ipl-logo

Theme Of Harold Krebs In Soldier's Home

748 Words3 Pages

"Soldier's Home" tells the story of Harold Krebs, a Marine who returns home from World War I. While Krebs does not struggle from physical injuries he does suffer mentally. Harold Krebs struggles with post traumatic stress disorder once returning home from World War I. The characters and incidents in "Soldier's Home" are factual to Ernest Hemingway's own experiences because, similar to the main character, Harold Krebs, Ernest Hemingway struggles after returning home from the war.
First and foremost, similar to Ernest Hemingway's own experiences, Krebs in "Soldier's Home" displays a significant amount of distance and disconnection between him and everyone around him. In the story, Ernest Hemingway refers to Harold as Krebs to symbolize distance …show more content…

He liked her. She was his best sister." (27-28 Hemingway). Throughout the story Helen is the only person Krebs feels close to. The only person Krebs finds acceptable to pick things right back up is his little sister. Krebs only finds his sister's actions acceptable because she is young and innocent. Helen does not know any better. Another sign of Krebs showing distance between everyone around him is no longer having a desire for a girl. "But the world they were in was not the world he was in. He would like to have one of them. But it was not worth it." (Hemingway 168). Krebs is in a completely different world. He sees everything in a perspective the girls never will. As for Ernest Hemingway, "Hemingway was badly wounded at the war--wounded inside as well as outside. The war left him with a fear of night, a fear said to relate to his abrupt confrontation with his own mortality. It gave him insight into the fragility of the world, and it fostered a deep skepticism towards the grand abstractions that the First World War rendered bitterly ironic" (Stewart). Ernest Hemingway is not the same man he was before entering the war. After returning home from the war, however, Krebs ends up losing all of his faith. Consequently,

Show More
Related
1636 Words | 7 Pages

Do you think that every president should go to college? If a president doesn't go to college, do you think that they are educated enough to run our country. Truman didn't have a normal life he had to work hard for everything. He was very limited to what he could do during school. He worked many jobs throughout his lifetime but still had time for his wife and to run for president and became the 33rd president of the United States.

Read More
1699 Words | 7 Pages

After World War 1 ended in 1918, many veterans came home to a very different place, a place that they just did not belong in. The want to fit right in was strongly wanted by all veterans, just like before they left for war, but the past cannot be repeated. Veterans faced many things that many people cannot even imagine. People just don't understand how war changes a person's life. That is what Harold Krebs from “Soldiers Home” and James Gatz in “The Great Gatsby” learned when they came home.

Read More
560 Words | 3 Pages

In Soldier from the War Returning, Thomas Childers writes that “a curious silence lingers over what for many was the last great battle of the war.” This final battle was the soldier’s return home. After World War II, veterans came back to the United States and struggled with stigmatized mental illnesses as well as financial and social issues. During the war, many soldiers struggled with mental health issues that persisted after they came home.

Read More
775 Words | 4 Pages

Jamie Hobbs Ms. Birkhead 20th Century Literature A233 29 September 2015 Comparison/Contrast of The Harold Krebs and the Narrator In the early 20th century no one had any great understanding of a psychological illness and the outcome was the suffering of many ill patients. "Soldiers Home" takes place right after the war in 1919 and shows how the war can effect a man 's perception on life immensely. "

Read More
1264 Words | 6 Pages

There were many moments throughout the book where he found it difficult to interact with people back at home, or at times he felt isolated. Also, at times he was not thinking as rationally as he would have before the war. These are all effects

Read More
705 Words | 3 Pages

once she relays to him how perturbed she is about his future. When his mother asks him if he loves her Krebs replies with a blunt “no”. Although Krebs instantly feels regret, this moment shows how the war has changed Krebs into becoming more emotionless. While Krebs may have returned from the war, he finds himself unable to connect with the people around him and seems to lack a place in society. Throughout the story it is apparent that Krebs developed the traits of reclusiveness, introversion, and short temperedness as a result of the war.

Read More
607 Words | 3 Pages

Krebs resentment for God continued to grow as a result of being forced to keep quiet about the

Read More
991 Words | 4 Pages

Hemingway begins Krebs’ story in a Methodist college in Kansas when the war starts off in 1917. When the war ends Krebs chose to stay in Germany for the next six months and when he comes back he realizes that the town moved on about the war and didn’t get the welcome he thought he deserved. This leads to the theme of not being able to find an outlet for pain. He wanted people to listen to his stories so they would be able to see the pain of what he went through throughout the war and the heroic actions he accomplished while fighting

Read More
535 Words | 3 Pages

So when they hear Krebs stories about the true war, others get bored and don’t listen. So Krebs lies to try to fit in again. He tries to make an interesting story, but they still don’t pay much attention to him. Being in the war, he lost his feelings and emotions. His mother asked him if he loves her, and she cried when he said no.

Read More
1032 Words | 5 Pages

As typical in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Harold Krebs separated himself from his family and friends and generally pushes himself away from those he loves. “So his mother prayed for him and then they stood up and Krebs kissed his mother and went out of his house. He had tried to keep his life from being complicated” (Hemingway 370). As Krebs struggles to cope and find someone who he can relate with as the story continues, he slowly isolates himself from; friends and family. In this particular case Harold Krebs is pushing his mother away from him and his mother cannot seem to understand why he does that.

Read More
911 Words | 4 Pages

This also informs of the internal conflict of loved ones such as Krebs mother and even returnee soldiers themselves. The use of the theme of conformity by Hemmingway paints a picture of stark differences that bring out conflicts to the central character Krebs. Readers are also informed by the difficulty of adapting to conflicting social norms such as religion and marriage that most people fit into. Krebs truly knows that he has been traumatized by the war, and even the conformity of family and religion cannot seem to understand that the best way for him to conform is taking no responsibilities and consequences such as those of

Read More
855 Words | 4 Pages

Krebs the main character has a hard time adapting to society and a lot about him has changed. The military has learned him to not love anyone and he feels that doing anything that potentially has consequences is not worth the risk and that includes social interactions with girls which is demonstrated through the following quote. “When he was in town their appeal to him was not very strong. He did not like them when he saw them in the Greek 's ice cream parlour. He did not want them themselves really.”

Read More
1052 Words | 5 Pages

Her son would return home with her help and he would be back into society. She would give him the tools to succeed and finally return home. She and his father came up with a plan that Krebs could borrow the car and go out and perform activities so that Krebs would get out of the house and enjoy life, but he must also find a job to which she described it as a place in life (Hemingway 170). Kreb’s mother was providing him with the tools to become a key component for his future. She understood the struggles he went through but wanted to make sure that he would eventually find a way to

Read More
941 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
806 Words | 4 Pages

Love is a feeling we all search for and desire. This need leads us to force this emotion at times when we may not truly feel it. Because of this, it is often difficult to tell if our love is genuine or out of necessity. In Ernest Hemingway’s novel, A Farewell to Arms, Frederic Henry and Catherine Barkley begin a complicated relationship during World War I. Amongst the pain and and loss of the war, it is unclear at times to understand if their love is authentic or purely a way for them to cope.

Read More

More about Theme Of Harold Krebs In Soldier's Home

Related Topics

Open Document