A Soldier's Struggle with Post-war Society in Hemingway's 'Soldier's Home'

One big consequence of war is how it can tear apart traditional values and change how people see the world. For military folks, getting back to normal life after the war feels like torture. It’s tough to see the world in a positive light when you’ve seen so much destruction. Hemingway uses his story to look back on his life after World War I. He was a driver for the Italian Army, where he got depressed and hurt. When he came home wounded, it was hard for him to balance society’s unchanged needs with his new view of the world. The war had widened his perspective, but society didn’t get it. These struggles, along with health issues, led Hemingway to take his own life in 1962. Soldiers coming home often find that their feelings and views clash with traditional life (Lynn, 1995). This tough situation is what Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “Soldier’s Home,” is all about. Harold Krebs, the main character, is a tragic hero fighting against the traditional world that regular folks in the story represent. Hemingway uses different approaches to show Krebs’ character in “Soldier’s Home.” One way is by showing Krebs’ reactions, thoughts, and actions in his environment. At the start of the story, we see repetitive phrases like, “There is a picture…”, “He did not want…”, “He liked….”, “it was simply not worth it” (Hemingway, 1925, p. 1-3). These phrases reflect Krebs’ emotional numbness, likely due to his horrific war experiences.

From Krebs’ character and experiences, it’s clear that war wasn’t the only reason for his apathy. His community also played a part. People wanted to hear exaggerated war stories, not the real ones. Hemingway writes, “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 twice he, too, had a reaction against the war and against talking about it” (Hemingway, 1925, p. 1). Krebs hated lying and withdrew from daily activities. He slept a lot, played pool, and read books without any real purpose. By doing these things, he showed his opposition to traditional societal norms. His surname also hints at his isolation. He borrowed it from a friend who married an old woman (Lynn, 1995). This highlights the conflict between Krebs’ view of society and his mother’s. It shows how incompatible Krebs felt with his environment.

Krebs’s mother, a foil character, highlights his lack of determination and objectivity. She tries to push traditional values on him, urging him to get a job and be productive. She says, “All work is honorable as he says. But you've got to make a start at something” (Hemingway, 1925, p. 6). His mother’s character shows she values a conventional lifestyle. This makes Krebs even more resistant since he sees no point in following societal norms. To her, his relaxed life is meaningless, so she tries to fit him into a place where he doesn’t belong. Krebs reacts by bluntly confessing he doesn’t love anyone, showing the gap between him and traditional society. He believes he can only survive by reluctantly giving in to societal demands, abandoning his dream of a simple, uncomplicated life.

In Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home,” Harold Krebs is a tragic character whose war experiences make it hard for him to live a normal life. He struggles to meet societal demands because he finds no meaning in productive activities. Krebs returns home a year after the war, too late to be seen as a hero. These circumstances shatter his dream of a simple life, forcing him to live by society’s rules, which don’t accept his uniqueness.