A Soldier’s Battle
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Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” is a tremendous story about a young soldier’s battle to find himself after returning from the war. In this story, Hemingway’s character Krebs leaves for the war as a young upscale college student and returns a couple of years later out of touch with society and lost within himself. The main conflict in the story is the struggle in which Krebs faces as he tries to rediscover where he belongs not only in the world, but also inside himself.
Krebs has a major conflict in “Soldier’s Home. When he returns home, his friends, family, and community are expecting the same young gentleman who left for war a few years earlier. However, Krebs’ has been in many battles, which distorts his view of life and discombobulates his psychological state. This causes a conflict within Krebs. He struggles to understand why people do not want to listen to him and his problems. Even in his family, his mother’s “attention always wandered, and his father was noncommittal.”
Taking a deeper historical look into the story will better help one understand the internal conflict of Hemingway’s character Krebs. According to the text, Krebs fought in some of the bloodiest battles when he was at war. The psychological state he is in when he returns home to Oklahoma is a direct result from the battles he fought overseas. Because of his horrific experience, Krebs is only willing to speak the truth about the combat in which he was a part of. When the majority of the soldiers return home, Krebs realizes they tend to lie about their encounters; this nauseates him. Due to the knowledge of his experience, one can greatly appreciate his unwillingness to stretch the truth about the conflicts in which he was involved. Learning of Krebs’ war experience gives proof of an important cause of this inner struggle, which he battles throughout the story.
Understanding the war veteran background of the author Ernest Hemingway can better help to recognize the internal conflict of the story’s character. Hemingway was a World War I veteran, and much like Krebs in that when he returns home from the war he is expected to come back as his old self. Hemingway struggles with the finding himself and his place in society and he often secludes himself; “the world they were in was not the world he was in.” Due to Krebs experience, he also secludes himself from the society in which he lives. He sleeps in, sits and reads on the porch by himself, and even goes to the pool hall and shots alone. The inability of Krebs’ society to understand his struggle and accept his new individuality really hinders his capability to solve his conflict within.
In order to fully understand the conflict between Krebs and his rediscovery, a psychological approach must be taken. After returning from the war, he is an emotional wreck. Truth be told, he does not feel any emotions at all; he is numb to the world. His daily struggles