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Comparisons of two short stories
Comparative essay short stories
Essays on war and trauma
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Recommended: Comparisons of two short stories
The two short stories, “Solider’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway and “Barbie and Ken Experience the War” by Diana Jell both cover the topic of war. The stories main themes are specifically isolation and societal views on war. These themes both have their own ways of contributing to the overall messages to each story. The theme of alienation both are prevalent in each story, however in different ways. Both stories show isolation from society but from different standpoints as well as convey society’s reactions to war.
In “Soldier’s Home,” the feeling of alienation is especially seen in the main character, Harold Krebs. He comes home much later from war than the rest of the soldiers in his town, so he missed the grand celebratory “welcome home”.
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This story begins with two figures that highly embody the superficial and shallow side of some Americans during the Vietnam War- Barbie and Ken. These two characters in this story meet at a war hotel, The Continental Palace at a café. Ken is a highly ranked officer while Barbie is said to work for the American Embassy, however it seemed that most of what she had done while in Vietnam is shop. The first thing Ken utters is his distaste for the Vietnamese beer he ordered and continues to comment about how he’d prefer “good ole American brew any day”. This shows how shallow and isolated these characters are while there is a war going on just north of them. These characters are isolated from the people who actually are suffering and are really involved in the war in the north. Their job titles just give them esteem but does not give them the ability to connect with the real war- only the fake aspect of the war. This is completely different than the isolation that Krebs was experiencing in “Soldier’s Home”, where Barbie and Ken are more similar to the characters back at Kreb’s hometown. They have not experienced the war firsthand and are unable to sympathize or relate to anyone who suffered from the …show more content…
“Soldier’s Home” shows the main character, who served as a marine in WWI who comes home feeling disconnected and alienated from society who has moved on from the excitement of the war and who have continued on with life as normal. Society’s reaction to the war in “Soldier’s Home” have gotten past the harsh stories and emotional welcomes of returning soldiers so they are unable to really understand what Krebs has gone through. In contrast, “Barbie and Ken Experience the War” shows a different side to isolation, where the two main characters, Barbie and Ken, are “isolated” from the rest of those who are really affected by the Vietnam War. They do not understand and have not truly “experienced” the real trauma of war, so the title is ironic in that sense. Both stories convey the message of war and the consequences that those who go through war deal with, just from different
Tina Chen’s critical essay provides information on how returning soldiers aren’t able to connect to society and the theme of alienation and displacement that O’Brien discussed in his stories. To explain, soldiers returning from war feel alienated because they cannot come to terms with what they saw and what they did in battle. Next, Chen discusses how O’Brien talks about soldiers reminiscing about home instead of focusing in the field and how, when something bad happens, it is because they weren’t focused on the field. Finally, when soldiers returned home they felt alienated from the country and
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
“Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway and “Speaking of Courage” by Tim O’Brien are about two soldiers who have experienced war now coming back home, yet uncelebrated. Many people worry about what happens during war and what will become of their loved ones, but few realize what happens to those soldiers once they come home. These two short story's themes explore the effects of war and how impactful war is on a young person's life, from when the soldiers return home to the overall hardships and loneliness war has put upon them. The Soldiers Harold Krebs from “Soldier’s Home” and Paul Bowker from “Speaking of Courage” have many similarities and differences. Paul Bowker had fought in the Vietnam War, while Harold Krebs fought in WW1. Both Krebs and Bowker hold stories of their experiences in war and are sure they will be heroes when they come home, telling their heroic tales
Not many people in society can empathize with those who have been in a war and have experienced war firsthand. Society is unaware that many individuals are taken away from their families to risk their lives serving in the war. Because of this, families are left to wonder if they will ever get to see their sons and daughters again. In a war, young men are taken away from their loved ones without a promise that they will get to see them again. The survivors come back with frightening memories of their traumatic experiences. Although some would argue that war affects families the most, Tim O’Brien and Kenneth W. Bagby are able to convey the idea that war can negatively impact one’s self by causing this person long lasting emotional damage.
