"Homecoming" by Martha Ellis is a personal depiction of the narrator's heart-wrenching experience during a significant time period in her life. Surging her evocative emotions onto paper, she has achieved a great piece of work that stunningly displays her inner feelings. Readers get a sense of Martha's overflowing anxiety as she longingly awaited her father's arrival from his deployment, unwilling to imagine the unthinkable possibility that he would never come back. The author offers an inner perspective of Martha's true fear, building up to the anticipated event of her father's return. That fateful day was composed of uncertainty, as she had trouble recognizing her dad's altered appearance at first, but the warming smile that she received immediately erased all doubt and she plunged into her father's arms, thrilled that he had come back home.
        I really enjoyed reading Martha's brief recollection reflecting on her previous struggle to get by without her father for two years. Although it is a rather short piece, it encompasses the thunderous emotions that formulated in her eight-year-old mind when her daddy returned, focusing on her anxious, muddled brain and nervous actions. Readers are given a fine view of the narrator's troubling thoughts that distressed her mind throughout the story. For instance, at one point, she had wondered, "What if he doesn't look like Daddy anymore? What if I'm not his little girl anymore?" This significant insight into the speaker's brain is continuously reflected over the course of the piece, which I find is an exceptional portrayal of how the author honestly felt awaiting her father's arrival. Overall, Martha splendidly shares her experience about a memorable day through a first-person narration, enveloping her feelings and tying it all into a sweet ending.