A Veteran’s Post War Struggle in “Soldier’s Home”
Ernest Hemingway knows from personal experience what soldiers go through at the time during World War One. Hemingway was a “Red Cross ambulance driver in Italy. Wounded in both legs by a shrapnel explosion near the front lines” (2). Hemingway closely resemble Krebs as himself due to being a World War One veteran and experiences the Midwest expectations when reentering civilian life. In “Soldier’s Home,” Earnest Hemingway uses characterization, setting, and symbolism to develop Krebs’s struggle to fit back into civilian society after returning from World War One.
Characterization is the most powerful literary device Hemingway uses to demonstrate the theme of this story. Starting from the
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beginning of the story settles the reader that Krebs is a normal person that grew up in a small town in the Midwest and attend a Methodist college in Kansas. Hemingway changes Krebs character dramatically once he has returned home from World War One. This is the focus Hemingway wants his readers to recognize of Krebs traumatic stress from the war. Marjorie Smelstor describes Krebs change of character by: Alienated from his family and the local people, Krebs spends his days aimlessly, sleeping late, reading, practicing the clarinet, and playing pool. He makes no effort to relate seriously with anyone, including women, because he does not want the complications or consequences of relationships. He is home, but it is no soldier’s home to which he has returned. (Smelstor) The character Krebs builds into puts a perspective into the reader of how traumatizing World War One had the effects of a soldier. Hemingway uses setting as a literary device to grasp the reader attention of the time era Krebs was going though. World War One veterans did not get treatment for post traumatic stress. There were no medications, psychotherapy, or even the term of the disorder. Hemingway without knowing, writing “Soldier’s Home” could have been a therapy for himself but only to an extent. Hemingway’s “life was marred by three failed marriages, a debilitating addiction to alcohol, and marked periods of literary stagnation” (1). Hemingway life after the war is very similar to the way Krebs was affect as well. Even though Krebs did not have an alcohol addiction or was married but he lived a life of stagnation after the war. The way Hemingway uses Oklahoma as a setting also demonstrates why it was a challenging for Krebs to reenter civilian life. Civilization believed “God has some work for every one to do, . . . there can be no idle hands in His Kingdom” (5 Hemingway). Krebs does not believe that he is in his kingdom and chooses to live a life without any ambitions. Ira Mark Milne explains why Krebs isolates from himself from civilization: Krebs discovers that people really do not want to hear about the war unless he exaggerates and lies about his own participation in battle. These lies and erroneous attributions of heroism cause Krebs deep discomfort and nausea. He is unable to speak the truth because no one will listen, and unable to lie because of nausea. In time, he retreats into near silence. (Milne 1) Throughout the story “Soldier’s Home”, symbolism is the final literary device Hemingway uses to develop this story’s key message.
The first example is Krebs talking about the girls in his hometown stating that they were too complicated and that he preferred girls from Germany because they did not need to be talked too (Hemingway 3). This brings a sense to the reader that he preferred staying in Germany because he possibly had more power or perks as an American soldier. Otherwise, why would the German girls approach Krebs without engaging a conversation. The next symbolism developed by the remarks of Krebs “not wanting to have any sort of consequences ever again” (Hemingway 2). Perhaps the power Krebs had in Germany tempted him into doing regrettable things he has never done.
“Soldier’s Home” not only alerts readers about World War One but the struggles of veterans dealing with post traumatic stress in reentering civilian life. Ernest Hemingway used his past experiences into developing the characterization, setting, and symbolism in “Soldier’s Home” for his readers to acknowledge his message. So many people do not give the recognition to veterans because of assuming they will be at peace once returning home after a war as was expect for Krebs. Veterans without proper treatment of this disorder will result into a life like
Krebs.
In “Soldier’s Home,” the main character Krebs exhibits grief, loneliness. When he returns home with the second group of soldiers he is denied a hero's return. From here he spends time recounting false tales of his war times. Moving on, in the second page of the story he expresses want but what he reasons for not courting a female. A little while after he is given permission to use the car. About this time Krebs has an emotional exchange with both his little sister and his mother. Revealing that “he feels alienated from both the town and his parents , thinking that he had felt more ‘at home’ in Germany or France than he does now in his parent’s house”(Werlock). Next, the story ends with his mother praying for him and he still not being touched. Afterwards planning to move to Kansas city to find a job. Now, “The importance of understanding what Krebs had gone through in the two years before the story begins cannot be overstated. It is difficult to imagine what it must have been for the young man”(Oliver). Near the start of the story the author writes of the five major battles he “had been at”(Hemingway) in World War I- Bellaue Wood, Soissons, Champagne, St.Mihiel, and Argonne. The importance of these are shown sentences later that the
A photo of Krebs during World War I shows him with a corporal and two German girls on the Rhine River. One's first thought of this picture may be of a lighthearted sightseeing trip on leave from the front. However, in the photograph, Krebs and the other corporal are described as "too big for their uniforms," the German girls as "not beautiful," and the Rhine does not even appear in the photograph (154). This is how Ernest Hemingway begins "Soldier's Home," the story of a young war veteran named Harold Krebs who has recently returned home. Everything that Krebs says and does is to make his life as smooth and have as few complications as possible, more than likely a stark contrast to his life in Europe.
Hemingway's "Soldier's Home" depicts a young man in his early twenties after his return from World War I. The young man, Krebs, has arrived home too late. Thus, he doesn't receive the adulation of the town as the others did. This first loss was the beginning of a long inward journey for Krebs. His unwillingness, then inability, to discuss his part in the war with others immediately had an effect on Krebs. He was unable to get some form of closure, something which he direly needed. Due to the extravagant stories foretold by others, Krebs was forced to lie in order to fit in.
