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Regeneration Krebs Character Analysis

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Recommended: Emotional and psychological effects of war on soldiers

How much can one soul endure before it snaps? Krebs proves to be testing the limits of what a heart can endure, and we see only the aftermath of the war’s effect on him. As his family closes in on him, and the world around him proves to be much different than the one he’s been accustomed to, he slowly breaks down with everyday responsibilities and affection.
The town is portrayed as any typical town would be after receiving their veterans; they wouldn’t be worried about one lost soldier that didn’t make it back with the others. People of the town could only listen to war stories for so long before they became dreary and depressing. Krebs trapped himself in his own mind by caging in his stories and thoughts of the war, and had no way to escape …show more content…

Krebs received the coldest welcome out of all the soldiers in town, thereby receiving little to no thanks for his service. He didn’t seem to be all too concerned with that aspect, but as a soldier we can gather that he felt used by his own town and neglected.
This place he calls home is more like a cell that only he and his other soldiers endure as they try to resume their lives in regular society; and this hits Krebs hard. His ambition was lost in the war, and the tasks of everyday life seem trivial now. The idea of having to get a job and try to court a girl didn’t interest him anymore; life was meant to only be lived, no longer cultivated in his eyes. Krebs doesn’t want the responsibilities of a girl or job, and only wants to survive.
Little things in Krebs life, such as the girls in it, seem to be an aspect of regular society that are pushed on him harshly. The reader gets the impression that in Krebs’s perspective, women are only chores that he has to put so much effort in that it seems pointless. His family shackles him to this idea that he will have to snap out of it and face everyday

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This technique is supported when he includes Rat Kileys narration in his story, while all at once, allowing the reader to understand that Kiley is known for embellishing. “The question is not of deceit. Just the opposite: he wanted to heat up the truth, to make it burn so hot that you would feel exactly what he felt” (Kaplan 5/8). By O’Brien allowing Kiley to express his view of the war, he further sustains the writing technique used to reinforce the belief that with numerous narrations, he provides the audience the opportunity to depict and imagine their own reality of the war. The war stories told through each individual soldier’s perspective, but more significantly, with their own emotions towards the war and the events which occurred during the war.

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Krebs thought girls were “not worth the trouble.” (85) Although he may not have had the motivation to pick up the girls, he “liked looking at them.” (85) This is in no way the girls’ fault, however it shows how the war affected Krebs’ drive to do tasks that involve socialization. Perhaps if the townspeople were more open to listen to Krebs’ story then he would be more comfortable with girls. His mother is an example of how he interacts with women.

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