Soldiers Home Analysis

The painful stories of broken soldiers often go untold and get overshadowed by the tales of bloody glory and triumph. In the short story “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway, the tragic stories that go without mentioned gets brought to the center of attention giving way to a different outlook on war. Harold Krebs returns back state side from the war a few years after the war was over. He was not greeted with the warmest of welcomes like the ones we have become accustomed to seeing in this day in age. The story of Harold Krebs is in many ways like that of american hero Chris Kyle in the movie American Sniper. Krebs and Kyle both refuse to talk about what happened while they were away at war. A personal connection i made to the protagonist Harold Krebs is that like him I also was not allowed to drive the family car. During the war Harold became so use to germany that he almost did not want to return to the United States, I have seen that same thing happen in Stephen King’s Shawshank Redemption where the old prison librarian became institutionalized. “Soldiers Home” is a short story that accurately captures the true story of the normal everyday people who fight for their country in times of war. Returning home late after the war was over Harold Krebs soon realized”the greeting of heroes was over”(1). Many of the other men from his town had returned long before he did and were met with celebration. Harold received a welcome that was more fitting during the Vietnam war when United State citizens were not as proud of the acts of American soldiers at that time. “People seemed to think it was rather ridiculous for Krebs to be getting back so late, years after the war was over”(1). Even though Harold might have returned a few years late I still think someone who risked their life for their country still deserves to be celebrated to some extent when they come home ,no matter what heroic or not so heroic acts they performed. Harold Krebs reminds a lot of Chris Kyle, a character from the hit blockbuster movie American Sniper. Krebs …show more content…
He did not want to come home.”(3). This seemed almost seemed to me like being institutionalized, being incarcerated so long that when you can leave and go you do not want to because that is what you are comfortable with. In the the movie written Shawshank Redemption, Based on a short story by Stephen King, institutionalization happened often. One example is with Brooks Halten, an old wise librarian who had been locked up for many years. When Halten was released from the walls of prison he had no idea how to return back to society, he was so use to prison that while at his job bagging groceries he would ask for permission to go to the bathroom like he had to do in prison. It got so bad for Brooks Halten that eventually committed suicide by hanging himself. Now Harold Krebs isn’t that far off but he didn't want to come back to the states, he wasn’t use to the new way things were. He could not connected with anyone because, ..”the world they were in was not the world he was in.”(3). I think a lot of the times that is the case for soldiers, the world they come home too is never close to the way it was while they were