In Hemingway’s short story “Soldier’s Home”, Hemingway introduces us to a young American soldier, that had just arrived home from World War I. Harold Krebs, our main character, did not receive a warm welcome after his arrival, due to coming home a few years later than most soldiers. After arriving home, it becomes clear that World War I has deeply impacted the young man, Krebs is not the same man that headed off to the war. The war had stripped the young man of his coping mechanism, female companionship, and the ability to achieve the typical American life.
Hemingway’s narrative technique, then, is characterized by a curt style that emphasizes objectivity through highly selected details, flat and neutral diction, and simple declarative sentences capable of ironic understatements; by naturalistic presentation of actions and facts, with no attempt of any kind by the author to influence the reader; by heavy reliance on dramatic dialogue of clipped, scrappy forms for building plot and character; and by a sense of connection between some different stories so that a general understanding of all is indispensable to a better understanding of each. He thus makes the surface details suggest rather than tell everything they have to tell, hence the strength of his “iceberg.” His short stories, accordingly, deserve the reader’s second or even third reading.
Hemingway, Ernest. "Soldier's Home." The Bedford Introduction to Literature, 6th Edition. Ed. Michael Meyer. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's. 2002. 152-57.
When Krebs was in the army, he had a defined identity as a soldier and when he returns home Krebs’s reluctance to take the defined identity of the everyday joe shmoe that is awaiting him. Krebs difficulty to involve himself with the girls in his hometown reflects his refusal to conform to society’s expectation of him. Krebs associates his hometown girls as death to his individualism. All the girls in Krebs hometown look alike with their “round Dutch collars above their sweaters... their silk stockings and flat shoes,” (Hemingway; 49) and “their bobbed hair and the way they walked” (49). The strict uniformity of the girls that Krebs observes can be interpreted to resemble the uniformity of soldiers. Hemingway utilizes diction to illustrate Krebs’s opinion on the army’s forced conformity; “but they lived in such a complicated world of already defined alliances and shifting feuds that Krebs did not feel the energy or the courage to break into it” (49). In context of war, “alliances” is a word used between countries and in World War I it meant The Allies. Krebs using word “alliances...
From sunrise to sunset, day after day, war demolishes men, cities, and hope. War has an effect on soldiers like nothing else, and sticks with them for life. The damage to a generation of men on both sides of the war was inestimable. Both the novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and the poem “I Have a Rendezvous with Death,” by Alan Seeger, demonstrate the theme of a lost generation of men, mentally and physically, in war through diction, repetition, and personification.
As a first hand observer of the Civil War, the great American Poet, Walt Whitman once said,"The real war [of the mind] will never get in the books."Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a horrible mental ailment that afflicts thousands of soldiers every year. Besides the fact that it is emotionally draining for the soldier, it also deeply alters their family and their family dynamics. Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier's Home” illustrates how this happens. Harold Krebs returns home from World War I. He has to deal with becoming reaccustomed to civilian life along with relearning social norms. He must also learn about his family and their habits. The ramifications of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder have a ripple effect on the lives of not only the victim, but also the friends and family they relate to.
While soldiers are often perceived as glorious heroes in romantic literature, this is not always true as the trauma of fighting in war has many detrimental side effects. In Erich Maria Remarque 's All Quiet On The Western Front, the story of a young German soldier is told as he adapts to the harsh life of a World War I soldier. Fighting along the Western Front, nineteen year old Paul Baumer and his comrades begin to experience some of the hardest things that war has to offer. Paul’s old self gradually begins to deteriorate as he is awakened to the harsh reality of World War 1, depriving him from his childhood, numbing all normal human emotions and distancing future, reducing the quality of his life.
Hemingway's characters in the story represent the stereotypical male and female in the real world, to some extent. The American is the typical masculine, testosterone-crazed male who just ...
...egular job or move out" (Waldhorn 9). Both Hemingway and Krebs moved out and got jobs. Beyond a doubt, Hemingway wrote from his past experiences. In "Indian Camp," Hemingway used his own relationship with his father to breathe life into the fictional characters of Nick and his father. By leaving his childhood and entering the war, Hemingway recalled his own accounts of injuries and love that made up the character Henry and Barkley in A Farewell to Arms. And finally, with his return home after the war, Hemingway uses Krebs in "Soldier's Home" to express his distaste for the home life.
... middle of paper ... ... Although Hemingway accurately illustrates the negative impact war has on soldiers emotionally, he fails to address any positive learning experiences a soldier may have. Works Cited Spiller, Roger J. - "The 'Piece' of the World" "Shell shock; time after time in this troubled century, our whole society has made itself forget about the terrible, invisible battle wounds once known as shell shock, later as combat fatigue, and now PTSD - posttraumatic stress disorder.
Many individuals look at soldiers for hope and therefore, add load to them. Those that cannot rationally overcome these difficulties may create Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Tragically, some resort to suicide to get away from their insecurities. Troops, notwithstanding, are not by any means the only ones influenced by wars; relatives likewise encounter mental hardships when their friends and family are sent to war. Timothy Findley precisely depicts the critical impact wars have on people in his novel by showing how after-war characters are not what they were at the beginning.
The short story “In Another Country” by Earnest Hemingway is a story about the negative effects of war. The story follows an unnamed American officer and his dealings with three other officers, all of whom are wounded in World War I and are recuperating in Milan, Italy. In war, much can be gained such as freedom and peace, however war also causes a plethora of negative consequences. Cultural alienation, loss of physical and emotional identity, and the irony of war technology and uncertainty of life are all serious consequences of war that are clearly shown by Hemingway.