A Soldier's Home Analysis

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The more a soldier seeks solace in the trenches, the more the earth of his mind becomes riddled with trenches and scarred from fallen shells. When a soldier returns home, he leaves the battlefield, but the battlefield has scarred his mind, and his head remains foggy with gas. Erich Maria Remarque, Ernest Hemingway, and Wilfred Owen documented the harsh reality faced by a soldier. These poets and authors words describe how loss is not just physical for a soldier. Each work describes how through war, a soldier loses his connection to a higher power. “All Quiet in the Western Front”, “The Next War”, “Anthem for Doomed Youth” and “A Soldier’s Home” show a soldier’s loss of a traditional faith in God through the description of how war becomes a …show more content…
The soldier’s response to the prayers show their detachment from God. After being injured, Paul is relieved from the front and sent to a Catholic hospital. The nuns pray in the corridors for the soldiers every morning at seven o clock. The prayers pull Paul and the other men in the hospital from their sleep. Paul comments, saying that the prayers are “Such an absurdity!...just when a man dropped off to sleep.”. (Remarque 251). The sisters continue.. Pray even when Paul commands them to stop. Paul is furious and wants peace and quiet, so he says, “I’m going to count up to three. If it doesn’t stop before then I’ll let something fly...I count up to five. Then I take hold of a bottle, aim, and heave it through the door into the corridor. It smashes into a thousand pieces” (Remarque 251-252). The shattering of the bottle is symbolic of the way the war broke the faith of a soldier. Paul’s action of throwing the bottle towards the nuns symbolizes his choice to abandon religion and prayer. Krebs from “A Soldier’s Home” has a similar reaction to an introduction to prayer. After breakfast, Kreb’s mother asks, “““Would you kneel and pray with me, Harold?””. The two kneel side by side. When Kreb’s mother tells Krebs that it is his turn to pray, Krebs says, ““I can’t”. Krebs cannot pray because the war has severed his link to his faith. Both soldiers encounter women eager to pray with and for them. Krebs and Paul hold no respect for prayer which reflects how then hold neither respect nor faith in

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