The point is there is no point

      The recurring and engraving point of the main character from Samuel Lipsyte’s Home Land is that there is no point in life. Lewis Miner, the narrator and main character of the self-told story, says so himself that “someday, perhaps, my missives will serve some edifying purpose… Or, of course, not.” He admits to his seemingly aimless purpose behind the telling of his own life through his updates to the Eastern Valley High alumni newsletter, because "it matters little in the end". But unlike the doomed tragedy this statement makes life sound, Lewis Miner takes his life as interesting enough for an update in the high school alumni newsletter, even if it is indeed on the road that will end. It is how he deals with "the terrible silence under all the jabbering world." This point is illustrated through two passages from early on and later in the story.

      A midst his extremely blunt yet ironic writing of his view of the world, Miner (aka Teabag) includes a short illustrative anecdote that he says "means nothing, not a damn thing", yet one that he finds necessary to include in his regular updates. It is the story of a mouse named Teabag who experiences love and heartbreak, loss and abandonment. It is an obvious metaphor of his own life and how he sees himself as the protagonist of a tragedy. However, unlike the sorrowful yet glorified endings most tragic heroes obtain, the mouse is squeezed to death in a paper cup by Fontaine, who deemed the telling of the mouse's life story unworthy of his attention. the last thing Fontaine says before killing him is "'That's not the point... It's not celebratory, see? It's too negative. It's even kind of sick. Chemo? Camembert? It makes no sense!'" The fact that Miner tells the allegorical version of his life story with this ending implies that his own personal view of his life is that it is worth telling, however the world, with its unbending views, deems it as worthless and nonsensical. And that because of it, his death is just "a foul day for allegorical critters everywhere, and another cruel victory for Eastern Valley Alumni Association-sponsored censorship."

      As his story climbs to the climax at the Togethering, the class reunion foretold from the first chapter of the book, Lewis is unwillingly placed on the stage with an unprepared speech to render to his fellow alums. He starts out with a fierce argument that even though he did not "make something of himself" as others have, that he "did not pan out." He convincingly articulates that death is inevitable for everyone, however states that “I’m going to live my life, not die of it. Or, rather, I’ll live it until I die of it.” He believes that his life has some purpose, or at least some interest, to live it out until the end. Our antihero does not end with this energetic hope, however. Unfortunately, “We sense the darkness just beyond. It’s a scary fucking darkness. Where is the light? There is no light. We lash out in the darkness.” Consistent with the first passage, Miner concludes upon the discussion of life as a futile tragedy.

       "Many are the ages of man that have meant nothing at all…" However his story was interesting enough for him to write it out for himself. And although others do not see any purpose behind his updates ("some of you are maybe wondering why I persist with these updates. A few of you, perhaps, pass the whipped potatoes at table, remark: ‘Is Teabag a fucking twit, or what’ (Or would, if you had any inkling of my futile toil)"), and Miner himself deems his work as "futile" he must have seen some point to the illustration of his life, even if that point was that life ends and has no point, but at least it is interesting.