Soldier’s Home: * Who is Hemmingway’s protagonist? * The protagonist is an anti-hero; Hemmingway focuses on the protagonist rather than the hero like everyone else. A protagonist is the main actor in a story and initiates the plot he prevails everything. The protagonist can be a hero or an anti-hero.
A soldier’s home (the title) could mean: * “ Soldier is home after the war” * The home of the soldier * The rest home for old soldiers
1) This paragraph is a background on the anti hero Krebs He studied in a Methodist college religious He was enlisted in the Marines and never came back.
2) He returned few years after the war and decided to return after the greeting of the heroes in Oklahoma because he doesn’t think of himself as a hero.
3) Hysteria: going crazy, wild, confused. It was ridiculous seeing Krebs returning a year after the greeting.
At first he didn’t want to tell any stories about the war, but later he wanted to yet no one was interested. No one wants to hear the actualities people want to hear lies. He realized if he wanted to tell stories he had to make lies and that divested him, making up heroic stories. ) He realized that people wanted to hear lies about the war. He started making up stories about other people not him anymore.
* How do lies Lying about war makes it even more distasteful, eventually he prefers not to talk about it at all then lie about it. He prefers not to talk rather than to say lies
* What “ one thing” might have made Krebs feel cool and clear?
Killing, he might have killed someone. Because soldiers who killed at war had stories to brag about, unlike him he suffered and hid in corners. He might’ve also run away or refuse to fight. Because when he enlists himself n the Marine because he feels pride but if you return and haven’t done anything you start feeling depressed about it.
4) When he met other soldiers and talked about actual events in the war that made him feel at ease.
5) His routine was: sleeping late…, (this indicates how bored he was after the war, he had nothing to do).
6) His sisters believed he was a hero.
His mom wanted to show him that she was interested in listening to his stories, but in reality she wasn’t. His father did not even care.
7) Krebs’s father was real estate agent; Krebs was not allowed to use his father’s car before the war. Now we can infer that they will let him use it.
8) He notices how girls look. He realizes that they are all in a certain of pattern, fashion. They all wore short hair, which only young girls wore before he went away; they all wore the same thing.
He enjoyed looking at them.
9) He’s interested in girls, but since he’s exhausted from the war he didn’t want to lie and tell more stories. He didn’t want to take them out and get them. The repetition of “ he did not “ emphasize on the negative state of mind he acquired after war.
10) He says that he learned when you want a girl you will have one but if you don’t think about it you can live one. And if you need one you can get one that’s what he learned in the army. * What has the war done to Krebs? War exhausted Krebs and made him almost desperate. How is his attitude different than that of a regular hero? Krebs Earnest’s hero is lazy, desperate, not in the mood. He wants stuff but he’s too lazy to work hard get them.
11) After he returned the girls in his home country were too complicated and he was not in the mood for it.
12) He liked the girls in his country but he says that there world was different than his. He did not feel like they’re the same. These girls have not been into the war they only heard stories about it.
13) Krebs believes that thing is getting good again he is at home but he has managed to detach himself from home.
14) When he was participating in the war, he did not know hat was happening. But now when he came back and started reading about it, he felt as if he did something. Why was it interesting to read books about war? Because he has been there, so he understands everything that’s going on. It’s his world.
15) His father was a real estate agent, and the car was untouchable, but now Krebs is allowed to use it because his parents want him to go out and have a life. Yet, Krebs doesn’t belong here.
He is suffering from war stress, post traumatic and will never have a life.
16) What do you ever get up for? You’ve got nothing to do, you’re lifeless He likes his sister because she’s honest and unsentimental and doesn’t ask him from anything.
17) “ Will you come and watch me? ” “ Maybe” When it comes to decisions he is not sure.
18)” I’m not in His Kingdom” (Reflecting Krebs’s loss of faith) He doesn’t believe in God anymore. The Hemingway antihero is a symbol of the lost generation he doesn’t belong anywhere and doesn’t believe in God anymore. What does the conversation between Harold and his sis reveal about his mood?
* He loves his sister but he’s still not sure about making decisions. He’s still exhausted and doesn’t want to commit to anything. His short answers reveal that he doesn’t want to get into a conversation and the word “ maybe” is also about his lack of commitment.
* What does the conversation with the mother reveal about the relationship between Krebs and the mother? His mom is worried and caring but he’s unruffled and doesn’t care. What is the mother insinuating When she says “ god has some work for everyone to do there can be no idle hands in his kingdom”?
* What does the reference to the civil war add to the character profile of Krebs?
* It tells us that Krebs is not the first one in the family to witness the fear and horror of war his experience is universal to all of those who have participated in war. His parents are asking him to get a life, get a job and get married just like his other friends. His mom is worried that he lost his ambition.
When his mother asks him if he loves her, he answers “ no”. He lost his feelings, he feels nothing, he doesn’t know what love means anymore. The selection’s title is ironic because just when things were getting good his mom ruined everything; he doesn’t want to look for a job, * How does the title of the story take on a special meaning at the end of the selection? * To Harold the home has become merely a house. The association of warmth and safety in the title are now gone and replaced by an impersonal word that, like Krebs himself, houses no emotions.
