ipl-logo

Themes And Characters In Soldier's Home By Ernest Hemingway

933 Words4 Pages

In the story “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway the protagonist, a marine, “Krebs” returns to his hometown years after the war is over. To his surprise the town remained static since the day he left, the only thing changed being 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 truly becomes isolated from his hometown realizing that the welcoming hands of home-comers have long been closed. Initially, he seeks attention, telling his war stories to the townspeople. Sadly, they show no interest towards Krebs as the war hysteria died down. His stories seem dull, as the town is over saturated with similar reports of the war life. Krebs resorts to desperate lies that exaggerate his experience, making up for his late arrival. This marks the weakening of Kreb’s ego as his desperate ways lead him into a deeper hole of despair, “A distaste for everything that had happened to him in the war set in because of the lies he had told.” Even his lies seem to lose their effectiveness, as …show more content…

any of the soldiers he talked to, “were not thrilled by his stories.” The lies he told set him back mentally as well as physically, as he “acquired the nausea in regard to experience that is the result of untruth or exaggeration.” Before the war that are hints of normality and unity between Krebs and his mates, “There is a picture which shows him among his fraternity brothers, all of them wearing exactly the same height and style collar.” The

Show More
Related

  • How To Tell A True War Story Analysis

    1284 Words  | 6 Pages

    Tim O’Brien never lies. While we realise at the end of the book that Kiowa, Mitchell Sanders and Rat Kiley are all fictional characters, O’Brien is actually trying to tell us that there is a lot more truth hidden in these imagined characters than we think. This suggests that the experiences he went through were so traumatic, the only way to describe it was through the projection of fictional characters. O’Brien explores the relationship between war experiences and storytelling by blurring the lines between truth and fiction. While storytelling can change and shape a reader’s opinions and perspective, it might also be the closest in helping O’Brien cope with the complexity of war experiences, where the concepts like moral and immorality are being distorted.

    Read More

  • What Is The Difference Between The Odyssey And The Best Years Of Our Life

    1247 Words  | 5 Pages

    When faced with war soldiers change, for better or for worse. Modern culture celebrates the glory of patriotic sacrifice. However, this celebration often leaves out the gritty details and trauma of violence behind war and the way it affects people. Homer’s The Odyssey and William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives clearly discuss these details. Both debate the long-awaited return of warriors that went off to fight a war and the way the experience changes the protagonists.

    Read More

  • David Mclean's Short Story 'Marine Corps Issue'

    765 Words  | 4 Pages

    David McLean’s short story “Marine Corps Issue” includes a beautifully vivid scene of Sergeant Bowen, the narrator Johnny’s father, “sitting on the edge of our elevated garden, black ashes from a distant fire falling lightly like snow around him” (620). While this scene is powerful by itself, it can be appreciated even more by understanding the symbolism and allusions embedded in it, as well as the psychological state of the father as he sits “on the edge of the garden with his head down and his eyes closed as if in prayer” (634). This is why McLean’s readers should use literary criticism: it enhances their appreciation for the story’s impact. Prior to the climax, Johnny has spent weeks researching the Vietnam War. The location in which he

    Read More

  • Psychological Effects Of War In The Wars By Timothy Findley

    799 Words  | 4 Pages

    What they do not look at: “Psychological effect of the war” War is something that has much more than physical effects. It is a burden on those involved on and off the battlefield. Being part of a war can affect you emotionally, mentally and physically. Even though soldiers are fighting for “just causes” was is an all-around negative event.

