Stations for “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway Objectives: RL 11.1: Cite strong and thorough evidence to support analysis of what the text specifically says as well as inferences RL 11.3: Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed). [Irony, Tone, Symbolism, Character development, theme] RL 11.6: Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the context and style of a text. *********************************************************************************************

Station 1 – Movie Poster – Grab the blue paper and markers This story was turned into a movie in 1977 starring actors you wouldn’t know. The screenplay was written by Hemingway himself, and Robert Young was the director. I’m sure you don’t know him either! Well, let’s pretend that there’s a remake in the talks. Design a movie poster for the movie with two quotes from the book and a picture. Please identify who you would like to hire to play the role of Harold Krebs.

Station 2 – Analysis of the Analysis Read the “Analysis of A Soldier’s Home by Ernest Hemingway” by Erik M. Dell. As you’re reading, think of thought-provoking questions you’d like to ask Dell about his analysis. Each person in your group must ask two questions of the author on post-it notes and place them in the appropriate places on the analysis. No repeats!

Station 3 – Literary Analysis – Write on your own paper. Provide each team member’s name on the paper. With your team members, answer these questions: *Identify an example of irony in the story. *Explain the double-meaning of the title. *Identify the overall tone of the story. Include textual support/evidence in your response. *Identify the theme. Support your choice with textual support. *POV – How would this story be different if told from his mother’s POV? Support your answer with textual support.

Station 4- Purple Pen Time – Grade a Research Paper Grade enough research papers for your group, but you’re only writing on ONE. Using the purple pens provided, please grade and edit the research paper that I found online for this story. Each team member must contribute some purple ink on ONE copy  Go to town! Comment on the grammar and formatting errors. You must also suggest content changes and modifications. Pretend this is a rough draft and your goal is to help the floundering student get an A! Analysis of A Soldier's Home by Ernest Hemingway by Erik M. Dell

The short story Soldier's Home by Ernest Hemingway is a thought provoking look into a soldier's life, before and after a major war. Just as opinions vary on the topic of war, opinions also vary in responses to this story. This story leaves much to interpretation as the reader gets farther and farther into Krebs' world and the emotions that he is struggling with. The interpretation by the readers can be summed up as both feelings of sorrow for Krebs and aggravation that Krebs will not get over his past and continue on with his future. My own interpretation was written as a person who served in the military but never was involved in a war. The military changes many things in a young person; in fact "military service in general is enough to change a person's life, a person's views, and even a person's religion" ("reader", response 19). I felt sorrow for Krebs. The young boy enlisted in the Marines to help his country. In this process he became a man as he was subjected to the horrors of World War I. His life was changed, changed so drastically that upon his return to this small town, his life no longer fit in its former place. Krebs became confused and reclusive as he struggled to find a place, a place not only in his town, but also with his family. Life was no longer simple for Krebs, things that had been simple prior to his leaving had suddenly become complicated, and "He did not want them themselves really. They were too complicated" (154) in reference to his women issues. His sorrowful situation led many readers to formulate their responses based on his life and the complications he now endures.

Although reader 1 seemed not to have been in the military they came to the same conclusion as me, "I felt such sympathy for Krebs because he seemed so lost and confused" ("reader", response 1). The reader goes on to compare Krebs' trouble with the trouble Vietnam veterans endured upon their arrival back home. This is understandable as it gives people in my generation something to relate this story to.

The Vietnam War was mentioned a few times in some of the twenty or so readers' responses. Response 4 says "Although written in 1923, it (is) more recognizant of the Vietnam War". The Vietnam War is told though many stories, TV shows, movies, and any other form of media you can think about. This war had a profound effect on civilians and as such has led some readers to compare Krebs' life to Vietnam veteran's lives. The familiarity of the Vietnam War allowed some people to relate to Krebs's position in life.

Another familiarity that the readers seemed to relate to is relationships with other people. This too allowed many people to jump into Krebs' shoes and live a little part of his life. For a strapping young war veteran, Krebs is awfully timid around women other than his family members. Response 12 describes this best "Krebs paints a picture for us that shows how difficult it is to fit back into society after being away fighting a war. Normal feelings that a boy of his age would have seemed to have disappeared or been stripped from him because of his experiences at war and in the military. He talks about seeing girls, but not wanting to make effort or even introduce himself". In fact an overwhelming number of responses were concerned with Krebs' ability not to talk to women.

Krebs' trouble with women is never actually explained so this leads to much writing on the subject in reader responses. Many reasons for this problem were explored such as response 1's "What hit me the most was how he observed the girls in town and desired to be with someone but didn't want to put the effort into courting" which seems to blame Krebs for being lazy. However, response 7 read the story twice and came up to this conclusion "I think they (Krebs) took advantage of the German women and used them for sexual relations". These two responses cover the two extremes in Krebs female problems. This fixation on Krebs' trouble with women seemed to give most of the readers a common focal point while writing their responses. The Vietnam War and personal relationships gave the readers a familiar topic to discuss.

