the American ethos and Homer’s Odyssey. Deneen argues that American classics such as The Wizard of Oz, It’s a Wonderful Life, Huckleberry Finn, and Field of Dreams all echo Homer’s ancient tale about the “man of many twists and turns.”
Deneen goes further: These literary themes appear in American literature and film because the American soul is deeply Odyssean, and therefore deeply divided. Like Odysseus, Americans are simultaneously animated by a genuine love of home and an ever-present desire to explore and push beyond the limits of the familiar. We long for adventure, innovation, and exploration, while at the same time we crave nostos, or homecoming. This is why Neil Armstrong and Berry are both American icons.
Each of the works explored in American Odyssey features one or more characters whose soul is divided between a desire to explore or push beyond a limit and the desire to be at home.
In Deneen’s words, Americans are “at once creatures who settle and creatures who seek more. We are at once creatures who desire movement and creatures who seek rest. We are at once creatures who make homes and creatures who abandon them for new frontiers.” The United States is home to the Pilgrims and the Wright brothers. This duplicity of soul arises in American literature and film. From Dorothy’s adventures in The Wizard of Oz to Huck Finn’s journey down the Mississippi, the American ethos includes both exploration and homecoming.
