« Quelqu’un de drôle… » « Homer ! »
Nom : Homer Yannos
Age : 16 à 18 ans
Livres : Apocalypse x7, The Ellie Chronicles x3
Origine : Grec
Homer est le meilleur ami de Ellie et son voisin depuis leur enfance. Né en Australie de parents Grecs et son grand père a participé à la Guerre Civile en Grèce dans les années 40. Dans les Chroniques, les Yannos deviennent les tuteurs légaux d’Ellie et Homer prend plus facilement le rôle de frère que de meilleur ami ou voisin qu’il avait jusque là.
Au commencement, Homer est un fouteur de merde, un plaisantin, il rit et fait des blagues qui ne sont pas toujours drôles pour les autres mais au fil des pages, il devient naturellement un leader aux côtés d’Ellie et de là débute une compétition entre eux. Durant les premiers mois, Homer change énormément, le premier à agir tel un vrai soldat. Mais à côté de ça, personne sauf Ellie, ne peut imaginer le manque de confiance en lui qu’il ressent, il n’a de cesse de se comparer à Fiona, la citadine, et elle devient comme un challenge pour lui.
Homer ne cesse d’être le frère, le meilleur ami et le guerrier sur qui on peut toujours compter. Loyal, instinctif, robuste et brave, il se dispute souvent avec Ellie et Robyn mais surtout avec Kevin. Il ne peut rester assis sans rien faire et supporte mal le manque d’action. Parfois, il est juste comme Lee mais ce qu’il faut savoir à propos de Homer, c’est qu’il ne perd jamais le contrôle et c’est ce qui le rend d’autant plus fort que les autres.
Au final, Homer est comme un repos pour le lecteur, l’amusant avec des blagues jusque dans les Chroniques dans les pires moments. C’est comme si Homer était devenu un fils de la guerre et qu’il se retrouvait dans son élément. La guerre a renforcé sa ruse et ses stratagèmes mais plus encore, la guerre semble être le lieu où il peut enfin être lui-même et ce qu’il était destiné à devenir.
Homer’s lack of confidence…
« ‘Yeah, but you know, she lives in that big house and she talks like Mrs Hamilton, and me and my family, I mean we’re just Greek peasants to people like her.’
‘Fi’s not like that. You ought to give her a chance.’
‘Gee I’ll give her a chance. Trouble is I don’t know if she’ll give me one.’ » (Tomorrow, When the War Began, Chapter 4.)
Homer’s transition…
« Homer was becoming more surprising with every passing hour. It was getting hard to remember that this fast-thinking guy, who’d just spent fifteen minutes getting us laughing and talking and feeling good again, wasn’t even trusted to hand out the books at school. » (Tomorrow, When the War Began, Chapter 8.)
« And Homer, well, Homer was the surprise of my life. He even seemed better looking these days, probably because his head was up and he walked more confidently and carried himself differently. He had such imagination and sense that I could hardly believe it. » (Tomorrow, When the War Began, Chapter 21.)
Homer doesn’t deliver only funny jokes, Homer knows how to be serious…
« ‘Well,’ he said, ‘do we want to check out the Showground more thoroughly? Can we do it with the stealth and finesse that Fi and I showed, or are we going to march in like a heavy metal band at a bowling club?’
‘We could tunnel in,’ I suggested.
‘Yeah, or pole-vault over the fence. Anyone got a serious suggestion? And how badly do we want to do it anyway?’ (Tomorrow, When the War Began, Chapter 13.)
Homer’s sweetness…
« The only thing Homer had left out was the way he’d wept when he’d found us both safe. I saw the sweetness of Homer then, that he’d had as a little guy, but which some people probably thought he’d lost as a teenager. » (Tomorrow, When the War Began, Chapter 22.)
Homer gives hope…
« None of us had thought anything about it because it had seemed impossible. But Homer’s saying it had brought it within the realms of possibility, till suddenly it seemed like the only thing to do. In fact, his saying it made it seem so possible that it was almost as if it had happened already. That was the power of the spoken word. Homer had put us back on our feet and got us dancing again. » (The Dead of the Night, Chapter 1.)
Homer on being brave…
« ‘Maybe this stuff is obvious to everyone else. Maybe you all figured it out when you were knee-high to grasshoppers, and I’m just struggling along in the distance trying to catch up. But you know, it’s only occurred to me the last week or so how this courage business works. It’s all in your head. You’re not born with it, you don’t learn it in school, you don’t get it out of a book. It’s a way of thinking, that’s what it is. It’s something you train your mind to do. I’ve just started to realise that. When something happens, something that could be dangerous, your mind can go crazy with fear. It starts galloping into wild territory, into the bush. It sees snakes and crocodiles and men with machine guns. That’s your imagination. And your imagination’s not doing you any favours when it pulls those stunts. What you have to do is to put a bridle on it, rein it in. It’s a mind game. You’ve got to be strict with your own head. Being brave is a choice you make. You’ve got to say to yourself: I’m going to think brave. I refuse to think fear or panic.’ » (The Dead of the Night, Chapter 1.)
Whatever the situation is… there’s always time for a good Homer joke »
« Things were so desperate that Homer had taken to telling bad jokes to keep us awake and moving. He’d just told us one about three girls telling their mother where they are going that night, and the first one is going out with Pete to eat, and her sister’s going out with Vance to dance, and when the next sister says she want to go out with Chuck, the mother stops her. » (Incurable, Chapter 10.)