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.
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.
The Vietnam War was not a “pretty” war. Soldiers were forced to fight guerilla troops, were in combat during horrible weather, had to live in dangerous jungles, and, worst of all, lost sight of who they were. Many soldiers may have entered with a sense of pride, but returned home desensitized. The protagonist in Louise Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible,” is testament to this. In the story, the protagonist is a young man full of life prior to the war, and is a mere shell of his former self after the war. The protagonists in Tim O’Brien’s “If I Die in a Combat Zone,” and Irene Zabytko’s “Home Soil,” are also gravely affected by war. The three characters must undergo traumatic experiences. Only those who fought in the Vietnam War understand what these men, both fictional and in real life, were subjected to. After the war, the protagonists of these stories must learn to deal with a war that was not fought with to win, rather to ensure the United States remained politically correct in handling the conflict. This in turn caused much more anguish and turmoil for the soldiers. While these three stories may have fictionalized events, they connect with factual events, even more so with the ramifications of war, whether psychological, morally emotional, or cultural. “The Red Convertible,” and “Home Soil,” give readers a glimpse into the life of soldiers once home after the war, and how they never fully return, while “If I Die in a Combat Zone,” is a protest letter before joining the war. All three protagonists must live with the aftermath of the Vietnam War: the loss of their identity.
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.
The impact of the Vietnam War upon the soldiers who fought there was huge. The experience forever changed how they would think and act for the rest of their lives. One of the main reasons for this was there was little to no understanding by the soldiers as to why they were fighting this war. They felt they were killing innocent people, farmers, poor hard working people, women, and children were among their victims. Many of the returning soldiers could not fall back in to their old life styles. First they felt guilt for surviving many of their brothers in arms. Second they were haunted by the atrocities of war. Some soldiers could not go back to the mental state of peacetime. Then there were soldiers Tim O’Brien meant while in the war that he wrote the book “The Things They Carried,” that showed how important the role of story telling was to soldiers. The role of stories was important because it gave them an outlet and that outlet was needed both inside and outside the war in order to keep their metal state in check.
...though people believe that, those on the home front have it just as a bad as the soldiers, because they have to deal with the responsibilities of their husbands, there is nothing that can compare to what these men have gone through. The war itself consumed them of their ideology of a happy life, and while some might have entered the war with the hope that they would soon return home, most men came to grips with the fact that they might never make it out alive. The biggest tragedy that follows the war is not the number of deaths and the damages done, it is the broken mindset derives from being at war. These men are all prime examples of the hardships of being out at war and the consequences, ideologies, and lifestyles that develop from it.
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.
Wars affect everyone in some way, especially soldiers who fight in them, like those in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. O 'Brien concentrates a lot on the psychological trauma that solders, like himself, confronted before, during, and after the Vietnam War. He also focuses on how they coped with the brutality of war. Some were traumatized to the point where they converted back to primitive instinct. Others were traumatized past the breaking point to where they contemplated suicide and did not fit in. Finally, some soldiers coped through art and ritual.
They constantly await the date they will come home and be safe once again. Subsequent to returning home, soldiers will most likely be unable to conform to their previous day-by-day lives. This results in a change of social demeanour for the family. Findley precisely defines the withdrawal of a few individuals from the family from the rest, using the character of Mrs. Ross. Findley's depiction of the impacts of war on both family and soldier is to a great degree precise when contrasted with issues experienced by genuine soldiers and their families.
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.
An Evaluation of The Trauma on the Psyche from War from Seymour’s Perspective and An Analyzation of The Themes. ‘’A Perfect Day For Bananafish’’ by J. D. Salinger. A war scarred veteran comes back to his country after having served in either the European, African, or south pacific theatre in World War II in what must have been hell. He comes back, to what he perceives, a vapid and shallow society focused on fashion, T.V. gossip, and being socialites.