SSRJ#2 Hemingway
After reading this story “Soldiers Home” by Hemingway it made me feel very sad for Krebs. I have never gone into the military so I can’t really relate to the situation that Krebs was put in, but have had family members and close friends return from war and I know that the support system they need when they get home is pivotal. The fact that Krebs didn’t receive a homecoming or support from his friends and family was probably what supported his downfall to his suicide. It was probably that the war and his bitter homecoming that led to his destruction with his relationship with god, even though there was never an implementation that he was religious he seemed to have resentment towards him. The fact that Krebs liked being in Germany and France probably made him feel exciting, being able to get out of his Midwestern town and that he didn’t want to come back home, but had to. The people he is with now in America just don’t get what it is like to be in a war nor do they want to hear what he says since they have already heard it all before makes him want to stay where he was over in Germany, and the fact that he can’t be there probably adds to his depression. I think that Hemingway does a great job of putting the reader in Krebs shoes, I felt bad and sorrow for Krebs he is unable to love girls, his family or even himself.
I believe that Hemingway had purposely made Krebs come from a Midwestern town making it a huge change for him to go to war and come home to the same old lifestyle. From this large change I believe that Krebs felt he was no longer able to assimilate into normal society anymore because of what he saw in war. The two worlds were so much different from each other just as Krebs was different from his normal ideals of society. His depression doesn’t seem to end there as his mother probably not intentionally trying to make him mad, but continued to stir the pot with the relation between him and Charley Simmons and how he was going to be successful and that Krebs needs to keep up. The whole story seems to be full of irony in the fact that Krebs in unlike all other men that went to war nor does he necessarily want to be like any of them. He just wants to be heard.
I wonder if there is any correlation between this story and Hemingway’s real life in that he had committed suicide?
Craig your post is very intriguing and insightful! As far as to answer the question you had, one might conclude that prior to Hemingways' suicide that he also wanted to be heard, in that he felt some sort of connection with Krebs as a character. I also am not able to relate specifically with Krebs as he returns home from war, but I think that Hemingway uses some great techniques in his writing to provoke inevitable empathy for this character. This may be a correlation to what he was trying to get people to hear about himself personally as an author. Possibly a cry for help?
ReplyDeleteI did also think about how it related to Hemingway's real life and thought it connected on a few levels. First off Hemingway must have felt like this at least on some level or I don't believe that he would write the story as he did. Second Hemingway was a very complex person, even if he hid his emotions well it would not be a stretch to assume that his days in the war had some effect on his death. When one looks at the way he wrote Krebs emotions throughout the story they would see a projection of Hemingway himself, the question is how much.
ReplyDeleteCraig,
ReplyDeleteI also agree what Ryan is saying. i felt there was some realization between Krebs and Hemingway. My sister is in the military and when she came back from Iraq she was needing the attention from us and her friends. If she didn't receive that love I know she would have struggled with depression. Krebs I don't think would have cried out for help because of stubbornness. So he showed it in a hurtful way.
You bring up an interesting point and I agree with Brittany. Krebs was clearly an inhibited person once he returned from war. Hemingway may have identified with Krebs in that sense, and might have used Kreb to express his own struggles.
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