Basic Trope: A character returns home after a long journey and finds they don’t fit in.
- Straight: Bob returns to his hometown of Troperville after a stint in the army, but finds that he no longer fits in at home.
- Exaggerated: Bob returns to his hometown of Troperville and gets sick at the notion of even entering it.
- Downplayed: Bob returns to his hometown and finds that he has some trouble fitting in again.
- Justified:
- The journey changed Bob and he no longer enjoys life in Troperville.
- Troperville has changed a great deal since Bob left — maybe all his friends have gone, or all his favorite haunts are closed down.
- Bob left home on bad terms, so he shouldn’t expect a warm welcome.
- Bob had a lot of experience in dealing with different cultures and ways of life. Troperville, however, is a conformist society.
- Inverted:
- Bob, long a social outcast, returns home after a stint in the army and finds that he now fits in with the crowd.
- Bob tries to leave his hometown to escape his troubles behind, only for them to follow him wherever he goes.
- After spending a few months in his hometown, Bob tries to return to his nomadic lifestyle only to find he no longer enjoys traveling.
- Subverted:
- Despite some initial trouble settling back in at home, Bob takes very little time to re-acclimate to life in Troperville.
- Bob's friends expect him to be shocked by the changes, but this wasn't his first return.
- Double Subverted:
- But he’s still unhappy with life there, even if he doesn’t show it.
- Bob had brief trips to his hometown, and was only able to superficially explore it. Once he spends more time, he realizes just how different things are.
- Parodied:
- Bob wanders outside of the town for thirty seconds and walks back in, finding a Troperville that has completely and inexplicably changed without notice.
- Bob is the one who becomes a totally new person, walking out a cheerful resident and coming back a mysterious wanderer.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Some days Bob yearns for his previous life, other days not.
- Bob comes home anticipating a reunion with his love Alice, but learning of her death causes him to sink into a deep depression. Then he adopts a dog, relieving much of that angst … until the dog dies. He then takes up several other causes, some of which give his life meaning, others less so.
- Some of Bob's old friends in Troperville welcome him back, but others are not so kind. Some people who held grudges against him are willing to let there hard feelings go, but other still feel angry with him. Because of these things Bob has trouble fitting in a first, but eventually resettles in, though things are still not the same.
- Averted: Bob is welcomed back, no questions asked.
- Enforced:
- “We need an excuse for a spinoff. Let’s have Bob head home, get bored, and decide to go adventuring.”
- The work centers on Shell Shock as the author has experienced it.note
- Lampshaded: “It’s supposed to be my home, but after all these years I feel like a stranger here.”
- Invoked:
- Knowing that Bob's wanderlust will get the better of him, Bob's CO gives him a pass to go back home.
- Bob is kicked out of his hometown. Due to not being able to ban him indefinitely, they instead keep him out to the point where by the time he is let back in, he won't want to return.
- Exploited: Randy spreads the word that Bob’s experiences have transformed him in a way that makes him too different to fit in.
- Defied:
- “It may have changed over the years, but it’s still my home. I’ll love it no matter what.”
- Bob avoids viewing his childhood in a rosy eyed perspective, so he is not disappointed by the changes.
- Discussed: “I think after all these years away Bob no longer feels good in Troperville. He acts like a stranger, not one of us.”
- Conversed: “At the end of the story the hero usually comes back to his hometown, only to discover he no longer fits in.”
- Implied:
- Bob says that the day he came back to Troperville from his most recent trip, he spent most of the day walking around in confusion.
- Bob the Spy returns from a deep cover operation. While he seems normal, his handlers recognize he is using the same techniques they taught him how to intergrate into a foreign culture.
- Deconstructed: Bob can’t reconnect with his old friends, and thus becomes lonely and depressed.
- Reconstructed: Troperville and its people have changed in close accord with the broader world, or at least the parts Bob visited.
- Played for Laughs:
- During his travels, Bob picked up some habits that the people of Troperville find hilarious.
- President Bob returns to his hometown to find it just like his childhood, until he leaves and the townsfolk immediately tear down the facades on the buildings and take off their period costumes.
- Played for Drama:
- Bob’s return dredges up some past issues that people didn’t exactly want to confront, but they have no choice now.
- The residents of Troperville held xenophobic views towards those they saw as outsiders. Once Bob returns he becomes one of those outsiders. Facing such treatment makes Bob realize how other felt when he treated them in such a way.
There’s the way back to Stranger in a Familiar Land, but it seems weird going back there after I left the first time …
