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Kandice Howland

Jon Hauss
English 305
March 3, 2016

Essay #1: Dropped

In Ernest Hemingway's short story, Soldiers Home, Hemingway draws many

realistic conclusions about what a soldiers life is like after coming home from war. He

makes clear that a soldier who has been away at war gains a sense of freedom and how that

freedom is torn away when a soldier returns home, or at least according to Hemingway.

Harold Krebs is this soldier who has come back to his hometown, looking for identity and

self-worth, and has a rather sour attitude about his situation. Despite his continually

substandard attitude toward his family, Krebs is a tragic example of a soldiers

homecoming and the attempts made to deal with postwar struggles such as home life,

social life, and his own personal life, but remains lost and confused.

Things that used to be commonplace to Harold were now bizarre. A place once

familiar, home was now just a roof over his head enclosed by walls that came with nagging

characters one calls family. Harolds forceful parents claim that they want him to enjoy

himself, but constantly force all these things upon him that he doesnt want or feel

necessary (138). In turn, his parents made him feel worthless because other people his age

were making a contribution to the community while he was trying to adjust to what normal

felt like. His daily activities included practicing clarinet, a task done by himself, along with

reading, which he also liked. These things must have given him some level of comfort

because he claims that things were getting good again (135). However, Krebs felt deeply
unwelcomed because others that had been drafted were welcomed elaborately upon

their homecoming, something he needed most and did not receive upon his return (133).

Furthermore, his social life struggled because he did not have a place to call home.

There was an uneasy feeling Krebs had about certain things and trying to fit in with

a changed society. For one, he thought that girls were a waste of time. He was

uninterested in pursuing girls, for he did not feel the energy nor drive to go there (134).

He saw it as a worthless waste of time because the girls were living in the civilian world,

while he was living in a world as a retired soldier (135). Second, he didnt want any

responsibilities. He wanted to be left alone without consequences, having nothing to do

with anything that could possibly tie him down, perhaps, family, religion, or girls. He

learned to cope with his loneliness by playing pool, something he could do alone. He fled

long hot days by choosing this activity in the cool dark of the pool room (134). It can be

suggestive of the fact that he went there to socialize and never found the nerve to talk to

anyone. The army impressed upon him a fear that left him sickeningly frightened that

others wouldnt want to socialize with him. Hemingway also suggests that he learned

many of these things from the army (135). Although he was lost and trying to find where

he belonged in society, Krebs just wanted to be himself without being critiqued or needed.

The hardest part about coming home after the war was trying to find self-identity in

being Harold, instead of Krebs. The military uses last names when referring to one another,

so he had gotten accustomed to everyone calling him Krebs. Though he chose not to talk

about the war, He was still a hero to his two young sisters (134). It is here that

Hemingway uses the third person limited narrative to give a sense that Krebs doesnt think
much of himself. This point, interestingly enough, demonstrates how his younger sisters

admired him upon his return, and how their endearment goes as far as one of them calling

him Hare and it doesnt even begin to crack him (136). On the other hand, Krebs, living in

a world as a retired soldier, didnt want to talk about war. And once he had changed his

mind about opening up about the war, no one wanted to hear about it, not even his

mother (133). For it can be seen throughout the story that her attention always

wondered from one topic to the next (133-134). On top of all that, nobody accepted him

for who he was or the stories he had to tell. They were only interested in the lies he told.

He had such a strong desire to fit in and for people to listen that he began to tell lies, but

soon realized that he was laying in a pool of his own deception. Because of this, he

developed a distaste for everything including his home life, his social life, and his own

personal interests (133).

Harold Krebs life was anything but extraordinary. One interpretation of the ending

of Hemingways tragic story is the feeling of being dropped out of the sky and into a cement

pool with no water, which is what postwar acceptance felt like for Krebs. It can be used to

understand and gain a small amount of perspective of what postwar acceptance feels like

for a soldier who has been away and have his freedom stripped away when he returns. If

the townspeople and Krebs family had walked a day in his shoes, he might not have come

back years after the war was over and given life a fighting chance (133).

Works Cited:

Meyer, Michael. "Soldier's Home" Literature to Go. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins,

2011. 133-38. Print.

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