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Outlines for trauma essays on combat military
Outlines for trauma essays on combat military
Essays on war and trauma
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PTSD Connections in Hemmingway’s Soldiers Home PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, is a very common condition for people that experience traumatic events or participate in traumatic activities. Accordingly, people that serve in the military often become victims of post-traumatic stress disorder and its symptoms when they return home to civilian life after experiencing continuous danger, anxiety, and stress from the threat of either dying or being wounded while they were away at war. Soldiers return home to a society that fails to understand what they’ve been through. Authors often write about military or ex-military figures, so the people authors write about often display PTSD symptoms, allowing the reader to make connections between the figures and the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. For example, you can make these connections very clearly in Ernest Hemingway’s Soldiers Home, written about a soldier after World War I. …show more content…
Hemmingway describes the horrific battles of WWI so that the reader can understand the basic cause of Krebs’ mental isolation. Krebs, the main character in Soldiers Home, experiences symptoms of PTSD like “staying away”, being “emotionally numb,” and “losing interest.” First, Ernest Hemingway’s character, Krebs, from Soldiers Home displays the “staying away” symptom on multiple occasions. Krebs shows that he is staying away indirectly by staying on the same path on the same schedule: sleeping late, reading and eating at home, and playing pool. He also displays the trait by not caring to date girls or to get a job. Another time he displays that he is staying away is when his sister asks him to come watch her play indoor baseball he seems indecisive and not as enthusiastic as his sister’s excitement should make him. All of these prove Krebs is staying away from relationships. Next, Krebs also displays the “emotionally numb” symptom a few different times. The first occasion he displays being emotionally numb is when he explains why he doesn’t need a girl. Another place he shows emotional numbness is when he seems dull when talking to his sister about if he loves her or not. The next time he displays the trait is when he is talking to his mother and he tells her he doesn’t love her then he says, “I don’t love anybody.” Finally he tells his mother he cannot pray. All of these actions show that Krebs truly is emotionally numb. Lastly Krebs shows that he has PTSD when he displays his lack of interest in almost everything.
He first shows he is lacking interest in his schedule: he would only sleep, read, eat, play his clarinet and play pool. Next he proves his lack of interest when discussing girls, work and family. Like before, he shows his lack of interest when his sister talks to him about her indoor baseball and he seems very uninterested. Next, he is uninterested when he is talking to his mother about a job and God. All of these show that Krebs is displaying PTSD through lack of interest. Ernest Hemingway clearly shows that Krebs has PTSD. Whether Krebs is considering a relationship with a girl in the town or getting a job, his response is always that it's too complicated and not worth the effort. Even though at the end of the story, Krebs understands that he finally must engage with the world, like getting a job and engaging with the world again, he shows no enthusiasm for this decision because, as he notes, his uncomplicated life "is all
over."
Hemingway deals with the effects of war on the male desire for women in many of his novels and short stories, notably in his novel, The Sun Also Rises. In this novel, the main character Jake, is impotent because of an injury received in World War I. Jakes situation is reminiscent of our main character Krebs. Both characters have been damaged by World War I; the only difference is Jake’s issue is physical, while Krebs issue is mental. Krebs inwardly cannot handle female companionship. Although Krebs still enjoys watching girls from his porch and he “vaguely wanted a girl but did not want to have to work to get her” (167). Krebs found courting “not worth it” (168). The girls symbolize what World War I stripped from our main character, a desire that is natural for men, the desire for women.
The initial reaction I received from reading Soldier's Home, and my feelings about Soldier's Home now are not the same. Initially, I thought Harold Krebs is this soldier who fought for two years, returns home, and is disconnected from society because he is in a childlike state of mind, while everyone else has grown up. I felt that Krebs lost his immature years, late teens to early 20's, because he went from college to the military. I still see him as disconnected from society, because there isn't anyone or anything that can connect him to the simple life that his once before close friends and family are living. He has been through a traumatic experience for the past two years, and he does not have anyone genuinely interested in him enough to take the time to find out what's going on in his mind and heart. Krebs is in a battle after the battle.
