Essay about Reader-Response on Soldier's Home

After reading “Soldiers Home” by Ernest Hemmingway, Krebs seems to play an awkward character after returning home from the war. He puts himself distant from everyone including his mother and sister. The only person he would speak to would be his friend from the war, Keith. Krebs’s father doesn’t let him use the car before Krebs left to war because his father used to drive his clients in the vehicle for his real estate job. Also Krebs’s father was very strict with giving permission to anyone using the car including his own wife.

By reading the story we know Harold no longer feels at home anymore. He has been traumatized by life and death situations that his parents simply do not understand. We know that he has changed because he feels he no longer fits in. In the story, we find out Krebs attended a Methodist college in Kansas. He was not out of place during that time. Hemingway says, “There is a picture which shows him among his fraternity brothers, all of them wearing exactly the same height and style collar.” (185) Hemingway is telling us that by stating that Harold once fit in the town. He fit in with his friends. He is meaning in the story that most soldiers are traumatized by the war, and when they return they are different people.

Krebs “felt the need to talk but no one wanted to hear about it. His town had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities.” Krebs own family lacks support for his yearning to talk to someone about what he has done and gone through. “She [Krebs’ mother] often came in when he was in bed and asked him to tell her about the war, but her attention always wandered. His father was non-committal.” It is obvious why Krebs decided to sleep all day and lock himself in his room, his town and his family have locked him in there with nothing but his thoughts. Krebs cannot leave the room because he is unable to let out all that he carries from the war.

Numerous people all over the states join a military branch. Some are forced with war and others are not. Soldiers that have war experience might experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) when returning home. In the story of “Soldier Home”, Harold Krebs seems to have quite a few symptoms of this disorder. Prior to his war services, Krebs experiences conformity, connections, and his faith; however, after the war he has a difficult time adjusting back to civilian life.

Dear Mother, It’s been a long time since I had the opportunity to sit down and write you a letter. I miss you and father a lot. I am overjoyed to be writing this letter to you. The mood here is one of jubilation. Our assault on Vimy Ridge began at 5:30 am on Easter Monday, eight days ago. We lost a lot of good boys but I am so very pleased to inform you that the Canucks got the job done! What the French couldn’t do for two years and the Brits too we, Byng’s Boys did in three days. I was assigned to the front line in the trenches as part of the 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade attached to the 4th Canadian Division. This is actually the first time all four divisions got to work together as a unified Canadian Corps. They

In using Psychoanalytical criticism one can clearly see Nick Carraway as suffering some type of PTSD after his time in the war in the beginning pages of the novel. After returning to civilian life he finds that he no longer finds satisfaction from it: “Instead of being the warm center of the world, the Middle West now seemed like the ragged edge of the universe—so I decided to go East and learn the bond business.” (Fitzgerald 3). This could at first be seen as just his own growing maturity—wanting more from life as he gets older, even possibly wanting a change but this is a stark contrast to how he felt when returning home from school. “That's my Middle West – not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns, but the thrilling returning trains of my youth, and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows on the snow.” (Fitzgerald 176). This change in attitude towards his home seems to come not from maturing after school—but returning home from war. This inability to maintain a sense of stability or uniformity after experiencing violence and horror from war clearly supports the idea that

The title “Soldiers Home” reveals the question; where is the soldier’s home? In the short story, Krebs frequently mentions being over in Germany and France, expressing that he was more fond of these places than his little hometown in Kansas. “On the whole he had liked Germany

The two pieces are similar because they both tell a story of two men leaving for combat and having to deal with the cruel and terrible acts that occur in wars. Before going to war, Krebs had a normal life-like others who were never involved in a war. In "Soldier's Home", Krebs lied and exaggerated to the point that after his return home he began to suffer from nausea. This is similar to O'Brian's account when he writes that to make a war story believable to the general population, one must lie and stretch the truth. Unlike Krebs, O'Brian communicates with people about his involvements so they are able to visualize a real painted picture of what war is like. Hemingway allows the reader in his story to know that people did not want to hear the

