Soldier's Home Irony

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Soldiers are those who sacrifice their life to protect their country. They’re willing to fight for freedom to their country. They have to fight against enemy with their friends dying around them which is very painful and heart broken. After the confrontation is over, they get back to peace home where they can return to normal life. Unfortunately, others will not be lucky as them. Some soldiers could not easily put the war behind them. Ernest Hemingway who was a veteran in WW1 wrote the book called “Soldier’s Home”. He had experienced bloody war and seriously suffered by trauma of war. He portrayed himself as the main character, Krebs, to show how the veteran has hard time adjusting to home life than most soldiers that have returned home. In …show more content…

His writing style was articulate and straightforward; fully display how Krebs suffered by traumatic war experience. In “Soldier’s Home,” Hemingway effectively used irony, symbolism and repetition to tell his readers the life, which detached from social relations, love and ambition. First of all, irony was used to describe to the outcome of situation was different from than what has expected. This rhetorical device was used in the title. “Soldier’s Home” the author used irony to show difference between expectation and reality. When people see the word “home,” they normally expect it to be a warm, loving, nostalgic and care full place where you can be yourself and not having nightmares every now and then. When Krebs arrived home, he couldn’t put the past behind him and has difficulty adjusting to life of a normal person. Although his family were still the same as they were before he joined …show more content…

This device is used in the following lines: “He did not want them themselves really. They were too complicated He wanted a girl but he did not want to have to work to get her…He did not want to get into the intrigue and the politic. He did not want to have to do any courting.”(Holt) The word complicated is used to describe girls. Courting women seems to Krebs like too complicated because it might causes a lot of time and effort to make better relationship with them. He doesn’t want to take responsible for them. Author applies the words “did not” to keep emphasizing he doesn’t like to get involved in obligation. The reason why Krebs doesn’t want to work to get girls is because he is suffered from PTSD. “In World War One, they called it shell shock. Second time around, they called it battle fatigue. After ‘Nam, it was post-traumatic stress disorder.” (Jan Karon) The victims of PDST are unable to recover their confidence because of stress and flashback of the war. Krebs is one of victim of PTSD who is inability to truly recognize himself. They find out themselves unable to return to civilian life so they lose passion about everything. However, author’s purpose is to tell readers that veterans who struggle with PTSD are unable to connect and love

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