Diction Structure And Change In Soldier's Home By Ernest Hemingway

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In the story “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway the protagonist, a marine called “Krebs” returns to his hometown years after the war is over. To his surprise the town seemed the same as the day he left, the only thing changed was Krebs himself. By addressing Krebs’s disconnect to his hometown, using careful diction structure and expressing loss in faith the author highlights the physiological impact war can have on an individual, how past events can twist one’s reality, ultimately changing an individual from the inside out. Upon his late arrival, Krebs realizes that the welcoming hands of home-comers have long been closed and the war hysteria has died down. Initially, he seeks attention, telling his war stories to the townspeople. Sadly, …show more content…

At one point the author summarizes Kreb’s daily routine in a simple manner, highlighting only a few mundane things he did during the day. The author uses sentences such as, “In the evening he practiced on his clarinet, strolled down town, read, and went to bed”, to drive the notion of complexity out of his life, this simplification becomes a recurring message throughout the story. In his struggle to adapt to the new rhythm of life Kreb’s attempts to distance himself from any trouble, or drama. His view of the town girls highlights his dislike of complexity and conformity. The author justifies Kreb’s simplistic view on girls with his regard to the “complicated world of already defined alliances” they live in. Furthermore, the author uses repetition of words such as “He liked” and “He did not want” to reveal Krebs simple thought structure. Words such as these would more likely appear in a writing by a 2nd grader as children have a harder time expressing deeper emotion, beyond the concrete stems of “like” and “dislike”. Likewise, Kreb’s describes his emotions in similar almost “childish” ways. This brings forth the war which depleted him of most humanistic emotion, leaving him with nothing but elementary forms of

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