Character Analysis Of Soldiers Home By Ernest Hemingway

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

“Soldier’s Home” is a story by Ernest Hemingway that symbolizes how a World War 1 veteran is faced with many difficulties when transitioning into society after war. Real life finds its way into Hemingway’s writing often mirroring some of his own challenges giving the reader a sense of familiarity. Most notably, Hemingway’s description of getting used to a life without the backdrop of war in “Soldier’s Home” shows credibility, most likely from his own experience of returning home from the battlefield.

The summer of 1919 is a difficult time for Krebs to accept because although the town has moved on from the war, he wishes to hold on to what he believes, is still the present. Hemingway uses the setting to bring the reader a clear understanding that war was a strong impact on soldiers who had been participants of it. The setting reveals the big picture; nothing is over until’ you let it go. Hemingway portrays the soldier’s hometown to be very similar to the war, in the perspective that his hometown is very confusing, complicated, and restless. The title “A Soldier’s Home” brings irony to the setting in the sense that

Imagine coming back home after being away for three years and trying to adapt to a new environment. It's almost like not being able to sleep in a hotel bed because you are used to your one at home. For Krebs’ it is the other way around. In the short story “Soldier's Home” by author Ernest Hemingway, Harold Krebs the main character is having trouble getting used to his hometown and the life it follows.. He has been at war for several years and is trying to get used to his home. Krebs joined the marines and went to war in 1917 and came back to the United States in 1919. The war ended in 1918 and two other kids from his town came back a year earlier than him. Because of this no one one wanted to hear any war stories and it was hard for Krebs. One of the most important themes that is represented throughout the story is adaptation. Krebs has to adapt to his home back in Oklahoma after fighting in the war for years. In the course of the short story, “Soldier’s Home”, Ernest Hemingway uses literary elements of setting and conflict to represent one of the themes, adaptation.

She asks Krebs if she is his beau and if he loves her. He gives very monotone and lifeless answers to her, saying “Sure,” or “Uh-huh.” His sister, although, does not buy this, and holds the belief that he does not love her. His mother asks Krebs if he loves her as well. He responds, “No, I don’t love anybody. It wasn’t any good. He couldn’t tell her, he couldn’t make her see it.” (Hemingway 5) Naturally, she reacts upset and dejected, obviously not understanding what Krebs has seen and gone through. Krebs’ behavior after he came home from the war is typical for most. He has definitely lost his outlooks on life he had before. “He had tried so to keep his life from being complicated. Still, none of it had touched him. “ (Hemingway 6) Of course, he had not been exposed to the brutalities of war then. He came home a new man. He cannot unsee what he lived through. As much as his family wishes he was, Krebs has let go of his innocence and pleasure for life.

As a young man coming back from the war, Krebs expected things to be the same when he got home and they were, except one. Sure the town looked older and all the girls had matured into beautiful women, Krebs had never expected that he would be the one to change. The horrific experiences of the first World War had alienated and removed those he had cared about, including his family, who stood naïve to the realities and consequences only those who live it first hand would comprehend.

The setting of the story helps us understand the character of Harold Krebs. The soldier’s home could be the place where soldiers would retire after the war. It was the home for those soldiers who had completed their mission at the war but were homeless or had no family during the First World War and the Second World War. Hemingway also creates a temporal setting for the readers by showing that Krebs returns home two years after fellow veterans had returned (Benson). The setting, therefore, helps the readers to understand the main character

However, he did like girls and “liked to look at them from the front porch as they walked on the other side of the street” (135), Yet he could not find even the slightest bit of ambition to talk to any of them, let alone to “do any courting”, he just did not want to bother himself with the hassle of” telling anymore lies” (135). Even with these glitches to his main frame, he still likes to think that he will one day find a girl. The emotions that came with feeling the need to lie all the time not only prevented him from forming any type of relationship with the opposite sex, but It also hindered him from talking about the war, due to the horrible taste it put in his mouth. This is most likely due to the fact that by time Krebs made his route back home, the towns people had already had their fair share of war stories from soldiers who had returned before him, who largely exaggerated the truth in order to keep their listeners attention. Krebs soon came to revelation that all he had to do was lie in order to be heard at all. This bothered him much more than he led on; “All of the times that had been able to make him feel cool and clear inside himself…the times so long back when he had done the one thing, the only thing for a man to do, easily and naturally…now lost their cool, valuable quality and then were lost

Soldier’s Home is a story about the experiences of a soldier returning from war. The narrative starts with a description of an image or photograph of Harold Krebs. Krebs is the main character of this story. He was a young man who was attending the Methodist College in Kansas before he had to enlist in the Marines to find in the war (Hemingway 111-116). The opening picture is an increasingly significant source of contrast between the young man who went to war and the one who comes back who has become silent and alienated after coming home. Krebs comes back in 1919 even though the war ended in 1918. His return is not marked by celebrations and parades that were often given to the young soldiers who had managed to come home early. Rather, Krebs finds out that the people are not overly excited about his news of the war unless he lies and exaggerates about his role during the war (Hemingway 111-116).

Setting: Post World War I era, 1919. In Howard’s (Kreb’s) quaint home town in Oklahoma. All who have returned from the harsh war are welcomed; their stories as well. All except for Krebs.

In the story, “Soldier’s Home” it is told from the third person narrator point of view. Hemingway, having been a former journalist is able to show how distant Krebs is because of being the type of journalist who is detached just like Krebs was detached by his experience in World War I. As Hemingway writes he shows how Krebs holds his emotions in that he knows his mother will not understand. When Krebs calls his mom “Mummy” he is trying to comfort her by acting like a child. At the end Krebs makes a decision to leave and go to Kansas City because he feels he may not ever reconnect with his family.

Krebs no longer has motivation to try to date, “Krebs did not feel the energy or the courage to break into it” (Hemingway). “It” being the complications and drama of trying to have a real girlfriend. Krebs describes his need to live a life with no more consequences: alone. Krebs is a great representation of many of the Lost Generation, wanting to live the rest of his life in solitary to reduce complications. Additionally, we see Krebs cope with the war by reverting back to his childlike nature. This encounter between Krebs and his mother shows us that regression, “‘I know, Mummy,’ he said. ‘I’ll try and be a good boy for you’” (Hemingway); this act of returning to childhood is a way he can justify his impotence. Many people in the “Lost Generation” lost all motivation to go on with a normal life, Hemingway shows this theme well through a lonely soldier named Krebs (O’Conner).

The setting in which the story takes place emphasizes the relationship of the man and the woman in the story. Hemingway writes:

Is there a pattern for life? Maybe not, but in Ernest Hemingway’s short story “A Soldier’s Home”, the main character Harold Krebs finds that he needs to live his life through a series of patterns. In this story, the series of patterns associated to Krebs results in an explanation of his character’s desire for an uncomplicated life. The series of patterns can be found through Krebs’s involvement in college, the Marines, and even in his personal relationships.

Let’s begin by “Soldier’s Home”, Hemingway presents the story of a soldier and his vision of war. The main character of the story is Krebs;