ipl-logo

Soldier's Home Analysis

595 Words3 Pages

Civilians often assume that when someone joins the army and goes to war, he constantly fights in battles and accomplishes it in a heroic and honorable way. But what they fail to understand is the horrible killing and pointless taking of human life. In Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” the character Krebs in the story reveals the differences between the reality soldiers experience in war versus the illusion civilians back home assume about the soldiers ' experiences. While Tim O’Brien’s “The Man I Killed” and Kevin Tillman’s “After Pats Birthday” explain and point out the actualities and problems of war not being what it is made out to be.
A great majority of the public believe when the soldiers leave to war they expect to be treated well and come back home as a hero. In Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” Krebs goes to war and comes home having to lie to his family about his experiences because he “found that to be listened to at all he had to lie,” and after doing that a couple of times he had a “reaction against the war and against talking about it” (Hemingway 111). The soldiers who got home before him had already told the people about their tragic experiences leaving the public not being able to handle the reality of what happened to the soldiers. With what Krebs experienced being in the war he was taught …show more content…

In Tim O’Brien’s “The Man I Killed” Tim talks about the wounds that he caused to a guy he killed in My Khe and states: “The man’s jaw was in his throat, he says, and his upper lip and teeth were missing. One eye was shut, and the other looked like a star-shaped hole” (O’Brien 64). He imagines the guy’s life and that he was that he was “not a fighter” and hoped for “the Americans would go away” (65). Tim shows his guilt towards the guy laying on the floor and thinks the guy is like him in a way. By doing this he can feel a connection to him and identify better with the nature of

Show More
Related

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Losing The War By Lee Sandlin

    995 Words  | 4 Pages

    Rhetorical Analysis of “Losing the War” by Lee Sandlin War is an incredibly ambiguous phenomenon. In today’s world it feels easy to forget anything but life in relative peace. World War II shook the globe. Now, it has has dwindled to mere ripples in between pages of history textbooks and behind the screens of blockbuster films. In Lee Sandlin’s spectacular essay, “Losing the War,” he explains that in the context of World War II, the “amnesia effect” of time has lead to a bizarre situation; “the next generation starts to wonder whether the whole thing [war] ever actually happened,” (361).

    Read More

  • If I Die In A Combat Zone By Tim O Brien

    1365 Words  | 6 Pages

    In If I Die in a Combat Zone, author Tim O’Brien argues that the Vietnam War was unjust by expressing his disapproval of the war through his own moral beliefs, sharing the descriptions of deaths in Vietnam of the innocent citizens, and by describing how much the war impacted himself and others negatively. In the beginning of the book, O’Brien openly stated his beliefs on the war. He believed it was wrongly accepted and unjust, but he battled his own opinions with society’s views anyway (18). Constantly, O’Brien discussed within his own head about the true definition of bravery and courage (147).

    Read More

  • Soldier From The War Returning By Thomas Childers Summary

    560 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Soldier from the War Returning, Thomas Childers writes that “a curious silence lingers over what for many was the last great battle of the war.” This final battle was the soldier’s return home. After World War II, veterans came back to the United States and struggled with stigmatized mental illnesses as well as financial and social issues. During the war, many soldiers struggled with mental health issues that persisted after they came home.

    Read More

  • Summary Of War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning By Chris Hedges

    907 Words  | 4 Pages

    Chris Hedges, a former war correspondent, has a memory overflowing with the horrors of many battlefields and the helplessness of those trapped within them. He applies this memory to write War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, where he tutors us in the misery of war. To accomplish this goal, Hedges uses impactful imagery, appeals to other dissidents of war and classic writers, and powerful exemplification. Throughout his book, Hedges batters the readers with painful and grotesque, often first-hand, imagery from wars around the globe. He begins the book with his experience in Sarajevo, 1995.

    Read More

  • Ambiguity In A Soldier's Home

    976 Words  | 4 Pages

    The world was changing during the first half of the 20th century. WW1, a war with 37 million casualties, started shortly after the turn of the century (1914). Soon after that, The Great Depression sprang up in 1929 and the unemployment rate skyrocketed to 25%. WW2, the bloodiest war in history, was the event that vaulted our nation out of the depression and jump started our economy by creating over 17 million jobs for Americans that at that time didn’t have one. Albeit, it also killed over 60 million people, almost 3 ½ times the amount of people that it helped.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Harold Krebs In Soldier's Home

    1743 Words  | 7 Pages

    Often, soldiers are bunched into the focus group of people or things to oppose when opposing war. However, Hemingway never blames soldiers for the horrors of war, but rather the situations that surround the actions of the soldiers. Telling the story of “Soldier’s Home” from the perspective of Krebs helps to maintain this solidarity, as in the story, Krebs doesn’t purposefully victimize anyone, remaining a well-meaning and tragic character. Krebs is shown in his well-meaning ways in the conclusion of the story, as when he gives himself up to his depression, he continues to support his family the best he can. His actions are described as being carried out to emotionally console his family as “He had felt sorry for his mother and she had made him lie.

