a lifestyle decision.
Setting was essential in “Soldier’s Home,” due to the time, place and social environment.
Kreb’s fought during WWI. He fought in many famous battles that many men died in. When Krebs came home form the war, he didn’t put much effort into anything. His parents continued to behave as they had before he went to war. They were very restrictive on his privileges. They were still very conservative inhabits of a Mid-Western small town. His dad wouldn’t let him use the family car, and his mother kept pushing him to get a job. While he was in Europe he had a very active and free social life. He was seen by the Europeans as a hero. Girls would come to him and he wouldn’t have to put much effort into his social life. He took a picture with a General and girls in France. When Kreb’s came home, he didn’t have a social life because he wanted to behave as he had in Europe. He didn’t want to put in effort to have a girlfriend or friends for that matter. Krebs would sit on his porch and people watch all day long. He lived an effortless life because he was not willing to adjust to his former conservative values typical of mid-western small town. Without the setting of the story, the reader wouldn’t understand why Krebs acted the way he did when he returned home from the
war.
In the story “A Rose for Emily,” setting was essential due to the time place and social context of the story. Emily lived in the old South after the Civil War. Her father was a well known as were his ancestors, in the little town from the war. He was very close with the mayor of the town. Emily was regarded as a “fallen monument.” Emily couldn’t let go of her past every easily. Her father didn’t think that any man was good enough for Emily. He had her locked (not literally) up in the house all the time. He was seen to control her as he would control a horse. When her father died, she wouldn’t let them dispose of his body. It took her days to finally let go. Emily killed her significant other Homer Barron. No one knew that this happened, and she got away with it. She got away with murder due to the role she played in the small town No one questioned her because she represented tradition. She was looked up to in her town and she represented the town. Setting was important because of the time it took place and the town that she lived in.
In the story “Eveline,” setting was essential to the story due to the place where it took place. She lived in Ireland and followed the culture. Eveline met a man named Frank, and he wanted to take her away and marry her. She felt uncomfortable leaving what she knew and felt comfortable with. Eveline thought that people from her country would look at her differently if she ran away with a man and got married. The setting of the story helped Eveline make her decision to choose a lifestyle that she wanted. She didn’t want to change and live somewhere else. She wanted to follow the old traditions of the Irish. The Irish culture encouraged her to make her decision of whether to go with Frank or stay in her country where she felt security. Eveline stayed in Ireland and didn’t go with Frank.
The setting of literature can sometimes be very crucial to the story. In the three stories, a reader would not know why things happened if the setting wasn’t there. Kreb’s acted the way that he did because of the setting. In “A Rose for Emily,” she got away with crime due to the time and place of where she lived. Eveline made a important life decision due to the setting of the story. The time, place and social context of these stories is essential to all of these stories.
Biblography:
"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner
“Eveline,” by James Joyce