Soldier's Home by Ernest Hemingway

Question:

Think about the character of Krebs in "Soldier's Home." What kind of person was he before the war? After? What do you know about him that can explain his wanting "to live without consequences"? Put what you know about him together with the characteristics you can identify in Hemingway's style, and write a paragraph that shows how style and tone fit the character.

Response:

In Hemingway's story, “Soldier's Home,” the protagonist Krebs, has a dramatic transformation from frat boy to war veteran. The author uses a dull and isolated attitude to show Krebs’ emotional state. What really defines Krebs and also justifies the author’s use of a negative tone is the title of the story. Where really is the soldier’s, Krebs, home? Before the war, his house, family, college friends, and society’s way of life defined home from him. However, when he returns, although everything physically is the same and he is literally home, the feeling of it isn’t present. This is one of the main causes from Krebs’ frustration, lying, and disconnection. Home is where the heart lies, it is an intimate symbol of being comfortable, and a universal concept all readers can relate to. The lack of home produces the dull, isolated tone the reader feels.

Krebs’ internal transformation that causes this disconnection of home is from an emotional drainage resulted in the war. This also produces Krebs’ desire to “live without consequences.” In other words, he can’t handle anymore emotional consequences. Any little stress or emotional involvement scares him because he knows he can’t deal with it. He is even resistant to return home because of his lack of wanting to feel again, especially in rekindling old relationships. It is hard for him to re-love his mom, dad and even God. The author subtly exposes the ignorance in the government’s obligation of young boy’s enlistment to war in that time period. War is a forced transition from boy to man, and could of been the cause of Krebs’ emotional exhaustion and drastic social disconnection.

The author’s tone of disconnection is exposed through many details. First off, the narrator uses his last name “Krebs” rather than first name to show a lack of intimacy and emotional connection, parallel with the character, his relationships and his transformed point of view. Also there is short sentence structure to correlate with Krebs’ thought processes. He doesn’t spend much time in each thought because there is no emotional connection. Although Krebs does frequently bring up the same topics, such as finding a girl for him, this is only a reflection of how society reminds him of what his priorities should be, and it is another comparison of how Krebs is isolated from everybody. He is still in the process of “figuring out” what is happening. Is he home? Does he want to listen to society? It is clear towards the end of the story that he finally finds out what is his present. After a fight with his mom, he leaves home and doesn’t see himself coming back. He wants to escape a world of emotions, and be his new self.