Compare And Contrast A Soldier's Home And How To Tell A War Story
While Ernest Hemingway's “A Soldier's Home” and Tim O’Brien’s “How to Tell a War Story” are both pieces focusing on war and the profound impact it has on the minds of soldiers that go through it, they both differ in many ways.
The settings of the stories are dissimilar as “A Soldier’s Home” is set after the war, in a typical suburban environment in Oklahoma, where the protagonist grew up, while “How to Tell a True War Story” is set primarily in war-stricken areas in Vietnam with a few other instances set nowhere in particular, as thoughts are racing through the narrator’s mind.
The plots of both works differ greatly, as in “A Soldier’s Home” Hemingway describes a young man coming home from the war only to find that he no longer can live
his old life as he used to, where in “How to Tell a True War Story”, O’Brien explores the art of storytelling as it relates to war stories, regaling in stories he knows well, and what they mean to him and those who hear them.
In Hemingway’s work, he utilizes a defined protagonist: Krebs, a man coming home from World War I to find that he feels imprisoned by his family home and values, previously a part of himself, where the antagonist is war personified, and the intense feelings it has spurred within him, creating this great conflict between his previous life and his new identity, or lack thereof. In O’Brien’s work, the protagonist is the war story, and the antagonist are the lies and complications that people who don’t tell true war stories use to embellish the truth, thereby getting further and further from it.
In “A Soldier’s Home” the crisis and climax occur when Krebs makes his mother cry by stating that he does not love her or anybody else. A plethora of complications lead up to that moment, with Krebs growing more and more dissatisfied with his lifestyle and what his parents want for him. The more time he spends at home, the more he feels trapped and tension builds up within him. In “How to Tell a True War Story”, there is neither a crisis nor a climax, with the narrator ranting and rambling on about war and its complications, virtues, vices, and roles in our society.
The tone in Hemingway’s work differs from O’Brien’s work in that in “A Soldier’s Home”, Hemingway simply puts forward Krebs’ feelings as he tries to go back to his former life, and we are left to try to understand what he’s going through, whereas in O’Brien’s work he says straight up that war is everything at once. “War is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man. War makes you dead.” (O’Brien 623)
In terms of style, Hemingway depends more on dialogue and inner thought processes as it relates to Krebs, while O’Brien uses monologues and much more descriptive writing and imagery to show us what war really is.
In their respective point of views, Hemingway employs first person narration in his work, where the narrator is limited to Krebs’ perspective, while O’Brien uses third person narration in his work, where the narrator seems to be omniscient in his revelations.
The settings of the stories are dissimilar as “A Soldier’s Home” is set after the war, in a typical suburban environment in Oklahoma, where the protagonist grew up, while “How to Tell a True War Story” is set primarily in war-stricken areas in Vietnam with a few other instances set nowhere in particular, as thoughts are racing through the narrator’s mind.
The plots of both works differ greatly, as in “A Soldier’s Home” Hemingway describes a young man coming home from the war only to find that he no longer can live
his old life as he used to, where in “How to Tell a True War Story”, O’Brien explores the art of storytelling as it relates to war stories, regaling in stories he knows well, and what they mean to him and those who hear them.
In Hemingway’s work, he utilizes a defined protagonist: Krebs, a man coming home from World War I to find that he feels imprisoned by his family home and values, previously a part of himself, where the antagonist is war personified, and the intense feelings it has spurred within him, creating this great conflict between his previous life and his new identity, or lack thereof. In O’Brien’s work, the protagonist is the war story, and the antagonist are the lies and complications that people who don’t tell true war stories use to embellish the truth, thereby getting further and further from it.
In “A Soldier’s Home” the crisis and climax occur when Krebs makes his mother cry by stating that he does not love her or anybody else. A plethora of complications lead up to that moment, with Krebs growing more and more dissatisfied with his lifestyle and what his parents want for him. The more time he spends at home, the more he feels trapped and tension builds up within him. In “How to Tell a True War Story”, there is neither a crisis nor a climax, with the narrator ranting and rambling on about war and its complications, virtues, vices, and roles in our society.
The tone in Hemingway’s work differs from O’Brien’s work in that in “A Soldier’s Home”, Hemingway simply puts forward Krebs’ feelings as he tries to go back to his former life, and we are left to try to understand what he’s going through, whereas in O’Brien’s work he says straight up that war is everything at once. “War is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man. War makes you dead.” (O’Brien 623)
In terms of style, Hemingway depends more on dialogue and inner thought processes as it relates to Krebs, while O’Brien uses monologues and much more descriptive writing and imagery to show us what war really is.
In their respective point of views, Hemingway employs first person narration in his work, where the narrator is limited to Krebs’ perspective, while O’Brien uses third person narration in his work, where the narrator seems to be omniscient in his revelations.