    Read More

  • War Wounds That Time Alone Can T Heal Analysis

    556 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Jane Brody’s alarming article, “War Wounds That Time Alone Can’t Heal” Brody describes the intense and devastating pain some soldiers go through on a daily basis. These soldiers come home from a tragic time during war or, have vivid memories of unimaginable sufferings they began to experience in the battle field. As a result these soldiers suffer from, “emotional agony and self-destructive aftermath of moral injury…” (Brody). Moral injury has caused much emotional and physical pain for men and women from the war.

    Read More

  • Liam O 'Flaherty's The Sniper'

    698 Words  | 3 Pages

    The feelings of shame and sorrow soon sink in to the man following the pull of the trigger that killed this “enemy” sniper, he began to realize the idiocy of what he was thinking and the thoughts of fear left his mind. He left the roof to find curiosity would take over, he then walked shamelessly down the dimmed street to turn over the body of the enemy he had shot just moments prior. The sniper soon realized this man he had thought of as an enemy, was also known as his

    Read More

  • Spin By Tim O Brien Rhetorical Analysis

    791 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the author retells the chilling, and oftentimes gruesome, experiences of the Vietnam war. He utilizes many anecdotes and other rhetorical devices in his stories to paint the image of what war is really like to people who have never experienced it. In the short stories “Spin,” “The Man I Killed,” and “ ,” O’Brien gives reader the perfect understanding of the Vietnam by placing them directly into the war itself. In “Spin,” O’Brien expresses the general theme of war being boring and unpredictable, as well as the soldiers being young and unpredictable.

    Read More

  • A Soldiers Home Analysis

    607 Words  | 3 Pages

    A Young Soldier Is Tasked With Starting His New Life In the story “A Soldier 's home”, by Ernest Hemingway, a young man named Harold Krebs finds himself disconnected from society and unmotivated to fulfill the requirements set for American youth. Krebs struggle with continuing his religious belief becomes a problem. When Krebs was asked to pray with his mother, Krebs realizes his struggle with religious belief has become one of his challenges with returning home. Kreb is struggling to consider himself Christian.

    Read More

  • All Quiet On The Western Front Effects Of War Essay

    1064 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout the ages, wars have wreaked havoc and caused great destruction that lead to the loss of millions of lives. However, wars also have an immensely destructive effect on the individual soldier. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front written by Erich Maria Remarque, one is able to see exactly to what extent soldiers suffered during World War 1 as well as the effect that war had on them. In this essay I will explain the effect that war has on young soldiers by referring to the loss of innocence of young soldiers, the disillusionment of the soldiers and the debasement of soldiers to animalistic men. Many soldiers entered World War 1 as innocent young boys, but as they experienced the full effect of the war they consequently lost their innocence.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Man I Killed 'By E. O' Brien

    892 Words  | 4 Pages

    E This story looks into the psychological effects of killing somebody from the point of view of the killer. It shows us how we can never dismiss the death of another person as an unfortunate necessity in war. During a time of war soldiers are trained to kill for no other reason than they are the nation’s enemy. When O’Brien kills the man, he is shocked to discover that

    Read More

  • Adversity In Unbroken

    761 Words  | 4 Pages

    War and its affinities have various emotional effects on different individuals, whether facing adversity within the war or when experiencing the psychological aftermath. Some people cave under the pressure when put in a situation where there is minimal hope or optimism. Two characters that experience

    Read More

  • Thesis For The Things They Carried

    999 Words  | 4 Pages

    The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.

    Read More

  • Emotional Effects Of War On Soldiers Essay

    1881 Words  | 8 Pages

    Soldiers train rigorously, preparing for the departure of war. They sacrifice all that they have to fight for their country. As they return after the war, they are left with painful experiences and traumatizing memories, suffering from their inevitable conditions. However, the spouse, families and children back at home are suffering even more than soldiers.

    Read More

More about Soldier's Home Analysis

Open Document