“Soldier’s Home” Response Paper In Ernest Hemingway's, “Soldier’s Home,” a man who served in the navy named Krebs returns home from war. When he returns, he has to learn to readjust to his civilian life but struggles to do so. In the beginning, Krebs comes off as cold. He seems to act as if love is unnecessary throughout the story. However, once the reader analyzes the story, he or she is more likely to realize that Krebs is not standoffish, but malleable. In the end, Krebs experiences growth, for he prevails over said malleability. Hemingway utilizes point of view, setting, and conflict to make it clear that Krebs’ pliability is what made it hard for him to readjust. Point of view plays a very significant role in how the reader perceives Krebs. Because …show more content…
“Soldier’s Home” is told in third-person limited point of view, the story is very objective. There are times when Hemingway reveals what Krebs thinks about, but he does not go into detail. For example, he recounts what Krebs learned about girls in the navy. He points out Krebs was taught a man does not need a lady unless he thinks about ladies in the navy. However, he does not go into depth about how Krebs feels about the sentiment. He tells what happened and how it happened, but he does not how Krebs feels about events. If the story was told in first person, the reader would have more insight into Krebs’ perspective and emotions.
It seems as if Krebs was impassive about not needing a woman, but was he really? If the story was told in first person, there would …show more content…
be more input from Krebs. Though he abides by the statement, he does not necessarily agree. The reader is forced to formulate his or her view of Krebs based off of his actions and dialogue. It would be easier to completely understand his motives and rationale since they would be explicitly stated. Though this may seem beneficial, it would give the reader less interpretive freedom. The story, “Soldier’s Home”, would become a lot more subjective. Statements such as “His lies were quite unimportant lies” (Hemingway 187) would be more along the lines of “I lied because…” Even if there was not a “because,” the reader would be able to infer why Krebs lied based on his situation. Third-person point of view causes the reader to infer how Krebs sees things. In this particular story, setting plays an important role in understanding Krebs’ character.
“Soldier’s Home” takes place in Krebs’ hometown. Nevertheless, Krebs’ life in the navy gets mentioned throughout the story. His hometown is symbolic of uncertainty; the navy represents structure. It is safe to assume that Krebs was taught a lot of things in the navy because they “taught” him how to feel about something as personal as his love life. This should cause the reader to infer that the navy controlled greater aspects of Krebs’ life- or gave it structure. On the other hand, Krebs’ life is filled with equivocation when he returns home. His home’s symbolism reflects his true nature. His mom tries to encourage him to get his life together, for other boys his age have already done so. Krebs is not exactly elated to do so. He often comes off as if he does not know what he wants while he is at home. He has a hard time readjusting because there were no definite instructions for
him. The setting helps the reader realize that Krebs is not naturally detached. He is just lost because his life was carefully molded when he served in the navy. After he returned home, he lost the life which had been previously shaped for him. Krebs’ main conflict is the blatant differences between home and navy morals. The contradiction between virtues leads to Krebs coming off as insensitive and indecisive. In reality, he just did not know how to react to the differences. When Krebs returns home, he comes off as irresolute. For instance, it is stated that “he did not really need a girl. The army had taught him that” (Hemingway 188) as if he accepted this idea wholeheartedly. He acted as if this was true for the majority of the story. However, Hemingway makes it seem as if Krebs is unsure of this rationale once he returns home. At one point, Krebs pondered how he felt about girls. He was taught he did not need girls unless he wanted one. He believes that he wants to “live alone without consequences” (Hemingway 188) and not with a girl. He holds this statement true to every female, including his mother and younger sister, Helen. Helen and his mother confute what Krebs was taught in the navy. Helen asked Krebs to go to her indoor baseball game (the game was symbolic of love). He does not initially plan on going. However, he makes his mother cry by telling her he does not love her. Afterwards, he goes to Helen’s game. Going to her game resolved the conflict between navy and home morals because his actions are symbolic of home morals overcoming navy morals. He loved Helen and his mother again, though his love was not explicitly stated. Krebs was able to overcome the stigma the navy forced him to believe. Hemingway cleverly used point of view, setting, and conflict to characterize Krebs. Through careful analysis, the reader is able to infer things about Krebs that are not directly stated. The usage of third-person limited point of view allows the reader to formulate an unbiased view of Krebs. If the story was told in another point of view, the story would be subjective rather than objective. The reader would not view Krebs the same way. The symbolism used in the setting allows the reader to understand Krebs better. The hometown’s symbolism of uncertainty compliments Krebs’ acquiescent nature. The navy being symbolic of structure contradicts his home life. This contradiction causes a conflict. The conflict between morals of home and the navy are eventually resolved. This causes the reader to infer that Krebs conquered his unassertive nature.
Krebs is a detached being who just wants to keep his life as uncomplicated as possible. He doesn't receive the same hearty welcome as his fellow soldiers, thanks to his returning home so much later than the rest. At first he doesn't want to talk about the war, presumably because of the atrocities he experienced there, but when he later feels the need to talk about it, no one w...
The authors have created these characters in the short stories to undergo changes, which help make it through tough events. The character development in the stories is important because it shows the changes and events that help shape and create the main characters of the story. Both authors shape the characters through contrasting events, making the characters change from a static to a dynamic character by the end of the story. The authors tie in both the past with the present to create a twist on the future of the main characters. “Soldier's Home,” by Ernest Hemingway, and “Battle Royal,” by Ralph Ellison, are both short- fictional stories sharing a common literary characteristic of character development, influenced by the other characters and events in the story.