Even among familiarity I found surprising responses. There were multiple readers who commented on Krebs' mental stability. This is interesting as it shows a huge educational jump from the early 1900's to the present day average education. Is it possible that Hemmingway would have agreed with response 2 when they spoke of Krebs "needing a little bit of counseling to help him through it". The sad part is that according to the preface Hemmingway himself was in a similar situation "This experience haunted him and many of the characters in his short stories and novels" (152). Does this mean that Hemmingway himself could have benefited from this counseling? Whether or not this is true it is an interesting perspective on the story and the author.

The story itself is full of details that give the reader a sense of sorrow. Krebs' late entry in the war and his overdue return to home almost immediately put the story in a down spiral for the lead character. Readers were quick to point out that Krebs seemed disappointed in coming home late and missing a hero's welcome. Response 3 "He misses the validation that other returning veterans received". The validation response 3 talks about seem to me to be a crucial turning point in Krebs' life. Who can share Krebs' experiences, if they already have been heard from other soldiers? How can he justify his actions in war, if nobody recognizes him for these actions? Was the war simply a bad dream for Krebs?

These questions probably lingered in Krebs' head as he sat at home remembering life before the war. Not that life before the war was anything special but it was predictable. He knew what to expect. "Nothing was changed in the town except that the young girls had grown up" (154). The small town boy no longer fit in the predictable small town atmosphere.

Krebs' own difficulty in dealing with his problems seemed to have led many writers to have similar problems in explaining their opinions about the story. This hopelessly depressing individual does little to resolve his problems during the course of the short story. It is fair to say that Krebs is not any better off at the end of the story than at the beginning. This caused some responses to be written with a confused overtone. Response 12 insists "I found it hard to find a main point to this story. While reading the story I thought that it was going to lead up to a main event. Instead the story seemed to just stop at the end with no real point."

I believe certain people will take to this story and understand it. The story is written by a man who was scarred when he was younger in virtually the same manner as the lead character Krebs. "At the Italian front, he was seriously wounded" (152). The story is very personal and not meant for everybody who reads it. The experiences in the story, however do offer a glimpse into the author's own life, his own trials and tribulations in dealing with his personal demons.

The Soldier's Home provides many avenues that readers can respond to, several characters and their interactions in the story can be explored. Each response was written as the reader interpreted the story. As such, some responses differed, but many responses dealt with an overwhelming sorrow for Krebs and his situation as well as he moved forward with his life and coming to terms with his past.

Works Cited Hemingway, Ernest. "Soldier's Home." The Bedford Introduction to Literature, 6th Edition. Ed. Michael Meyer. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's. 2002. 152-57. "Reader Responses to Soldier's Home." Literature and Composition. 10 Feb., 2003. RESEARCH PAPER FOR STATIONS

Ernest Hemingway’s “soldier’s Home” is a story of a soldier who returns from World War I as a transformed person. The story depicts his inability to fit back into the society. Krebs is at home but he doesn’t feel at home. He is with family but he doesn’t feel he belongs there. Like various authors Ernest Hemingway tried to portray his own life after he came back from war throughout the character of Harold Krebs. As much as Krebs believes in the truth, people around him force him to lie. The story precisely manifests the conflict between Krebs value, which has dramatically changed after his war experience and society expectation toward him to conform to its traditional values. Eventually to maintain his existence Krebs has to choose isolation by detaching himself from social relations, love, religion and ambition.

Ernest Hemingway explored the moments of his personal life and the same struggle he had experienced in his home town after returning from World War I throughout Harold Krebs character. He stretched out his experience and emotion in Krebs personality, which illustrates the insights into his homecoming and his understanding of the dilemmas of the returned war veteran (Putnum, 2). After the war, in 1919 Hemingway returned to Oak Park for a brief stay at home and faced a difficult period of adjustment. According to Ernest’s older sister, it must have been something like being put in a box with the cover nailed down to come home to conventional, suburban Oak Park living (Johnston,75).

Mentally and physically hurt from his war wounds, Hemingway entered into an idle part of his life. Ernest didn’t seem to know what he wanted to do with his life. As describing by his sister, Ernest seemed to be at loose ends (Johnston75-76).