For Krebs, the pattern of a fraternity lends itself to a uniformity that leaves everyone the same. This sameness is uncomplicated for Krebs. For example, the photograph shows “all of them wearing exactly the same height and style collar” allowing Krebs to blend into the group. Instead of becoming an individual, Krebs is influenced by his fraternity brothers. This uniformity does not allow Krebs to make decisions as an individual. Even so, Krebs does leave the fraternity to join the war in 1917. While the story does not tell the reason of Krebs’ delay, it can be assumed by the reader that his attachment to the brotherhood influenced his stay in the fraternity. Yet, even in the war Krebs finds another source for his pattern of life.
The story has different elements that make it a story, that make it whole. Setting is one of those elements. The book defines setting as “the context in which the action of the story occurs” (131). After reading “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemmingway, setting played a very important part to this story. A different setting could possibly change the outcome or the mood of the story and here are some reasons why.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder that develops when an individual experiences or lives through a life-threatening event. (NIH 2010) These individuals react with intense fear, helplessness, or horror. On a daily basis, the Troops overseas live through life-threatening events. These events are why 12-30% of warfighters develop combat-related PTSD. Troops are prepared for duty but are unprepared for psychological effects of war. We can witness the effects of PTSD in American Literature. One unusual example of these impacts could be shown in the novel, The Great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is a symbol of combat-related PTSD, which he inquires during World War One(WWI) while stationed with the 17th Infantry. Throughout the novel, Gatsby is described to have many symptoms and risk factors of PTSD. Jay Gatsby’s
The only people who truly understood them were the soldiers. It makes living a “normal” life hard for those who come back to a place different from where they first left. The main character shows this when he talks to his mother, who he used to love. Kreb says to his mother, “I don’t love anybody” (Hemingway). Love is such a hard bond to break and showing that war can break not only a relationship, but a person illustrates the strength war hostility has on the brain.
The story, A Soldiers Home, is about a man in conflict with the past and present events in his life. The young man’s name is Harold Krebs. He recently returned from World War 1 to find everything almost exactly the same as when he left. He moved back into his parents house, where he found the same car sitting in the same drive way. He also found the girls looking the same, except now they all had short hair. When he returned to his home town in Oklahoma the hysteria of the soldiers coming home was all over. The other soldiers had come home years before Krebs had so everyone was over the excitement. When he first returned home he didn’t want to talk about the war at all. Then, when he suddenly felt the urge and need to talk about it no one wanted to hear about it. When he returned all of the other soldiers had found their place in the community, but Harold needed more time to find his place. In the mean time he plays pool, “practiced on his clarinet, strolled down town, read, and went to bed.”(Hemingway, 186) When his mother pressures him to get out and get a girlfriend and job, he te...
This narrative helps to add to the sense of isolation that Krebs is feeling. It also eliminates meaningless detail and helps the reader to see the world the way Krebs sees it. When Krebs speaks, he does not speak of what he wants, rather of what he does not want. In this way, Krebs is letting the reader know how he has become unattached from the home he has returned to. It also speaks to his sense of confusion and insecurity. When Krebs spoke of the picture of he and his Methodist College frat brothers, he spoke of them “wearing exactly the same height and style collar”. This indicates his conformist mindset and his tendency to lean towards structured environments, even before heading off to the war. When he returns from the war, after others have come home and already received the heroes welcome, Krebs is not met with the accolades of those who came before him. There is something very simplistic to Krebs, despite the complicated issues he is facing. When Hemmingway writes, he makes it clear that Krebs is not interested in a conversation or in an exchange of opinions. Instead, the style of narration indicates that Krebs just wants things to be simple. When Krebs was at war he learned to do things by nature and behavior was automatic. Upon his return home, Krebs had no interest in sharing stories of his experience. Ultimately, he found himself desperate to talk and found himself exaggerating stories
The transformation from teenage years into adulthood can cause a person to realize that it is time to discover one’s position in the world. Several make this transition easily while others struggle to receive acceptance amongst their surroundings. In the short story “Soldiers Home” Harold Krebs image is in photographs that are the key to how his own life transforming from a young fraternity boy then into mature soldier in World War I. Not to mention, a third portrait happens in images printed on pages of the short story, showing the young soldier’s character unable to “accept the old norms” once returning from the war (DeFalco 90). This triggers Kreb towards isolation in dealing with his family and society, all things considering he begins exhibiting traits of being lonely, a liar to survive in the town he calls home, and uncertainty in regards to his future cause him towards be lazy.