During his leave, perhaps Baumer’s most striking realization of the vacuity of words in his former society occurs when he is alone in his old room in his parents’ house. After being unsuccessful in feeling a part of his old society by speaking with his mother and his father and his father’s friends, Baumer attempts to reaffiliate with his past by once again becoming a resident of the place. Here, among his mementos, the pictures and postcards on the wall, the familiar and comfortable brown leather sofa, Baumer waits for something that will allow him to feel a part of his pre-enlistment world. It is his old schoolbooks that symbolize that older, more contemplative, less military world and which Baumer hopes will bring him back to his younger innocent ways.
In this excerpt from an email written to friends and family, an American soldier describes what it is like to live in Iraq while serving his country. The Soldier describes his living conditions thoroughly and offers many examples. Through the usage of rhetorical strategies like imagery, chronology, and he puts the reader in his position, he tells of his experience and his attitude towards it.
The first area of symbolism in “Soldier’s Home” is Krebs false war stories. Krebs false war stories represents his need to cope with the realities of war. Krebs
In “Soldier’s home” Krebs is completely different from when he left for the marines. He no longer sees the world the same. Instead he sees it as a place stuck in time with very little changes. He has to lie about things that happen in war to be able to stomach what truly happen. “His town had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities. Krebs found that to be listened to at all he had to lie, and after he had done this twice he, too, had a reaction against the war and against talking about it”(1).
The main point of “Vagueness and ambiguity in Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” two puzzling passages” is to describe what made Ernest Hemingway’s character Krebs such a mysterious dynamic character and how was his influences impacted on who he is. Milton Cohen describes how Hemingway use the “iceberg technique” to enhance readers to figure out the missing idea on what’s being interpreted in Krebs mind. At the beginning of the article Cohen use the word “vagueness” which means to not have a clear sight or any other senses that is recognizable in an indefinite way (Cohen 159). Statements that Cohen have noted about Hemingway’s story being too vague included the two passages that exaggerating his war stories towards others and the idea for Krebs to
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.
...She does not act like the other girls, most of the time yet, she does want Krebs to fit into to a role -- her beau -- and fulfil obligations -- going to her indoor baseball game. Those two attributes together cause Krebs to be fonder of his sister than anyone else and at the same time push her away. Krebs even pushes away his mother because she tries to diligently to convince him to conform. Thus causing Krebs’s to say he does not love her, the ultimate form of rejection a child can do to a parent. Due to guilt Krebs does agree to conform but struggles with his decision. Ernest Hemingway’s character Harold Krebs tries to reject conforming to society but in the end he realizes that he can not escape it and grapple with reality.
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.
In everyday life, we take the time to network with different people to establish a kind of relationship, and take time to get to know others personally to establish a more romantic relationship. However, in Soldier’s Home, the narrator tells us that Krebs would not (or could not) make the effort to establish relationships because the army had taught him that he did not need to have a girl in his life. He did not want to get into the “intrigue” and “politics”, the “complexity”, the “courting”, he did not want to spend the time because in Germany it was much more different; the girls would just come and there wouldn’t have to be any conversing. His mother at one point even mentions a Charles Simmons, who is just Krebs age, and the “other boys” who are getting married and settling down. She doesn’t mention at all whether Simmons and the other boys also returned from war but, seems to encourage her son to work towards also settling back. If Simmons and the other boys were did go and return from the military could they have easily adjusted from the military lifestyle because they did not spend that time abroad? Or were they at an advantage when they returned because everyone wanted to walk about the war, making it almost therapeutical. Perhaps this is why Krebs continues this cycled routine he has and why he withholds or lacks
Hopeless Suffering in A Farewell to Arms Near the end of A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway has Fredrick Henry describe the time he placed a log full of ants on a fire. This incident allows us to understand a much larger occurrence, Catherine's pregnancy. Combined, both of these events form commentary on the backdrop for the entire story, World War One. After he finds out his son was stillborn, Lt. Henry remembers the time when he placed a log full of ants on a fire.
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...
Hemingway’s characters exemplify the effects of combat because World War I had a negative impact on them; the veterans lead meaningless lives filled with masculine uncertainty. Jake and his friends (all veterans) wander aimlessly throughout the entire novel. Their only goal seems to be finding an exciting restaurant or club where they will spend their time. Every night consists of drinking and dancing, which serves as a distraction from their very empty lives. The alcohol helps the characters escape from their memories from the war, but in the end, it just causes more commotion and even evokes anger in the characters. Their years at war not only made their lives unfulfilling but also caused the men to have anxiety about their masculinity, especially the narrator Jake, who “gave more than his life” in the war (Hemingway). Jake feels that the war took away his manhood because he is unable to sleep with Brett as a result of an injury. Although he wants to have a relationship with Brett, and spends most of his time trying to pursue her, she rejects him because he cannot have a physical relationship with her. At several points in the novel, Brett and Jake imagine what their lives could have been like together, had he not been injured during the war. Thus, his physical injury gives him emotional distress because he cannot have a relationship with the woman he always wanted. The traditional American perception of...
“Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway is about a Methodist College student that goes to war from Kansas. When Krebs comes back from war, he starts a life of lying and deceit that he finds difficult to escape. Krebs continues lying about the past and his present in Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home.” Hemingway conveys Krebs’ inability to embrace the truth of the past and the present through plot in the exposition, conflict, and climax.