While reading “Soldiers Home” written by Ernest Hemmingway, I
felt that I could relate to the soldier.
There were many times in my life where I just felt so lost and confused.
For example, right now in my life I am so confused about what I want to major
in and what I want my future to look like. There are many people today who have
this sort of feeling.
Hemmingway
uses setting as the literary element to use for this story. In “Soldiers Home,” Krebs comes home from
being in the war for so long. He is having a tough time conforming back to the
society he once lived in and is having a hard time figuring out what his next
chapter is in life. Hemmingway uses the
setting to make a valuable point in this story. The setting in this story,
according to the soldier Kreb, was not what he expected. Instead of a warm
welcoming like he expected, he got the feeling like no one wanted to listen to
him. “Later he felt the need to talk but no one wanted to hear about it.” Kreb needs
to realize that he must move on from the war. Hemmingway uses this type of
setting to illustrate that one needs to move on to bigger and better things in
life after one chapter has closed. According to the mother in this story she
says to Kreb, “But you’ve got to make a start at something.”
While analyzing
the story, let’s think about why is it so hard for Kreb to move on from being a
soldier in war to a free civilian?
I really like the comparison of moving from one point in life to the next as chapters. Being in a war, Krebs has to now understand that life back home is going to be a challenge and that he is going to have to find his way. He close the chapter of his life containing the war and get on with his life. I think even looking more into the meaning of this analogy, Krebs new chapter is unwritten with his struggle to leave behind the war leaving the reader to look forward to their new chapter without any preconceived notions.
ReplyDeleteI think its hard for him to let go of the past. He has severe P.T.S.D,and no one is doing mush to deal with it. He tries to forget it and block it out all together because it's painful I would imagine. Who wants to carry those images around all day. Still, by stuffing them, he's only making it worst for when they come out later. For now, he has to try to fit in all over again, and find out where he belongs. That in itself can be a life long journey.
ReplyDeleteI think Krebs wants to move on, but its a mix of he does not know how to and he cannot ignore the memories of the war that keep coming up. He always is thinking about the war because as you said he is wanting a welcoming home from the war, wants to talk about the war, he wants to be acknowledged for he part in the war. In the Part where Krebs and his mother are talking you can tell that he is not terriblely interested and just in a rutt of living in the war, and I think that his mother is trying to help him move on from the war by saying that he needs to make a new start or open the next chapter of his life. Also I really enjoyed how you got your ideas and points to flow very well together.
ReplyDeleteI think you got the right message the author was trying to deliver. Even if a person has never been to war, we can still get a pretty good idea about how scarring a war could be. I think you are right when you point out that Krebs has a hard time re-adapting to the society he once lived in. I feel like he got so used to the life during his military service that once he came home he felt lost. He expected everyone to just give him a little recognition but nobody really did and i think that might have been a major factor that made him feel rejected at "home". In the story the author mentions "He did not want to leave Germany. He did not want to come home." He probably felt unnoticed when he came back and i can understand that because we all want to be recognized for something we think we deserve to be recognized for. Especially, when we do something for someone or more than one person, they might have been our motivation to begin with and if we don't get it, it can really hurt. I think at the end of the story the author wants us to realize that even after feeling like our life can't go on, we always have something worth living for. Maybe family, friends, or whatever, we just have to stop and think about it.
ReplyDelete