“Soldier’s Home” by Hemingway

873 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of war on soldiers essay

This is an essay on the short story “Soldier’s Home” by Hemingway. Will the life of a soldier ever be the same after returning from war? Many generations of young adults have gone from their homes with tranquil settings to experience war and come home to a different world. Many have witnessed the devastations and atrocities that occur with war. Harold Krebs, a young man from a small town with a loving family is no different from those before him and those to follow. The anguish of what war is however cannot dispel the thoughts and memories of what many young men come home to face in the real world. Many have trouble coping in the new world known as home.

The setting in this story is a small town in rural Oklahoma in the late hot summer. Harold Krebs is part of a loving family with a good moral up bringing and high standards. The family is middle class. Krebs, at the time of his enlistment is a student at a Methodist college in Kansas and goes off to war. Krebs, as most young men in the twenties did not volunteer for military service. He Left for Germany and his part of the war, as was the expectations of the time for all men coming of age.

Upon returning home, Krebs felt different and distant from the town folk. No welcome home given by the town. Krebs was not welcomed home, “He came back much too late” (Hemingway 185). The war was over and had been for a couple of years and the town felt he should have been home earlier. Hemingway does not give an explanation why Harold is the last to return home after the war. The others drafted with him have all returned and received a hero’s welcome back from the town. Krebs returning to his hometown parallels that of Hemingway himself: “When Hemingway returned home early...

... middle of paper ...

...who is the same age, has a job, and getting married. She is also concerned her son will not be a credit to society. Krebs only withdraws more because of his mother. The father in the story is distant and a stock character. He is there but not an influence on his son’s life and only spoken of though the mother and her comments. Krebs has a sister named Helen in the story, she likes baseball, and he is very fond of her. She is a stock character and there as support to the family environment and setting of the story.

Krebs has all the memories and thoughts of war: “When you go to war as a boy, you have a great illusion of immortality” (Putnam 20). The realization of war and its after effects and persistent memories, Krebs decides to move. He begins a new life to sort out his emotional heartaches. He realizes the only way to move forward in life is to move on.

Show More
Related

  • The Comradeship of War in All Quiet on the Western Front

    452 Words  | 1 Pages

    War can destroy a young man mentally and physically. One might say that nothing good comes out of war, but in Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, there is one positive characteristic: comradeship. Paul and his friends give Himmelstoss a beating in which he deserves due to his training tactics. This starts the brotherhood of this tiny group. As explosions and gunfire sound off a young recruit in his first battle is gun-shy and seeks reassurance in Paul's chest and arms, and Paul gently tells him that he will get used to it. The relationship between Paul and Kat is only found during war, in which nothing can break them apart. The comradeship between soldiers at war is what keeps them alive, that being the only good quality to come out of war.

    Read More

  • Society's Conformity is a "Soldier's Home"

    1170 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • All Quiet on the Western Front

    1386 Words  | 3 Pages

    The novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque describes the psychological and physical battles of young soldiers such as the main character Paul Baumer who was pressured by the spirit of nationalism and his school master into joining the German army during World War I. In the beginning the young students are glowing with enthusiasm with the honor to be trusted with serving their nation in a time of crisis. The inexperienced soldiers soon loose their innocence and eagerness as they watch the new technological capabilities of the twentieth century painfully kill their comrades one by one and in the end become weary, burnt out, rootless, and hopeless. Over time the young soldiers, through experience, begin to realize their years of schooling are completely useless in a society filled with war. They were taught the basics of the world of work, duty, culture, and progress when the only knowledge they need is how to survive. The author, through his novel All Quiet on the Western Front, attempts to portray the vivid horrors and the raw nature of war and to change the popular belief of war as an idealistic and romantic character. This is evident through the barriers placed between Paul and the relationship with his parents and the rest of society who still view war as glamorous and cherish his war stories as though he were telling them a fairy tale. The novel also attempts to explain the purposes of war and its uselessness in society. The ultimate question that Erich Remarque raises in his novel is what did a whole generation give up their lives and precious innocence to accomplish. All Quiet on the Western Front is a story not of Germans, but of men, who even though “they frequently escape shells, are destroyed by the war”. This novel have could easily been transformed into the tale of a Frenchmen, an Englishmen, or an American fighting in World War I.

    Read More

  • Hemingway

    475 Words  | 1 Pages

    One of Ernest Hemingway’s greatest novels, “A Farewell to Arms”, has been surrounded by controversy among literary, as well as historical, scholars regarding Hemingway’s inspiration for the famous novel. Many feel that Ernest Hemingway created this fictional book solely from his imagination rather than his experiences, while others believe that Hemingway drew the inspiration for this book from his experience as a volunteer ambulance driver throughout the war. Even though there has been much controversy, there is documented historical proof that the experiences that Hemingway had experienced from his time in the war had influenced his creation of “A Farewell to Arms”.

    Read More

  • War and Memory in Irene Zabytko?s ?Home Soil?, Bruce Weigl?s ?Song of Napalm?, and Wilfred Owen?s ?Dulce et Decorum Est?

    755 Words  | 2 Pages

    The three narratives “Home Soil” by Irene Zabytko, “Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weigl, and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen all have the same feelings of war and memory, although not everyone experiences the same war. Zabytko, Weigl, and Owen used shifting beats, dramatic descriptions, and intense, painful images, to convince us that the horror of war far outweighs the devoted awareness of those who fantasize war and the memories that support it.

    Read More

  • Fly Away Peter by David Malouf

    581 Words  | 2 Pages

    When the war breaks out, this tranquil little town seems like the last place on earth that could produce a team of vicious, violent soldiers. Soon we see Jim thrown into a completely contrasting `world', full of violence and fighting, and the strong dissimilarity between his hometown and this new war-stricken country is emphasised. The fact that the original setting is so diversely opposite to that if the war setting, the harsh reality of the horror of war is demonstrated.

