William James once said in his book “ History is a bath of blood”, “Modern man inherits all the innate pugnacity and all the love of glory of his ancestors. Showing war’s irrationality and horror is of no effect on him. The horrors make the fascination. War is the strong life; it is life in Extremis; war taxes are the only ones men never hesitate to pay, as the budgets of all nations show us.” (303) However, this does not seem true to most returning veterans. According to two short fictional stories “ Soldier’s Home” and “ A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” two protagonists’ lives after brutal wars explicitly demonstrate the idea that they are not only pathetic survivors from battles, but also victims of relentless wars through authors’ vivid depictions of each character and elaborate arrangement of settings. For both Kreb and Seymour, their desire for war has left them without their humanity, and the only way for them to get it back is through the care of others. In the beginning of the story, the author mentions about two different pictures, which suggest that Kreb’s personality has irrevocably changed after the war. The first picture shows Kreb was with his “fraternity brothers” in the college (133). It …show more content…
They do not believe in good things in life, but they only can see the pains and helplessness. Everything can be repaired in life except humans’ minds. Both protagonists get into perplexity, they lose directions of their lives. At the end of two stories, Kreb finally realizes the epiphany and he determines to start his new life in a new town while Seymour decides to rescue himself from sorrow by ending his life with a gun. As a matter of fact, returning veterans are fragile, they are alienated from their families and have to bear the isolation. They also see their friends die in the battle and a lot of more. Hence, the society should give hands to them and help them to get out from