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Harold Krebs In A Soldier's Home

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In Soldier's Home, Ernest Hemingway paints a vivid picture of Harold Krebs return home from World War I and the issues he confronts while trying to shift his way back towards the ordinary life he once lived. After his battling over seas took place, it took Krebs over a year to finally leave Europe and make his way back home to his family in Oklahoma. After finally finding the drive to come home, Krebs found that it was difficult to express his feelings towards all he had seen during his tour of duty, which must be attributed to the fact that he was in the heart of some of the bloodiest and most crucial battles mankind has ever seen. Therefore, Krebs difficulty in acknowledging his past is because he was indeed a “good soldier” (133), whose…show more content…
This had to of put a genuine strain on his relationship with his relatives, who in Krebs mind, clearly lived in a parallel universe. Prior to the war, his dad did not trust him enough to be able to take the car out as he pleased. Even after Krebs returned home, his father seemed to hold a rather absent presence in his life, in fact, he is not even present at any point throughout the story. The only time his father is brought up in discussion, is when Krebs mother informs him that she and Krebs father had discussed finally letting him use the family car. Even when his mother reveals that it had been his father’s idea, Krebs replied “I’ll bet you made him” (136). This line is an unmistakable clue which shows the true feelings Krebs has towards his father, whom he clearly has no type of faith in. Although Krebs mother has an active role in his life, his relationship with her does not seem to be that much better than his relationship with his father. When she asked if he loved her, he quickly responded “No”(137), which sent her straight into tears. This was probably not always the truth…show more content…
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
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