Though Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” (1925) and Tim O’Brien’s “How to Tell A True War Story” (1987) were written about sixty two years apart and portray different experiences after the war settling back into everyday American society, both works have similar situations, a setting of war, and experiences. In “Soldier’s Home”, Harold Krebs, a nineteen year old soldier, fought in the Belleau Wood, Soissons, the Champagne, St. Mihiel, and in the Argonne battles of World War I, while the soldier in “How to Tell a True War Story” is deployed during the Vietnam War. Both of the stories have protagonists who are both returning veterans. “Soldier’s Home” and “How to Tell a True War Story” have soldiers who have a tough…
Willmott, H. P. _The American Heritage History of World War 1_. Vol. Vol. 1. New York, New York: American Heritage Co., 1964. Print.…
In the short story, “Soldier’s home,” the protagonist deals with difficult conflicts within himself and with others. Ernest Hemmingway shows us what it is like for the soldier, Harold Krebs, who returned home, to Kansas, from World War I in 1917, three years after the end of the war. He did not get celebrated like all the other soldiers that returned home causing some major conflict in the story.…
Decades before the recognition of PTSD as a legitimate disorder, Hemingway illustrates Kreb’s inability to reestablish himself into society. Kreb has returned years after most others to find no one interested in his war stories. When he realizes that even his exaggerated lies interest no one, Krebs slowly disconnects himself. Since his return, Krebs does the same routine every day: he sleeps late, reads history books on the war, and walks around town. Krebs notes, “nothing was changed in the town except that the young girls had grown up.” The only thing to have dramatically changed is Krebs himself, a result of his experiences in the war. Though he is at home, it does not feel like home to him. Unable to return to his earlier life, Krebs chooses isolation instead. However, unlike Bartleby, Harold Krebs has not given up on life. He simply wants his life to go smoothly and without any conflicts. For example, when he sees women walking around the town, he likes the look of them, but he does not want to have to talk to them or get involved in the complexities of courtship. Worried for their son, Kreb’s parents express their concerns that he needs to find a job. They even offer him the car to take out one night. However, Krebs cannot find the incentive to start a new life on his own. When Krebs has an emotional confrontation with his mother over…
War is a terrible thing. It destroys lives and can forever change the landscape of the mind and soul. Harold Krebs from Ernest Hemingway’s story “Soldier’s Home” and Norman Bowker from Tim O’Brian’s story “Speaking of Courage” both show that coming home from a military lifestyle and reintegrating themselves into a civilian lifestyle can be both difficult and emotionally draining to one’s self esteem and psyche.…
The war has really affected his social skills. Before the war Krebs was a normal kid. In a college fraternity and had a lot of friends. Being in the war really changed his personality. Krebs is probably suffering from a form of Post traumatic stress syndrome. In his eyes, no one will ever understand what hell he went through, so why bother talking to anyone about it. He came home later than all the other soldiers, and he didn't get the warm welcome home like he was expecting. So having this happen to him pushed him further away from what he is used to. Which is likely to have increased his post stress, where in turn increased his thought that no one will understand or care, so why…
Ralph Waldo Emerson argues that “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” In Hemingway’s “Soldiers Home,” we learn of a struggle between Krebs and his small, hometown people. The lies that the townspeople want to hear and the truth that Krebs is attempting to pursue, keep him from conforming to society. Krebs’s lie about the war is his first attempt to fit into the norm, but soon after lying, he begins to believe the lies himself and is sicken by them (Hemingway 69). The lying begins to take a toll on Krebs. Krebs’s inability to fit in and being an outcast creates conflict. The conflict begins to show how he does not belong to society due to his inability to lie and the demands of his townspeople. In “Soldiers Home” the main character Krebs’ inability to lie and conform to society, leads him to become an outcast in his hometown and remain a…
Ernest Hemingway’s Soldiers Home discusses a young man who lives his life in solitude after returning home from the war. Harold Krebs, a World War I veteran, attended school at a Methodist college in Kansas but enlisted in the Marines in 1917. Krebs now lives at home with his father, mother and two sisters where he spends his days reading books or playing pool. Krebs is careful to keep his life simple due to the fact that he isn’t fond of change. Is Harold Krebs apprehensive to making a change in his daily lifestyle?…
Kerbs returned home from war without the intent to write memoirs about his experience, tell his story, or teach people. When Kerbs returned home he refused to speak about the war, which is understandable, however when he did chose to talk about it, it was long over. Kerbs then began to lie about his experience, however they too became boring, as Hemmingway writes, “Even his lies were not…
Many authors have written war stories and about the effects of war on a person. Two of these writers are Tim O'Brian and Ernest Hemingway. O'Brian wrote "How to Tell a True War Story"; and Hemingway wrote a short story called "Soldier's Home". Both of these stories illustrate to the reader just what war can do to an average person and what, during war, made the person change. The stories are alike in many respects due to the fact that both authors served time in the army; O'Brian in the Vietnam War and Hemingway in WWI. However, the stories do have differences due to the slightly different themes and also the different writing techniques of the authors.…
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a complex anxiety disorder that may develop when individuals experience or witness an event perceived as a threat or experience fear, terror, or helplessness (McNulty). Many men and women who return from a war suffer from this including characters from Ernest Hemingway's stories like Harold Krebs from "Soldier's Home." The story revolves around the character named Harold Krebs who has just returned from war as a distant and unapproachable man with PTSD (Hemingway). When Ernest Hemingway returned from World War I, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Lohano and El-mallakh state that PTSD has a certain relationship with bipolar disorder because both mania and depression may be perceived as traumatic or because events in the course of the illness may increase the risk of severe traumatic events.…
According to the text, Krebs fought in some of the bloodiest battles when he was at war. The psychological state he is in when he returns home to Oklahoma is a direct result from the battles he fought overseas. Because of his horrific experience, Krebs is only willing to speak the truth about the combat in which he was a part of. When the majority of the soldiers return home, Krebs realizes they tend to lie about their encounters; this nauseates him. Due to the knowledge of his experience, one can greatly appreciate his unwillingness to stretch the truth about the conflicts in which he was involved. Learning of Krebs’ war experience gives proof of an important cause of this inner struggle, which he battles throughout the…
In "Soldier's Home" through the historical setting of World War I, , Hemingway describes Harold Krebs having trouble adjusting to society, lying to himself, and observing no longer interacts with people even his family; however, Krebs must lie to stay in the town and to survive from between reality and truth. As a result, he has to choose how to re-adapt himself not to fall behind the line of…
Literature is an autonomous artwork. It can be interpreted from its own part. The relation of parts of a literature work creates meaning. The meaning obtained from relation of parts in literary work is unreliable. A Farewell to Arms is a novel which showed that unreliability. That novel reveals ambiguous feeling between love and lust in Henry. This essay attempts to reveal the unreliability of meaning through the deconstructive analysis.…
There are many literary elements an author creates in pieces of writing. An important technique that every writing has is theme. There are also many literary techniques used to develop the theme, such as foreshadowing, diction, and imagery. In A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway demonstrates the unforeseeable reality of war through similes, horrific imagery, and the first person perspective to develop the theme fear is found among all soldiers.…