Internal Conflict In Soldier's Home

Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” is a tremendous story about a young soldier’s battle to find himself after returning from the war. In this story, Hemingway’s character Krebs leaves for the war as a young upscale college student and returns a couple of years later out of touch with society and lost within himself. The main conflict in the story is the struggle in which Krebs faces as he tries to rediscover where he belongs not only in the world, but also inside himself. Krebs has a major conflict in “Soldier’s Home. When he returns home, his friends, family, and community are expecting the same young gentleman who left for war a few years earlier. However, Krebs’ has been in many battles, which distorts his view of life and discombobulates his psychological state. This causes a conflict within Krebs. He struggles to understand why people do not want to listen to him and his problems. Even in his family, his mother’s “attention always wandered, and his father was noncommittal.”
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