War And College
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War and College
Many of the titles of Ernest Hemingways stories are ironic, and can be read on a number of different levels; Soldiers Home is no exception. The story is told of a young man, Harold Krebs, who recently returned form World War I, and has moved back into his parents house while he figures out what he to do with life. In reality he has no home, his parents middle-class lifestyle used to feel like home, but no longer does. This is actually not an uncommon scenario among young people, especially college students returning to the womb of their childhood again.
Krebs situation is more dramatic than those who have been released off to college. He has not only lived on his own, but been traumatized by life and death situations his parents couldnt even begin to understand. Hemingway does not divulge why Krebs was the last person from his home town to return from war. Whenever he was in the intervening time, by the time, by the time he
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gets home, the novelty of the returning soldiers have found a niche for themselves in the community, but Harold needs a bit longer to get his bearings. The problem has to do with Krebs definition of who he has become. He recognizes he has changed, and this change is played out dramatically against the backdrop of a town where nothing else has changed since high school.
This short story is easy to relate to from the perspective of a college student. In relation to going back “home” is like dealing with all the drama that you endure through high school. Its especially difficult for me, because my parents moved to another state, so part of my home is unnatural to me. Also the aspects of the same girls, his father still driving the same car and parking it in the same spot is all relative to my situation.
There are many reasons for Krebs not being able to adjust to things back in Oklahoma. If you look at what he was doing before the war, you can distinguish the differences from going overseas. Prior to the war he was attending a Methodist school in Kansas and was not out of place then. Its almost symbolic that Hemingway chose Kansas of all places due to the famous saying from the Wizard of Oz “were not in Kansas anymore;” basically saying that war is like living in whole new world. He then tells us about the picture of his fraternity brothers all wearing the same height and style collar. Its ironic that someone so concerned about their appearance, would be shipped over seas to one the most horrific wars of all time. This relates to college as well, in that
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most students go for the “college look” which