Soldier's Home

Soldier's Home

by Ernest Hemingway

The relation between mother and son

Krebs Harold was a simple boy that went to a conservatory school in Kansas. The first impression that this story creates is that of a soldier who has returned from war to live the remainder of his life in an institution where veterans go to die. Rather, it tells the story of a young man, only recently returned from

World War I, who has moved back into his parents' house while he figures out what he wants to do with the rest of his life.

"There is a picture which shows him among fraternity brothers, all of them wearing exactly the same height and style collar". Everybody was forced to wear a uniform. He was acquainted to following his peers in their behavior. Maybe that is why he joined the army straight out of college. Later on in the story, he says: "...the only thing for a man to do, easily and naturally, when he might have done something else...".

He was in the war for two years. At least that is when he returned home, because the war was already finished earlier ("By the time Krebs returned to his home town in Oklahoma the greeting of heroes was over. He came back much too late." Meyer).

When Krebs came back he did not want to talk about the battles that he fought although he was a hero. He took part in the most important and crucial sites of the war. He did not want to think about it anymore.

Now he is home, in his hometown Oklahoma, with simple families and lifestyles. He wants to forget everything and have a normal life but not how his mother wants him to. War changed him both physically and mentally. "...the times so long back ... now lost their cool, valuable quality and then were lost themselves". The author makes a direct characterization of him: