The Temptation of Harold Krebs In the short story “Soldier’s Home”, Ernest Hemingway talks about how a man named Harold Krebs comes home from a war in Germany to his hometown in Oklahoma, only to deal with the struggles of war trauma. One theme illustrated throughout the passage is the theme of temptation. Krebs has a temptation to lie to the people around him, a temptation to isolate himself from other people, a temptation to sloth around and do nothing for himself. This all seems to stem from war trauma from the experiences that Krebs had to deal with while he was in Germany. While it is not outright stated that his war trauma is the cause, there is significant evidence that suggests that this was the reason. One of the …show more content…
An example of Krebs doing this is when he starts using his free time to do activities that involve being alone, such as “Sleeping late in bed, getting up to walk down town to the library to get a book, eating lunch at home, reading on the front porch until he became bored and then walking down through the town to spend the hottest hours of the day in the cool dark of the pool room.” (Hemingway 70) Almost all of these activities suggest that he spends most of his free time alone, trying to stay away from human interaction. This isolation can infer that Krebs wasn’t trying to lie to anyone else and to do that he had to leave everyone alone. Another example of this isolation is when Krebs realizes that he doesn’t want to talk to any of the girls back home because they aren’t as “easy” as the girls in Germany. To go further, the girls that Krebs would get in Germany didn’t talk much due to there being a language barrier, and nothing serious ever had to come out of the relations he had with these women. Since Krebs was home to talk to a girl, he had to get into a conversation, which was too much work for him. To put it shortly, “He would have liked to have a girl but he did not want to have to spend a long time getting her.” (Hemingway 71) Since this was the case, Krebs always just sat back on his front porch and watched the girls walk by, as he did nothing but watch
This reminds me in paragraphs four and five the lies Krebs makes is a person who is fallen or injured they are not important those people are overlooking them. This reminds me of the relationship of Krebs and his sister when they have fights together. Also, this love is reminded between him and his sister when at the kitchen table eating breakfast and finally that conversation turned into a fight(16). Finally Krebs goes to his sisters indoor baseball game to watch as he was
Although one of the
In the short story, The Soldier’s Home, Krebs, protagonist, takes what he learns in the war and applies it to his daily life. Krebs thought, “Still none of it had touched him. He had felt sorry for his mother and she had made him lie” (Hemingway 76). As he comes back from the war, his attitude is different when it comes to the people he loves. The war teaches him to uncomplicate his life however, his mother is complicated and he does not want to see her upset.
In A Soldier’s Home, we follow the journey of a young man named Krebs and his emotional reaction after he returns home from war. Before the war, Krebs was fun and loving, and very much a family guy. He attended a Methodist college
During the Battle of the Bulge, soldiers fought in “grueling physical and psychological conditions” that led to persistent struggles after the war with remembering these conditions (Intro: Battle of the Bulge). Many veterans refer to the immediate effects of returning as the “shock of peace” (Childers). However, despite these widespread mental health problems, there were few psychiatrists to treat these soldiers as well as a “cultural ethos” that discouraged discussing emotions, especially among men (Childers). When soldiers returned home, they often had difficulty with finances.
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
Coming Home In the short story “Soldier’s Home”, written by Ernest Hemingway, Krebs, the main character, comes home from WWI and has a difficult time adjusting back to civilian life. He seems to have PTSD, and is distant from civilian life. War has damaging effects on its victims, both physically and mentally.
War and its affinities have various emotional effects on different individuals, whether facing adversity within the war or when experiencing the psychological aftermath. Some people cave under the pressure when put in a situation where there is minimal hope or optimism. Two characters that experience
The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.
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. "
Hemingway uses the story to painfully highlight the internal conflict that leaves an individual veteran like Krebs questioning his peculiar heroic status after fighting in the war. The protagonist of the short story, Krebs, is drafted by the state into the U.S. Army fighting in Rhineland having been uprooted from his home. The character traits of Krebs can be defined as rebellious, detached, and stressful. The creation of the character Krebs has been the epitome in the realization of the devastating
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.