After experiencing the violence of war, it is difficult for a soldier to readjust back into society causing alienation and a strain to return home both physically and emotionally. In Hemingway’s short story, “Soldier’s Home” the main character Harold Krebs lies, is incapable of love and he struggles to readapt to his family and community. Krebs is a different person than before the war and eventually accepts the idea that he can never really go home. Hemingway illustrates the contrast of Krebs’ two lives, “There is a picture which shows him among his fraternity brothers, all of them wearing exactly the same height and style collar…. There is a picture which shows him on the Rhine with two German girls and another corporal. Krebs
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The exaggerated account of his role is the true reason he feels nauseous when he lies about posing as a good fighting marine. The different poses associated with the opening pictures visually present Krebs as being comfortable with his fraternity brothers but out-of-place in his to tight military uniform (Kobler, 380). Oddly the readers are told that the Rhine is not even shown in the military picture. Hemingway’s own choice of words implies that Krebs military experience is exaggerated. Hemingway writes, “At first Krebs, who had been at Belleau Wood, Soissons, the Champagne, St. Mihiel, and in the Argonne, did not want to talk about the war at all” (187). Kobler points out, that Hemingway uses the word “at” those five engagements, that he was not “in” them, perhaps in much the same way Hemingway himself was only “at” the battles in Italy where he was accidentally wounded” (381). Many readers believe Krebs was a fighting marine based on this passage, “All of the times that had been able to make him feel cool and clear inside himself when he thought of them; the times so long back when he had done the one thing, the only thing for a man to do, easily and naturally, when he might have done something else, now lost their cool, valuable quality and then were lost themselves” (Hemingway, 187). Krebs is pictured fighting bravely at five battles when maybe the natural thing to do would be to …show more content…
However, if Krebs can tell the truth why does the encounter end in his loss and Hemingway uses the word pose. Cohen believes, “If pose means a false appearance, then Krebs is simply falsifying his experience once again by pretending he was badly frightened in combat, the common denominator, when in fact he had actually performed easily and naturally” (162). Krebs seems to be trapped in different webs of lies. Cohen explains, “The town is built on lies, on game-playing rituals: the courtship game, the success game, the religion lie, the love lie, the patriotism and heroes lies. None of this is new, but a changed Krebs sees it with new eyes “(163). Krebs is struggling to assimilate because what he thought was home doesn’t really exist anymore. Regardless of his role in the war, the experience has caused him to see things as a man and not a boy anymore. The rituals and the believes he accepted as a boy are now challenging for him to blindly
The exaggerated account of his role is the true reason he feels nauseous when he lies about posing as a good fighting marine. The different poses associated with the opening pictures visually present Krebs as being comfortable with his fraternity brothers but out-of-place in his to tight military uniform (Kobler, 380). Oddly the readers are told that the Rhine is not even shown in the military picture. Hemingway’s own choice of words implies that Krebs military experience is exaggerated. Hemingway writes, “At first Krebs, who had been at Belleau Wood, Soissons, the Champagne, St. Mihiel, and in the Argonne, did not want to talk about the war at all” (187). Kobler points out, that Hemingway uses the word “at” those five engagements, that he was not “in” them, perhaps in much the same way Hemingway himself was only “at” the battles in Italy where he was accidentally wounded” (381). Many readers believe Krebs was a fighting marine based on this passage, “All of the times that had been able to make him feel cool and clear inside himself when he thought of them; the times so long back when he had done the one thing, the only thing for a man to do, easily and naturally, when he might have done something else, now lost their cool, valuable quality and then were lost themselves” (Hemingway, 187). Krebs is pictured fighting bravely at five battles when maybe the natural thing to do would be to …show more content…
However, if Krebs can tell the truth why does the encounter end in his loss and Hemingway uses the word pose. Cohen believes, “If pose means a false appearance, then Krebs is simply falsifying his experience once again by pretending he was badly frightened in combat, the common denominator, when in fact he had actually performed easily and naturally” (162). Krebs seems to be trapped in different webs of lies. Cohen explains, “The town is built on lies, on game-playing rituals: the courtship game, the success game, the religion lie, the love lie, the patriotism and heroes lies. None of this is new, but a changed Krebs sees it with new eyes “(163). Krebs is struggling to assimilate because what he thought was home doesn’t really exist anymore. Regardless of his role in the war, the experience has caused him to see things as a man and not a boy anymore. The rituals and the believes he accepted as a boy are now challenging for him to blindly