Hemingway was later able to reflect his disgust of his home life when he purposely portrayed himself as the character of

Harold Krebs. When Hemingway found the germ for the story in his family life, the artist would take over and as the actual people made into literary characters-rewrite the actual into something created and quite different from the original(westbrook,35). Krebs as well as Hemingway, a World War I veteran, is forced to lie about his involvement in the war just to be heard. Hemingway fell into this norm of lying about war experience, which eventually made him sick of disgust: the deception he practiced at home uncomfortably remind him of the lies he and others have been forced to tell in order to sensationalize for home consumption the dull reality of war (Mayers, 55).

In this story the conflict has to do with Harold’s demarcation of who he has become. He recognizes he has changed and this change is played out dramatically against the background of a town, where nothing else has changed except the fact that the young girls has grown up (124). From his early childhood only value he believes in is telling the truth. Lying makes Krebs feel lost within himself and when lying he experiences nausea (122). However, he forced by the society to lie about military experience in order to be listened to, because this town has heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities (122). It seems clear the people of the town are more into war fantasies rather than hearing the truth about it. That is the reason Krebs develops a bitter sense towards the war and distaste for everything that has happened to him (122). As pointed out by Defalco, “He is forces to tell lies about his war experience in order to gain the approval of his associates” (140). Similar point of view is presented by Petrarca, who observes that “Krebs is not able to tell any real war stories, not even for cathartic purposes, since the home town people have been so used to hearing hyperbole that anything merely true is destined to a poor reception. If he wishes to gain anyone’s attention, he too must be forced to lie” (665).

Harold Krebs returned from the war with an inability to love and determined to avoid complications which include lying. But his life is getting complicated already, when he was welcomed by the society people to be listened to at all he had to lie. As the story goes Krebs has to lie again while trying to be attached to his family. Over the breakfast when his mom tries to drew him back to the society she asks, “Don’t you love your mother, dear boy” (125)? Then he replies quite truthfully, “No…I don’t love anybody” (125). At this moment he can not repress his true feelings and his reaction causes his mother to weep. In response, Krebs is again forced to lie which makes him seek and vaguely nauseated (126). As pointed out by Johnson, “Tears blur her vision; self-pity makes her deaf to the truth. She seems unaware that she is deeply humiliating her son, forcing him into hypocrisy. Vaguely nauseated, he plays the role of a child again, calling her mummy and trying to be a good boy for her (125). But these words, as well as his actions - kissing his mother and kneeling in prayer - are lies that will speed his departure from home” (78). Even his adoring sister, who had some good memories with his brother, makes him lie about his feelings when she asks, “‘Am I really your girl?’

‘Sure’ ‘Do you love me?’ ‘Uh,huh.’ ‘Will you love me always?’ ‘Sure’” (150). As emphasizes by Johnston, “Krebs is seeking a smooth uncomplicated life in a world of patterns and colliding forces. When the patterns or collisions are simple, predictable, and impersonal, such as in a game of pool or baseball, he can enjoy the situation….. But when the situation involves a collision of values, personalities, and attitudes, as in a family quarrel; or a social pattern of conformity, lies, and restraint, as in courtship; he would rather escape into the “cool dark of the pool room” (146), or into a book” (79).

Krebs can not relate to anyone anymore, neither to his family nor the community he returns to. Krebs family represents the society and its values. Before going away to the war, Krebs attended a Methodist college in Kansas (121). The fact that his college was a religious institute shows before the war he was connected to his mother’s religious values. As described by Johnston that, “one of the photographs described at the beginning of the story which shows Krebs at the Methodist college in Kansas with his fraternity brothers. This is a picture of conformity to the conservatism and religious dictates of his family, to the social pressures of the college, and to the fashions of the day” (76). It also shows the fact that Krebs belongs to the society which he doesn’t feel anymore. Harold’s war experience makes him reject the religion which is widely accepted by the community. As Defalco states, “Church, family, and society no longer command allegiance from the individual who was experienced the purgatorial initiation of war”

(138). When his mother tries to convince him to bring out of that value in order to help her son to fit back into the society, she says, “God has some work for everyone to do….there can be no idle hands in his Kingdom” (125). Harold replies, “I am not in his kingdom”(125). According to Krebs the world he discovered during the war, had no hand of God in it. The war has stolen any religious belief Krebs might have had. His disbelieve about religion consequently pushes away from the society he lives in.

Krebs not only rejects religion but also any relationships with girls. He lost his romanticism during the war.

Presumably, the scenes he had encountered in World War I, such as at the battle of Belleau Wood, Soissons, and in the

Argone (121-122) and the things he had done during those battles traumatized him so that he loses his emotion.

