Compare And Contrast A Soldier's Home And How To Tell A True War Story

In literature, a setting is a time, place, or social environment in which the action of a story takes place. In some cases, a setting may be even more important than the action of the story itself as it has the responsibility to evoke a mood and establish a world in which the characters exist. Settings also have the power to affirm traditional assumptions or to disrupt readers’ expectations. Both Ernest Hemingway and Tim O’Brien use their settings in “Soldier’s Home” and “How to Tell a True War Story” to distort readers’ expectations of the meaning of “home” and what it is like for soldiers to return after war. The contrasting settings of war and home in Hemingway and O’Brien’s short stories have the power to alter readers’ assumptions that

Marine Corp veteran. Unlike the rest of those drafted from his town, Krebs did not return until 1919 way after “the greeting of heroes was over” (Hemingway 1). This caused Krebs to refuse to talk about the war with anyone, but later as he felt the need to share his experience in Germany with someone, he learned no one wanted to hear about it. He found that if he was to be listened to at all he would have to embellish his stories; however, his lies were insignificant and not well received in the pool room or by other veterans. Krebs felt like an outsider and was secluded in the town he grew up in, the only place prior to the war he knew as home. This is also true of Tim O’Brien as he narrates from Vietnam, in the midst of the Vietnam war, how to tell a true war story. As readers find out though, a true war story is not always true, and “cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical” (O’Brien 3). Through various memories, O’Brien proclaims that if one is going to tell a war story, although it is ironic, they must insert lies to make the truth sound real. He explains that “often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn’t because the normal stuff is necessary to make you believe the truly incredible craziness” (O’Brien 3). It is through trying to recount their experience in war that Krebs and O’Brien find that “home” no longer holds the same

Based on traditional assumptions most readers would assume that life at home is much easier than living in a war zone; however, Hemingway and O’Brien extinguish these assumptions by having their main protagonists struggle to acclimate to their new life at home as veterans. Both protagonists realize their new struggle by trying to relay their memories of war to those back home. They soon understand that no one can relate to their experiences and thus have to lie to be listened to. This makes them feel like outcasts within their own society. Krebs especially hated embellishing his war stories even acquiring “nausea… [as a] result of untruth or exaggeration” (Hemingway 1). Krebs despised how he had to lie at home and did not want to lie anymore, in his mind “it wasn’t worth it. He did not want any more consequences…He wanted to live along without consequences” (Hemingway 3). Unfortunately, Krebs could not live without one major consequence: the consequence of going to war and coming home as an outsider. Krebs “had liked Germany better. He did not want to come home,” because at home it was as if he was in a different world than those around him (Hemingway 3). This is also true of O’Brien as readers see through his efforts to tell a true war story that no one could relate or even listen to him without some