Solldier's Home Summary

Summary of “Soldier’s Home”

Harold Krebs, a Methodist college student, went off to World War I as part of the US Marines in 1917. During the war, he fought in many fierce and bloody battles: Belleau Wood, Soissons, the Champagne, St. Mihiel, and the Argonne. There, a picture was taken of him, a fellow corporal, and two German girls on the Rhine. Krebs came back to his home, a small Oklahoma town, in the summer of 1919, when the celebration for the heroes was already over. He did not want to come back. Still, he had. There, nobody wants to listen to his stories about the war, so he made them up twice. But even his lies were not popular and he stopped talking about it. The town has not changed much during his absence. During this time, Krebs does nothing but sleeping late and hanging around all day. He likes to sit on the front porch, watching the town girls walked by. He likes to look at them but does not want to work to get one. He starts to read a history book about the war, about all the things he has been through. It was the most interesting reading he has ever done, he is finally learning about the war. Krebs is still a hero to his sister Helen and his mom. His mom sometimes asks him about the war, but her attention to the stories was elsewhere. One day, on breakfast, she tells him that he should settle down, finds a job and gets married. All of the boys his age did that. She tells him that she prays for him everyday. She asks if he loves her. He replies that he does not. She was hurt by that and so Krebs tells her that he did not mean it. Krebs tells her that he will try to be good. She asks him to kneel with her and pray. She prays, but he cannot. He leaves, thinking that he will get a job in Kansas City and get out of the house. He only wants to have his life go smoothly. He goes to watch Helen play indoor baseball at her school.