Soldiers Home :: essays papers

Soldiers HomeCritical Analysis of Soldiers Home Before, During, and After the war (with bibliography)Many of the titles of Ernest Hemingways stories are ironic, and can beread on a number of levels Soldiers Home is no exception. Our firstimpression, having read the title only, is that this story go off beabout a old soldier living out the remainder of his life in aninstitution where veterans go to die. We soon find out that the storyhas nothing to do with the elderly, or institutions rather, it tellsthe story of a immature man, Harold Krebs, only recently returned from domain War I, who has moved back into his parents house eon hefigures out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. And yet ourfirst impression lingers, and with good reason despite the fact thathis parents comfortable, middle-class lifestyle utilise to feel like hometo Harold Krebs, it no longer does. Harold is not home he has no homeat all. This is actually not an uncommon scenario among young people(such as college students) returning into the womb of their childhoodagain. But with Harold, the situation is more dramatic because he hasnot only lived on his own, but has dealt with -- and been traumatizedby -- life-and-death situations his parents could not possiblyunderstand. Hemingway does not divulge why Krebs was the last personin his home town to return home from the war agree to the KansasCity Star, Hemingway himself left Kansas City in the spring of 1918and did not return for 10 years, becoming the first of 132 formerStar employees to be wounded in World War I, according to a Stararticle at the sequence of his death (Kansas City Star, hem6.htm).Wherever he was in the intervening time, by the time Harold gets home,the novelty of the returning soldier has long since worn off. All theother former soldiers have found a niche for themselves in thecommunity, but Harold require a while longer to get his bearings heplays pool, practiced on his clarinet, strolled down town, read, and went to bed (Hemingway, 146). What he is doing, of course, is killingtime. The problem, of course, has to do with Harolds definition ofwho he has become. He recognizes he has changed, and this change isplayed out dramatically against the backdrop of a town where nothingelse has changed since he was in high school. His father parks his cable carin the same place its still the same car the girls walking down the