Soldiers Home :: essays papers

Soldiers HomeCritical Analysis of Soldiers Home Before, During, and After thewarfare (with bibliography)Many of the titles of Ernest Hemingways stories are ironic, and can beread on a number of levels Soldiers Home is no exception. Our firstimpression, having read the title only, is that this layer will beabout a old soldier livelihood out the remainder of his life in aninstitution where veterans go to die. We currently find out that the tommyrothas nothing to do with the elderly, or institutions rather, it tellsthe story of a young man, Harold Krebs, only recently blow overed fromWorld War I, who has locomote back into his parents house while hefigures out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. And yet ourfirst impression lingers, and with good reason disrespect the fact thathis parents comfortable, middle-class lifestyle used to feel like root wordto Harold Krebs, it no longer does. Harold is not seat he has no homeat all. This is actually not an uncommon scenario among young people(such as college students) returning into the womb of their childhoodagain. But with Harold, the situation is more melodramatic because he hasnot only lived on his own, but has dealt with -- and been traumatizedby -- life-and-death situations his parents could not possiblyunderstand. Hemingway does not divulge why Krebs was the last psychein his home town to return home from the war fit in to the KansasCity Star, Hemingway himself left Kansas City in the spring of 1918and did not return for 10 years, becoming the first of 132 formerStar employees to be wounded in World War I, according to a Stararticle at the time of his death (Kansas City Star, hem6.htm).Wherever he was in the intervene time, by the time Harold bestows home,the novelty of the returning soldier has long since purposeless off. All theother former soldiers have found a box for themselves in thecommunity, but Harold needs a while longer to get his bearings heplays pool, practiced on his clari net, strolled down town, read, andwent to bed (Hemingway, 146). What he is doing, of course, is killingtime. The problem, of course, has to do with Harolds definition ofwho he has become. He recognizes he has changed, and this change is compete out dramatically against the backdrop of a town where nothingelse has changed since he was in high school. His father parks his carin the aforesaid(prenominal) place its still the same car the girls walking down the