The war experience forces Krebs to question all the assumptions and beliefs that had previously guided his life. Having killed men in battle, Krebs sees no chance in reconciling his actions with God. He discusses the war and how carefree it was as if the soldiers had expected to live their life after the war not having to deal with the consequences and horrific memories of their actions. His faith had been stripped and morals lost. Krebs is quoted saying “I’m not in His Kingdom.” Krebs’s lost faith is also apparent when he and his mother kneel down to pray but Krebs can’t and asks his mother to pray for the both of them. The war had been hell and it seems as though Krebs was left there to face the consequences. I think this is one reason why he doesn’t “want any consequences” in his life anymore. Krebs has chosen to rid his life of all possible consequences he could face in the future. This includes his choice to stay away from finding work, girls, and even loved ones. This distancing is seen further when Krebs tells his mother he doesn’t love her. Love in his mind leads to consequences and the army has taught him that you don’t need love, or look for a girl to marry. These

A “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemmingway is an intriguing story about a man by the name of Krebs who enlists in the Marine Corps during his attendance at a Methodist college in Kansas. After serving for two years at the Rhine, he returned with the second division in 1919 but Krebs wasn’t in the same state of mind as before he left. The reason why Krebs was so distraught when he returned home was not because of the fact that no one wanted to listen to his war stories but because him and other soldiers were without any real benefits such as medical, education, extra remuneration, or anything to help him get back into the real world. This reason stated is the reason that Krebs and soldiers alike came home from war with nothing to show for

In a sense, he loses his role but tries to find it by telling stories about the war. However, the role of a soldier in his hometown is no longer “sensational” and he lies in order to find the pattern of soldier. Still nobody listens to Krebs’ pattern and he begins to search out the role through war books finding it “interesting reading”. It seems that Krebs tries to find another pattern to replace this new complicated life of a former soldier.

This is similar to what happened to Krebs in Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home”. Krebs has returned home to find that it is not that everybody and the world around him has changed, but he was the one that had changed. He has fought in some of the worst wars there were and he didn’t want to come back home. Krebs dreaded coming back to the states, and would have preferred to stay overseas. Krebs was once used to a normal life. He went to a Christian school and was a part of a fraternity. His perception on life had changed drastically after enlisting in the military and fighting in a war. When he returned home, the girls that he saw on the street were the same as when he was there years ago. His father still parks his car in the same spot day in and day out. His mother tries to encourage him to get a job, but he doesn’t care. He was so accustomed to the repetition of a soldier’s life. He couldn’t adjust to the typical lifestyle that other soldiers made. Somehow you can see the struggle he is going through. After the physical war, there was a war going on internally. Krebs had lost his emotion and will to care. The horror he experienced actually seeing first-hand life and death situations were incomprehensible to his parents. There was no way they would be able to identify with him.

Krebs learned to lie about his experiences and added details into them that most formal soldiers thought as common knowledge of a soldier; however, it was not easy for him. The small town in this story and society in general is the antagonist in this story for not welcoming him home as they had the other returning men. “Krebs found to be listened to at all he had to lie and after he had done this twice he, too had a reaction against the war and against talking about it” (185), and withdrew from society more because of the distaste of war and the lies he had to tell. The town folk thought of his stories as unimportant. Krebs withdrew from society.

upon the men along side me. Some of the men so I have been told have

Ernest Hemingway “Soldier’s Home" is an outstanding short story that shows the tragic impact of war on the life of a young soldier who returns home. The story paints a vibrant picture of a soldier’s life after coming back from a shocking experience. Hemingway shows impacts of war on a soldier with the main character being Harold Krebs, who faces hostility in his hometown after his return from fighting in the war. The main character in the story is Kreb with the author making usage of repetition, characterization, and symbolism to bring out the message in the story.