Hemingway once said, “I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?” Throughout his life, Hemingway battled with various mental illnesses, such as depression and alcoholism. Suicide has also been a tragic recurring event in his life. He reflects his own personal struggles in his short stories,“A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” and “Indian Camp.” He also discusses PTSD through the character of Krebs in “Soldier’s Home.”
In “Indian Camp,” readers see Nick Adams as a young boy. He is traveling to an Indian camp with his father so he can operate on a pregnant woman. Imagery is used to show what the young boy is watching. Hemingway writes, “His throat had been cut from ear to ear. The blood had flowed down into a …show more content…
Although PTSD hadn’t been yet labeled, Hemingway alludes to the illness. “Krebs acquired the nausea in regard to experience that is the result of untruth or exaggeration [...] he had been badly, sickeningly frightened all the time” (Hemingway 112). The war seems to have broken Krebs, as he feels scared all the time, even now that he is back in his hometown with his family. Another example of where Krebs shows signs of PTSD is when he is talking with his mother. "I don't love anybody,’ Krebs said. It wasn't any good. He couldn't tell her, he couldn't make her see it. It was silly to have said it. He had only hurt her” (Hemingway 116). Krebs is so detached from reality that he hurts his mother without even trying or wanting to. “In the wake of World War I, some veterans returned wounded, but not with obvious physical injuries. Instead, their symptoms were [...] amnesia, or some kind of paralysis or inability to communicate with no clear physical cause. [...] Soldiers were archetypically heroic and strong. When they came home unable to speak, walk or remember, with no physical reason for those shortcomings, the only possible explanation was personal weakness” (McDonald). Krebs exhibits most of these symptoms. He obviously does not mean to miscommunicate with his mother, and he shows that he is clearly broken after returning from war. Despite not suffering from PTSD, Hemingway was still a product of the horrors of war. In a letter home to his family, he wrote, "Then there was a flash, as when a blast-furnace door is swung open, and a roar that started white and went red” (Hemingway). He wrote this after he was shot by an Austrian soldier while operating an American Red Cross ambulance. Hemingway only seemed to suffer physical injuries while in war, but he writes greatly of war-related stories. His
In “Indian Camp,” readers see Nick Adams as a young boy. He is traveling to an Indian camp with his father so he can operate on a pregnant woman. Imagery is used to show what the young boy is watching. Hemingway writes, “His throat had been cut from ear to ear. The blood had flowed down into a …show more content…
Although PTSD hadn’t been yet labeled, Hemingway alludes to the illness. “Krebs acquired the nausea in regard to experience that is the result of untruth or exaggeration [...] he had been badly, sickeningly frightened all the time” (Hemingway 112). The war seems to have broken Krebs, as he feels scared all the time, even now that he is back in his hometown with his family. Another example of where Krebs shows signs of PTSD is when he is talking with his mother. "I don't love anybody,’ Krebs said. It wasn't any good. He couldn't tell her, he couldn't make her see it. It was silly to have said it. He had only hurt her” (Hemingway 116). Krebs is so detached from reality that he hurts his mother without even trying or wanting to. “In the wake of World War I, some veterans returned wounded, but not with obvious physical injuries. Instead, their symptoms were [...] amnesia, or some kind of paralysis or inability to communicate with no clear physical cause. [...] Soldiers were archetypically heroic and strong. When they came home unable to speak, walk or remember, with no physical reason for those shortcomings, the only possible explanation was personal weakness” (McDonald). Krebs exhibits most of these symptoms. He obviously does not mean to miscommunicate with his mother, and he shows that he is clearly broken after returning from war. Despite not suffering from PTSD, Hemingway was still a product of the horrors of war. In a letter home to his family, he wrote, "Then there was a flash, as when a blast-furnace door is swung open, and a roar that started white and went red” (Hemingway). He wrote this after he was shot by an Austrian soldier while operating an American Red Cross ambulance. Hemingway only seemed to suffer physical injuries while in war, but he writes greatly of war-related stories. His