    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

  • The Ghost Soldiers Tim O Brien Character Analysis Essay

    844 Words  | 4 Pages

    This chapter “The Ghost Soldiers”, showed us how Tim O’Brien and the other soldiers were dealing with the war both physically and psychologically. It also shows us how the Tim O'Brien behaved and felt when he was shot, wounded and had a bacteria infection on his butt and how the war changed the way he thought, and viewed the other soldiers around him. This chapter also contain a lot of psychological lens. From the way Tim O’Brien felt when he was shot and separated from his unit to a new unit to when he wanted revenge on Bobby Jorgenson for almost “killing” him.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Speaking Of Courage And Soldiers Home

    991 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hemingway begins Krebs’ story in a Methodist college in Kansas when the war starts off in 1917. When the war ends Krebs chose to stay in Germany for the next six months and when he comes back he realizes that the town moved on about the war and didn’t get the welcome he thought he deserved. This leads to the theme of not being able to find an outlet for pain. He wanted people to listen to his stories so they would be able to see the pain of what he went through throughout the war and the heroic actions he accomplished while fighting

    Read More

  • Coping Mechanisms In The Things They Carried And Tim O Brien

    1435 Words  | 6 Pages

    Combat is one of those incidents, where the best and the worst of people will be shown. The effects from combat could last minutes to a lifetime and will define people for the rest of their lives. To overcome the effects, people must have coping mechanisms. In the book, The Things They Carried, a platoon of soldiers is followed in their quest to survive the Vietnam War. The soldiers developed coping mechanisms to deal with stress so they can function normally and survive the war.

    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

  • All Quiet On The Western-Western Front Thesis

    665 Words  | 3 Pages

    Erich Maria Remarque was a man who had lived through the terrors of war, serving since he was eighteen. His first-hand experience shines through the text in his famous war novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, which tells the life of young Paul Bäumer as he serves during World War 1. The book was, and still is, praised to be universal. The blatant show of brutality, and the characters’ questioning of politics and their own self often reaches into the hearts of the readers, regardless of who or where they are. Brutality and images of war are abundant in this book, giving the story a feeling of reality.

    Read More

  • Telling A True War Story Analysis

    1032 Words  | 5 Pages

    Why Is Telling A True War Story Hard Lots of stories are hard to comprehend because they’re more brutal and traumatic for listeners, even the story-teller. In three stories: “The Man I Killed”, “How To Tell A True War Story”, and “Speaking of Courage”, Tim O’Brien showed how changing certain parts of a story and making them graceful, can make them easier to comprehend. However sometimes telling the story the way it was makes it brutal and gruesome, though some listeners prefer that over gracefulness.

    Read More

  • What Are The Similarities Between Harold Krebs And The Yellow Wallpaper

    775 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jamie Hobbs Ms. Birkhead 20th Century Literature A233 29 September 2015 Comparison/Contrast of The Harold Krebs and the Narrator In the early 20th century no one had any great understanding of a psychological illness and the outcome was the suffering of many ill patients. "Soldiers Home" takes place right after the war in 1919 and shows how the war can effect a man 's perception on life immensely. "

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: All Quiet On The Western Front

    804 Words  | 4 Pages

    The war novel All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque depicts one protagonist, Paul, as he undergoes a psychological transformation. Paul plays a role as a soldier fighting in World War I. His experiences during the war are not episodes the average person would simply experience. Alternatively, his experiences allow him to develop into a more sophisticated individual. Remarque illustrates these metamorphic experiences to expose his theme of the loss of not only people’s lives but also innocence and tranquility that occurs in war.

    Read More

  • Internal Conflict In Soldier's Home

    911 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hemingway uses the story to painfully highlight the internal conflict that leaves an individual veteran like Krebs questioning his peculiar heroic status after fighting in the war. The protagonist of the short story, Krebs, is drafted by the state into the U.S. Army fighting in Rhineland having been uprooted from his home. The character traits of Krebs can be defined as rebellious, detached, and stressful. The creation of the character Krebs has been the epitome in the realization of the devastating

    Read More

  • Symbolism In Soldier's Home

    941 Words  | 4 Pages

    Krebs thought girls were “not worth the trouble.” (85) Although he may not have had the motivation to pick up the girls, he “liked looking at them.” (85) This is in no way the girls’ fault, however it shows how the war affected Krebs’ drive to do tasks that involve socialization. Perhaps if the townspeople were more open to listen to Krebs’ story then he would be more comfortable with girls. His mother is an example of how he interacts with women.

    Read More

More about Themes And Characters In Soldier's Home By Ernest Hemingway

Open Document