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Who Is Harold In Soldier's Home

Decent Essays

Scores of young men and women have enlisted into different branches of the Armed Services, many have also seen firsthand the atrocities that war produces, instances where the difference between life and death are never certain has the ability to instill memories and images that will forever haunt them thereby creating the walking wounded. Ernest Hemingway uses conflict in his 1925 short story “Soldier’s Home,” through his own experiences from World War I to convey the tragedies of war the everlasting effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Harold Krebs returns home many years after the war is over and exhibits conflict with conforming and reintegrating back into his small hometown society. Dr. Jatinder Sareen annotates that one of the many defining features of PTSD is the withdrawal from social interaction. The years that Harold did not return home is an indication of the acknowledgement of what awaited him, upon his return home he makes conscious decisions to distance himself from society. Although Harold has moved back to his hometown, he quickly recognizes that while he has changed, the world he grew up in has remains the same. Many of …show more content…

Harold’s mother was a very pious woman while his father was more materialistic, neither seems willing to accept that Harold is no longer the person he once was and will never be again. Christy Tran explains in “The Journal of Psychology and Theology” that veterans often experience guilt and shame in the aftermath of combat or combat related incidents which in turn makes them question their faith or dissolve all spiritual beliefs. As Harold’s mother speaks to him over breakfast she says “There can be no idle hands in his kingdom” Krebs replied “I’m not in his kingdom” (Hemingway 75), proving further that even though Harold was once religious he had seemingly lost his faith along the

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