Another reason that keeps him build any relationship with girls is his desire to avoid consequences. He recalls the French and German women because relationships with them were uncomplicated and without consequences. There was no needing even talk to them which means there were no space for any consequences at all. However, he mentions that

“he would have liked a girl if she had come to him and wanted to talk” (123). But he does not want to work to get her or do anything drastic to get her attention. As Johnston observes, “Krebs admires the girls but their appeal vanishes when he meets them downtown. After all, he is seeking a life that is free from complications, free from consequences. The intricate harness of courtship and marriage is not for him (78). Moreover, he wanted to live along without any consequences (1230. For Krebs asking a girl would be a risk. It would lead to complications, whether good or bad, and taking the risk just wasn’t worth anything. As Imamura comments,” Krebs does not want to be disturbed; it is good enough for him simply to look at the girls on the street. He is able to keep his mind peaceful by avoiding talking to the girls and his role as on looker give him a sense of security. While Krebs remains in a safety zone on the front porch, he is protected. The girls walk on the other side of the street; nothing can touch him” (102). Krebs is now free from any pattern set by the society. He is beyond any dictations of the community. No matter how much his mother tries to drag him back into the society by suggesting that he invites girls for a ride, nothing seems to work. Krebs remains untouched by the fact that his father has allowed him to use the car, even though as a child he often looked forward to it (125).

That shows clearly he has no expectation from life or perhaps he is not ready to act yet.

Another value widely accepted by the society, which Krebs rejects is an ambition of life. All the other former soldiers have already found a fitting and suitable place for themselves in the community, but Harold needs a while longer to figure out what he wants to do. After coming from war he spends much of his time waking up late, reading books, playing pools, walking around, and watching girls across the street (122-123). His attitude towards life makes his parents to worry. As Johnston points out, “Mrs. Krebs voices the same blind faith and presents the same conventional ambitious for her son which is a good job and marriage to a girl. Thus, Krebs finds no peace but conflict and tension on the home front. Krebs needs to readjust, to sort out his life, to find himself. But a month after his return his mother begins exerting pressure on him to become a really a credit to the community. She is depicted as well-intentioned but blind to his emotional needs” (77). She also brings out Krebs fathers observation that his father would approve of him doing any kind of job since no work is dishonorable (125). It shows clearly the conflict which is arising: from one side his family trying to help him join the society and to become a productive citizen, from the other Krebs rejecting the values that are very common in his home town. Tension deepen between Krebs and his parents, this is exactly what happened to Hemingway when he lived with his parents. Johnston points out Hemingway’s mother, who said you can’t have a boy just fooling around all the rest of his life; he must get interested in something (76). Shortly after his twenty first birthday his mother issued an ultimatum that he finds regular job or move out(67). Hemingway moved out as well as Krebs did, in order to leave complicated life. This might be an explanation how Hemingway uses Krebs to express his distaste for the home life after returning from the war.

Throughout the story the rising conflict has been shown between Krebs value and the community’s expectation towards him to conform the norm of the society. He is expected immediately to be a productive member of the society.

Krebs family worries over his alienation from the real world; although they don’t seem to understand the intensity of the problem. War has taken away any kind of feelings he might had about life. That gives us a living example of how war can dehumanize a human mind, but also explores how the society reacts to the individual whose minds are traumatized after returning back from the war. The conflict portrays by Hemingway is not solved. Krebs doesn’t consume the strength yet to conform. The story is ironic and doesn’t give any hint about Krebs future life. Krebs decides to go to

Kansas City where no one is going to bully him to conform. The fact that he prefers to go away to look for a job indicates his need to escape from the system that he no longer believes in. He plans to live there without emotional complications in order to fit back into the new society.

Works cited

Defalco, Joseph. The Hero in Hemingway’s Short Stories. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1963. 136-144.

Hemingway, Ernest. “Soldiers Home.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meywr.2nd ed. New York:

Bedford St. Martins, 1990.121-126.

Imamura, Tateo. Soldiers Home: Another Story of a Broken Heart. Hemingway Review Fall 1996: 102. Academic search

Premier. EBSCOHost. LaGuardia Community Coll. Lib, Long Island City, NY. 5 May

2006http://search.epnet.com.

Johnston, Kenneth G. The Tip of the Iceberg: Hemingway and the short story. Greenwood: The Penkevill Publishing

Company, 1987. 75-79.

Meyers, Jeffrey. Hemingway: A Biography. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1985.55.

Petrarca, Anthony J. “Irony of Situation in Ernest Hemingway’s Soldiers Home.” English Journal. 58 (1969): 664-67.

Putnam, Thomas. Hemingway on War and Its Aftermath. The U.S. National Archives& Records Administration 38(2006):

1.

Westbrook, Max. “Grace Under Pressure: Hemingway and the Summer of 1920.” Ernest Hemingway: Six Decades of

Criticism. Ed. Linda W. Wagner. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1987. 19-40.