Hemingway Soldier's Home Analysis
"Soldier 's Home" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway written in 1925 as a part of his book of short stories, In Our Time (Meyer 152). The story talks about Corporal Harold Krebs, who, like Hemingway, volunteers for instead of being drafted into World War I. He volunteers for the Marines in 1917. A recruiting booklet for the Marines from that time lets us know what Harold Krebs might have read before volunteering. (History and Lore). The cover of the booklet is shown here. The story, "Soldier 's Home" provides clues about his military career without talking about the war itself. It is difficult to get to know about the real character of Krebs without knowing more about World War I than the story tells us. Once some of the blanks in the story
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He goes to dances, he walks around, he loves to play pool for hours, he practices his clarinet, he sleeps and he eats, and not much else. He does not date, because he doesn 't want to court or get into conflict from having to lie to girls (154). He doesn 't drive. He has never been allowed to drive the family car He watches women, called "girls" by Hemingway, but he never takes them out on a date. He finds the local girls good looking, more attractive than girls in France or Germany, but not the same as when you take them out since with French and German girls "you did not need to talk. It was simple and you were friends." He feels that girls might complicate his life, just when he is about to return to normal. He is avoiding any kind of strong emotions and/or conflicts. (154). The picture he has of another colonel with their dates isn 't interesting to the people in town. "Krebs and the corporal look too big for their uniforms. The German girls are not beautiful. The Rhine does not show in the picture" (153).
The townspeople do not care about Krebs or reality very much: they want to be sensationalized. When he talks about the war, he learns they won 't listen unless he lies a little. "His town had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities. Krebs found that to be listened to at all he had to lie, and after he had done this …show more content…
Hemingway leaves his father out. His father is the kind of person who before the war never let Krebs use the family car. His father was noncommittal" (153). That means that he commits to any opinions for instance he 's absent rather that present. He doesn 't tell Krebs directly about coming to his office. His father sends the message through his wife about offering Krebs to drive the car at night while it remains parked outside his office. During car offering, Krebs said, "I 'll bet you made him" (155). His younger sisters, especially his favorite sister Helen, love him. Helen thinks that she wants to marry him by saying, "Will you love me always" (156)? Then he gets asked by his sister to watch him play ball and then he says, "Maybe" (156). She then says, "If you loved me, you 'd want to come over and watch me play indoor" (156). Krebs is not stupid, when his mother tells him about the possibility he could use the car. It has to be pretty insulting for a corporal who has returned from the war and being able to use the car even before. The parental agenda for Krebs is to get a wife and get a job. His mother often comes when he is in bed and "asks him to tell her about the war, but her attention always wandered" (153). His mother said to
He goes to dances, he walks around, he loves to play pool for hours, he practices his clarinet, he sleeps and he eats, and not much else. He does not date, because he doesn 't want to court or get into conflict from having to lie to girls (154). He doesn 't drive. He has never been allowed to drive the family car He watches women, called "girls" by Hemingway, but he never takes them out on a date. He finds the local girls good looking, more attractive than girls in France or Germany, but not the same as when you take them out since with French and German girls "you did not need to talk. It was simple and you were friends." He feels that girls might complicate his life, just when he is about to return to normal. He is avoiding any kind of strong emotions and/or conflicts. (154). The picture he has of another colonel with their dates isn 't interesting to the people in town. "Krebs and the corporal look too big for their uniforms. The German girls are not beautiful. The Rhine does not show in the picture" (153).
The townspeople do not care about Krebs or reality very much: they want to be sensationalized. When he talks about the war, he learns they won 't listen unless he lies a little. "His town had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities. Krebs found that to be listened to at all he had to lie, and after he had done this …show more content…
Hemingway leaves his father out. His father is the kind of person who before the war never let Krebs use the family car. His father was noncommittal" (153). That means that he commits to any opinions for instance he 's absent rather that present. He doesn 't tell Krebs directly about coming to his office. His father sends the message through his wife about offering Krebs to drive the car at night while it remains parked outside his office. During car offering, Krebs said, "I 'll bet you made him" (155). His younger sisters, especially his favorite sister Helen, love him. Helen thinks that she wants to marry him by saying, "Will you love me always" (156)? Then he gets asked by his sister to watch him play ball and then he says, "Maybe" (156). She then says, "If you loved me, you 'd want to come over and watch me play indoor" (156). Krebs is not stupid, when his mother tells him about the possibility he could use the car. It has to be pretty insulting for a corporal who has returned from the war and being able to use the car even before. The parental agenda for Krebs is to get a wife and get a job. His mother often comes when he is in bed and "asks him to tell her about the war, but her attention always wandered" (153). His mother said to