Journal Entry For Soldier's Home
Journal Entry #1, “Soldier’s Home”, By Ernest Hemingway, p. 187, word count
SUMMARY
The short story “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway talk about Krebs’s internal conflict. He is a soldier from Oklahoma who experienced the monstrosities of The Great War. He enlisted in the Marines in 1917 and did not come back home until the summer of 1919. When he came back, though, he was not himself anymore. He does not want to talk to anyone after telling lies to the people and his friends about what happened to him in the war because “His town had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities.” (187). He just reads his book and sits on the porch and watch girls walk down the street. One morning his mother came into his bedroom to
tell him that she talked to his father about the car and he allows him to take it in the evenings. Krebs mother after serving him his breakfast asked him “Have you decided what you are going to do yet Harold?” he answered “no” (190). His mother went on explaining that she worries that he lost his ambition and aim in life, and then she asks him “Don’t you love your mother, dear boy?” he answered “no” (191). Here the conflict reaches its climax, his mother starts crying after being wounded by his answer. He then starts comforting her by telling her that he loves her and asking her to believe him, eventually she believes him. The conflict is somewhat resolved when “He would go to Kansas City and get a job and she would feel all right about it.” (192). But I think he still feels like an outcast.
RESPONSE
I never been in an environment such as a battlefield or “war”, but I think I can relate to Krebs in a way. As an international student I also experience things that changes my personality greatly, not as intense as a war zone though. When I went back home for the first time my friends and family told me that I changed a lot. I did not seem to believe them at first but then they started pointing them out. Thankfully, they were good changes. I felt a little sorry at Krebs and how the war experience changed him to the worse.
Answer to study Question 10 p.192: Explain how Krebs’s war experiences are present throughout the story even though we got no details about them.
Krebs’s war experiences are, in fact, present throughout the story. When he watches the American girls and wants to approach and speak with them but does not, because it was a very simple friendship with the French and German girls with whom he did not speak their language and he compares the relation with the American girls by saying that “But here at home it was all too complicated.” (189). Another experience is that he feels more comfortable telling his stories to other fellow soldiers more than his own family. This shows that while he was at war he grew apart from his family.
SUMMARY
The short story “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway talk about Krebs’s internal conflict. He is a soldier from Oklahoma who experienced the monstrosities of The Great War. He enlisted in the Marines in 1917 and did not come back home until the summer of 1919. When he came back, though, he was not himself anymore. He does not want to talk to anyone after telling lies to the people and his friends about what happened to him in the war because “His town had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities.” (187). He just reads his book and sits on the porch and watch girls walk down the street. One morning his mother came into his bedroom to
tell him that she talked to his father about the car and he allows him to take it in the evenings. Krebs mother after serving him his breakfast asked him “Have you decided what you are going to do yet Harold?” he answered “no” (190). His mother went on explaining that she worries that he lost his ambition and aim in life, and then she asks him “Don’t you love your mother, dear boy?” he answered “no” (191). Here the conflict reaches its climax, his mother starts crying after being wounded by his answer. He then starts comforting her by telling her that he loves her and asking her to believe him, eventually she believes him. The conflict is somewhat resolved when “He would go to Kansas City and get a job and she would feel all right about it.” (192). But I think he still feels like an outcast.
RESPONSE
I never been in an environment such as a battlefield or “war”, but I think I can relate to Krebs in a way. As an international student I also experience things that changes my personality greatly, not as intense as a war zone though. When I went back home for the first time my friends and family told me that I changed a lot. I did not seem to believe them at first but then they started pointing them out. Thankfully, they were good changes. I felt a little sorry at Krebs and how the war experience changed him to the worse.
Answer to study Question 10 p.192: Explain how Krebs’s war experiences are present throughout the story even though we got no details about them.
Krebs’s war experiences are, in fact, present throughout the story. When he watches the American girls and wants to approach and speak with them but does not, because it was a very simple friendship with the French and German girls with whom he did not speak their language and he compares the relation with the American girls by saying that “But here at home it was all too complicated.” (189). Another experience is that he feels more comfortable telling his stories to other fellow soldiers more than his own family. This shows that while he was at war he grew apart from his family.