Harold felt as certain sense of solidarity, anger, and languishment once he returned home from the war. Harold became irritated, and somewhat belligerent, when he conversed with his mother. Harold felt the need to lie to everyone in his hometown about what the war was really like. While Harold enjoyed watching the women walk down the street in his hometown, he continuously reminisced on the women that had been in Germany, and how being in the military had taught him how he did not need to be with a woman. All of these actions, by Harold, are a significant indication that Harold was actually suffering from post-traumatic stress
“Soldier’s Home,” by Ernest Hemingway, is about a young man named Harold Kreb and his life after returning home from fighting in a war. Kreb enlisted in the Marines in 1917, and was gone for two years. Upon his return Kreb learns that the townspeople have already welcomed the returning soldiers and he is too late. After his return, Kreb feels disconnected from the people who made him think that he’s a hero, and that he fought in a war that was glamorous. Feeling isolated and angry, Kreb ends up fighting with his mother. Realizing that he can’t have a normal life in this town, Kreb leaves to seek a simple and uncomplicated life in Kansas City. The central idea of this story is that survival should not be dependant on someone compromising their
Inspired by his days of service in the Ambulance Corps during the First World War, Hemingway utilizes his experience to tell the story of a soldier’s struggle to get back home both physically and mentally in his short story “Soldier’s Home”. Hemingway captivates his readers in a tale of a soldier’s (Harold Krebs) late return home from World War I. Upon his return, Krebs discovers that the life he once knew changed. In fact, his life had changed so drastically that upon his return, Krebs’ life no longer fit in its former place. Ernest Hemingway is often noted for writing stories that seem flat and lifeless but his unadorned prose style nevertheless manages to be extremely suggestive and effective in its plainness. Hemingway manages to give depth to his writing and give it hidden meaning. Hemingway gives his readers the responsibility of interpreting and making a personal connection through a gloomy tone and ironic setting to the story as they get farther and farther into Krebs' world of despair and the emotions that he is struggling with; allowing readers to go on a more personal journey along with Krebs in discovering his new post war society and the role that he plays in it.
Everything changes when one’s been away for a long period of time. These changes can be tremendous or meager. In Soldier’s Home by Ernest Hemingway, Harold Krebs, a World War I veteran, comes home after his enlistment in the Italian Army. He witnesses many differences apart from what he sees before he got enlisted and after he arrives home. Time proceeds to change whether one is present or absent.
Hemingway believed that “a writer’s job is to tell the truth…” (Baker 1). He strived to achieve this goal in all of his writing and did so through the application of various writing techniques to employ the “iceberg principle”. The most significant way Hemingway utilizes the iceberg principle is through the use of literary devices. In order to begin to deconstruct his writing and understand Hemingway’s purpose and meaning, one must have a vast knowledge of how he manipulates his words to shield the meaning amidst symbols, language, dialogue, rhetoric and many other devices. In In Our Time, Hemingway crafts the text to reveal purpose and meaning in each individual story by using countless literary elements, including diction, syntax,
To begin with, in “Soldier’s home” Hemingway uses the women that Krebs interacts with to show his struggle to have a relationship to the women in his hometown. Hemingway talks about how Krebs liked the girls that were walking along the other