The question of "Where is Home?" is, to me, not the physical aspect but a feeling or a person. He says "... it is somewhere before me, locked in that reflection..." yes he is taking about pain but home can be within yourself. Many people will say that they have been a crowded room but feel totally alone. Home is where you can be who you are as a person. That includes pain, happiness, sadness, or an overwhelming sense of calm. He talks about how his pain "...resolved itself, that summer..." That gives me a sense of him finding himself. You can't find yourself in the world if you don't feel at peace with it. He also mentions "... it is trapped in the room, always has been..." This is him accepting what he is living with and thus, one step closer to home.

https://www.google.com/search?q=at+peace+with+the+world&biw=1280&bih=630&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwik2uKsrazPAhUn94MKHXwzDv8Q_AUIBigB#imgrc=3cTp0yVeAWARKM%3A

With this quote, I had the question "What is the meaning of life" in mind. This talks about how all ships are similar. I want to put emphasis on the word similar. We as humans are all the same in the physical aspect. We all have one heart, two lungs, ect. But we are different because we have all been through different situations in life. In this quote, I see the water that the ship is traveling on as life itself. It will guide the ship in multiple directions, but whoever is steering the ship has a final say in the path they travel. So as a whole, our meaning of life is to accept that we are all similar, but have different aspects of the world, and are all sharing the same river.

To me, this is showing how he thinks and what made him stand out. This thought process is what he relied on to become a better detective. In this time period, people weren't too fond of "going against the crowd" and being known for thinking in a new light or perspective. Scientific American tells us that Holmes wants us to look at everything with a positive outlook. "We bring along all of the baggage that we've accumulated in our life, every experience and thought and prior perception that has been stacked away, both knowingly and not, in that very mind attic that Holmes urges us to clean out with due vigilance. But clean or not, the attic is never empty." (Scientific America) This is huge because the society around him in this time was very dark, and tormented that having this positive outlook helped with is investigations.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/lessons-from-sherlock-holmes-the-situation-is-in-the-mindset-of-the-observer/

Doyle is saying that even though the idea is very simple that no description is needed but giving context to it, will only limit what the audience views while reading. This seems like a good example of having multiple meanings because when things appear to be simple, and no description is given, we tend to miss something huge later on. I feel like this is foreshadowing for this book. If being simple were something that is just looked over, major clues for the characters, or readers are hidden in plane sight.

skivail