->''"Am I a stranger to the land of my birth forever, off the ground I never want to move?"''
-->-- '''The main character'''

''Oeroeg'' is a 1948 novel by Dutch author Hella Haasse, set during the era in which Indonesia was colonised by the Netherlands. The book studies the friendship between the son of Dutch colonists, named "Johan" in the film adaptation but remaining nameless in the book, and an Indonesian boy, Oeroeg.

It is the most standard work used for MediaNotes/SchoolStudyMedia in the Netherlands. Virtually ''every'' student in higher education is forced to read it at some point. It has also had a theatrical film adaptation in 1993, titled ''Going Home''. The entire film is up for watching [[http://www.uitzendinggemist.nl/afleveringen/1113521 here]].
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!!This novel contains examples of:
%% * BreakTheCutie: Johan in the end.
%% * ByronicHero: Oeroeg
* DisappearedDad: [[spoiler:Oeroeg's father dies.]] His mother soon can't take care of herself anymore after it happens.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Oeroeg and Johan meet again after several years, as hostile enemies during Indonesian protests. Johan tries to reconcile, but Oeroeg tells him to go since he does not belong in Indonesia.]]
* ForbiddenFriendship: While Johan's family never outright forbids him from hanging out with Indonesian kids, his dad at one point gets really mad that he is so focused on Oeroeg and asks him why he can't play with white kids.
* GeniusBruiser: Oeroeg. He gets through a lot of schooling and good education, completely against Johan's family's expectations.
* HeelRealization: Oeroeg tries to induce one on Johan by introducing him to the WhiteMansBurden. It doesn't work. [[spoiler:He succesfully converts Lida, though, who learns to speak Indonesian and starts working at a local hospital as a nurse, giving up her lavish home and white luxury]].
* HiredHelpAsFamily: The book is about the friendship between the child of a wealthy Dutch family in Indonesia and the son of two of their indigenous servants. Their relationship grows increasingly strained throughout the book due to the political situation in Indonesia.
* IChooseToStay: The main character grew up in Indonesia and considers it his home. He does go to study in the Netherlands, where his parents are from, for some time and he becomes horribly confused when he returns to Indonesia and is told that he "doesn't belong here" by someone who may or may not be Oeroeg.
%% * MagicalNegro: Oeroeg is one to Johan to the point where he finds it hard (as a kid) to imagine his friend "in the real world".
* TheMentor: Gerard, the caretaker and huntsman, who teaches the boys a lot when they're kids.
* ParentalAbandonment: Johan's mother strikes up an affair with Johan's personal teacher, divorces his father and takes off to Holland, leaving her son behind without remorse.
* ARealManIsAKiller: What Johan's dad tries to force upon him.
%% * TheRival: The boys to each other later on.
* TokenBlackFriend: While Oeroeg and Johan are on equal terms to ''each other'', to their respective communities it comes off as this, and they are mocked for it, too - Oeroeg espcially, who is forced to change schools.
%% * WellDoneSonGuy: Both Oeroeg and Johan.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: When Johan returns to Indonesia as an adult after spending years in the Netherlands, he comes employed as a police officer and assists against Indonesian protestors who want their country back. He then meets a guy he thinks is Oeroeg at a lake near his former house.
-->'''Johan:''' Oeroeg.\\
'''Oeroeg:''' Go away. Or I'll shoot.\\
'''Johan:''' Listen--\\
'''Oeroeg:''' [[ShutUpKirk Leave. You have no business here]].
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: So Johan leaves his father because his bitchy new wife sends Johan away--and his parents are never mentioned again from that point on.
* YouKilledMyFather: [[spoiler:Johan truly fears that Oeroeg blames him for the death of Oeroeg's father, who drowned trying to save Johan after the latter fell into a lake in the middle of the night. In the end, though, Oeroeg does end up hating Johan, but only because of Oeroeg's hatred of colonialism and Europeans. It had nothing to do with his dad.]]

!!The film adaptation contains examples of:
* AdaptationExpansion: Johan's in the military in the film and spends a good deal of the film being in an actual war instead of just fondly remembering his childhood and teenage years.
* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler:Johan's father is killed by Indonesian rebels.]]
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