Friday, June 8, 2012
Hemingway
In Hemingway's short story, "Soldier's home," he created the sense of irony and character. At first one might think that the story will be about a soldier that came back to a home that is welcoming and grateful that the solider, Krebs, is back home safe. Instead, Hemingway's story reflected the opposite of my thoughts. Krebs came back to his "home" without feeling the honor he must be getting just like how the people in his community gave credit to the other soldiers a while ago before Krebs' return. As a soldier, Harold did his obligation and fought for our country, yet he did not receive any recognition. Krebs is not quite home yet. Krebs tried to fit back in the society he came from before the military, but due to his new point-of-view, he recognizes a different way of life. He wished to have a simple life despite the modernity and extravagance of his new old hometown. It seemed for Krebs that everyone is somewhat connected in a way that he has to talk in able to fit in. He also wished for a simple life not just because he is not familiar with the new ways anymore, but also because he wants to live a quite life and having to not life about his experience in the military.
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I think the story is much deeper than that. It's more than just the life he had in the military compared to his hometown life. I think that it is more about how the war and the military effected his whole personality because of his intense experiences. The fact that nobody really recognized the accomplishments he made for his country, just because he arrived home so late, is the start of Krebs isolation. And the fact that the author refers to Krebs by his last name, I think, symbolizes that that is how the main character see's himself, and not as his first name Harold. What the author is trying to say is that you can lose yourself in major experiences and to show the hardships that some soldiers had to deal with when they got back home.
ReplyDeleteI like a lot of the points you made here. How you questioned the idea of "home" and commented on his wanting to live a simple, quite life. My blog was actually very similar to yours! One thing I thought was particularly interesting was when he told his mother he didn't love her, or at least that he couldn't love anything. I think I'll probably talk about that at some point in my essay but I'm not sure yet
ReplyDeleteI liked several of the points you made about this story. I also did my SSRJ on this story and it is interesting to see the different interpretations and understandings it. I agree with the point you made about him not feeling the recognition he felt he deserved because he came home after many of the other soldiers had already returned. "Home wasn't what he had expected. I hadn't looked at the story in the same way you did in regards to the transitioning home from the war. You gave a good description of how he came home to something that was so unfamiliar even though he had been there before. It was his "new old hometown" as you put it and it did become very difficult for him to adjust to the more advanced lifestyle than he was wanting to live.
ReplyDeleteYou're blog brought up some really good interpretations that I didn't notice while reading the story myself. I did notice how we wanted to live a more simple life. And while reading your blog entry, it made me realize that! He did not want to live a big and extravagant life. I also interpreted that he wanted a whole new different life after experiencing what happens in war. Maybe he did not like what he saw or what he did and he wants to try and erase all those bad memories and make a new life for himself now that he has the freedom to do so.
ReplyDeletei like how you wrote "not home yet" because that gives us hope that mayber krebs will fit in someday. That being said i dont believe he will. The way i interpreted the story was that Krebs himself had changed a lot and he confused his immense change with the small changes that took place back home
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