    Read More

  • Reader-Response on Soldier's Home

    1223 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Importance of setting in Soldier’s Home by Ernest Hemmingway

    598 Words  | 2 Pages

    First, if there was a point made of the setting what would this story be like? Would Kreb’s be in Paris or Germany still? Would he have come home earlier if he knew it was a more bustling town? Hemmingway made the point of setting this story in a slow Oklahoma town that had no prospects of getting any better. Krebs was out of a Methodist college and went straight to the war (133). Krebs knew the lifestyle that he left behind and what would be expected of him when he returned. His family expected a return to his pre-war state of a young man out of college. The setting in Oklahoma probably did not entice Krebs any longer and he hungered for something better than settling down and becoming a working man. New York City or even Los Angeles might have created a different setting for Kreb’s. Maybe these towns might have offered a more exciting lifestyle for this young man. Hemmingway is maybe trying to portray that Kreb’s was held down by consequences of the war and this Oklahoma town would again have consequences for Kreb’s. Marriage, children, and a steady job were these the consequences Kreb’s spoke of when he mentioned courting the women in this town? Possibly, and he knew that he wasn’t going to live a lie any longer.

    Read More

  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Hemingway's Soldiers Home

    523 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

    535 Words  | 2 Pages

    In A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, the novel concerns itself primarily with Hemingway's philosophy of life: unordered and random. There is no God to watch over man, to dictate codes of morality, or to ensure justice. Hemingway’s hero must accept his place as something insignificant, yet continue to fight endlessly against the meaninglessness of life. The universe is indifferent to man's plight. In the book, this indifference is best exemplified by the war -- an ultimately futile struggle of man against man and the death of Catherine Barkley – someone good and pure. She did not die due to her “sins”, but merely because life is short, unfair, and unorderly.

    Read More

  • Effects of War in "In Another Country" by Earnest Hemingway

    592 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • In Another Country of Hemingway

    604 Words  | 2 Pages

    What has been existed in life after the war? Nobody knows "how it was going to be afterward." Man's life will be totally changed. They will be unable to come back with their natural and normal life. They seem lost everything; their families, their hobbies, their lives, and they'll has nothing from the war's ravages. The image of soldiers of Hemingway' story has sustained injuries due to fighting on the battlefield inflects that they will never be the same again. One of the men' knees "cannot bend" and his leg "dropped straight from the knee to the ankle without a calf" and another with his hand like a little baby's. The devastating injuries due to the war changed these soldiers' lives forever. Before the war, they had a normal life; the boy with the injured leg loved playing football, other was the greatest fencer in Italy. From now on, their hobbies are really gone forever although all efforts to help them rejuvenate to do. And the boy who lost his nose will never be looked as a normal person again. The war is so horrible with its devastation not only on the physical but also the motional.

    Read More

  • Free Great Gatsby Essays: Social Attitudes

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    This novel is in general about middle and upper class American citizens and their lives a few years after the first world war had concluded.  The author, a World War I veteran himself, shows insight into the lives and minds of American soldiers who fought in Europe during the conflict and the interesting experiences some may have had in the years following their return.  Through written conversation, the novel deals with many of the social attitudes and ideas that prevailed during the early 20's.

    Read More

  • Ernest Hemingway

    1415 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hemingway wrote form his past experiences form life. In Indian Camp it showed his relationship with his father. By leaving his childhood and entering the war, he was able to come up with the character Henry and Barkley in A Farwell In Arms. When returning home from the war Hemingway used Krebs in Soldier’s Home to express his distast

    Read More

  • A Farewell To Arms By Ernest Hemingway

    1001 Words  | 3 Pages

    A Farewell To Arms written by Ernest Hemingway illustrates a typical love story between two people, this love story plays out in a war torn Italy during world war I, where Italy was battling Austria, the novels main characters, lieutenant Fredrick Henry an American ambulance driver serving in the Italian army and Catherine Barkley an English volunteer nurse who served in Italy. The novel portrays Henry as a drunk who traveled from one house of prostitution to the next, he was not happy with his lifestyle. Henry feels detached from life and is on a quest for identification, he gives a particular insight about how he feels about women “clear, cold and dry”. Henry loved to play the role of a womanizer. He is isolated from his family and compatriots. He is an American fighting a war in another country. In my opinion Henry is emotionally exhausted and it appears he has no place to go. Henry meets Catherine Barkley, near the front between Italy and Austria-Hungary. Catherine suffered during this war before she met Henry. Catherine had lost her fiancé during this war. She was startled by rain in her nightmares. She perceived rain as death. At first Henry wanted to seduce the nurse, to him it was a game, he had told the nurse that he loved her, but she had caught on to his game. Catherine confronted Henry and told him what she thought of his game. He was severely wounded on one of his runs. Henry was sent to the American hospital where Catherine worked. That is where he actually began to fall in love with her. He fully recovered and returned to the war-front, during a retreat the Italians started to fall apart. Henry shot an engineer sergeant under his command for dereliction, later in the confusion Henry is arrested by the battle police for the crime of not being Italian. He is disgusted with the army and facing death at the hands of the battle police during questioning. Henry decided he has had enough of the war, he ran into the river to escape. After swimming to safety, Henry boards a train to reunite with his love Catherine whom is pregnant with his child. Here is where he meets with an Italian bartender who will help him escape to Switzerland by boat. Henry and Catherine plan to get married soon after the baby is born.

    Read More

More about “Soldier’s Home” by Hemingway

Open Document