Soldier's Home Setting Analysis

Soldier's Home Setting Analysis

The Soldier's Home, by Ernest Hemingway, is a war story, but not really focused on war. It was more about the affects the war had on the main character Krebs, who was a soldier in the war, and how he dealt with it when everything was done and over and had to come home. The story explained how he adjusts to civilian life again. In this story the setting plays a very important role. Without a setting, it would be difficult to understand certain things such as why a character made a choice or the emotions the character is feeling. The setting helps to paint the mental picture of the story.

This story is taken place around 1919. The war had just ended, it was World War 1. The two settings are one being in Rhine, Germany, where Krebs was overseas, and second being his "home" back in Oklahoma. But I also agree that there is a third setting, although it's not literal, it was Kreb's mindset. All three settings help us to see why Kreb's feels, acts, and lives, or make the choices he does.

Before enlisting in the Marines in 1917, he was in a Methodist college in Kansas. From that we see he comes from a religious background. After reading that it made me think that his family is a stricter family and probably "close" in the way that the parents have high expectations for their kids and want them to look good and acceptable to God. Once the war ended his friends had already came back and he came home years later. The hustle and bustle and greetings of the troop's home was over by the time he got back, so he didn't get much attention. He came home to his small hometown in Oklahoma, but didn't feel to welcomed when he got there. Everyone was over the excitement of the war and didn't care to listen to his stories. "Krebs found that to be listened to at all he had to lie, and after he had done this twice he, too, had a reaction against the war and against talking about it. A distaste for everything that had happened to him in the war set in because of the lies he had told."(p. 117)

In Germany and France, it seemed he liked it much better there and was missing it once he was home. It might have been a good get away for him; to get away from his parents, and grow up a little. He had a sense of humor when he said how the girls were easier to get along with in Germany because they didn't talk much due to the language barrier. (p. 119) Since all of his friends came home earlier, he was behind in the progression of adjusting back into the swing of things. Many had already married, and gotten good jobs. Kreb's was alone. He said he was okay with the fact he didn't have a girl, but I'm sure it bothered him.

When Kreb's talked on how he would watch the girls walk on the sidewalk, in the shade of the trees it gives me a glimpse of his hometown. It makes me think of Longmeadow, MA. In Longmeadow, it's a small town, everyone knows everyone, and there's many tree shaded streets. Many people are very athletic, always outside walking or jogging along. This is exactly how I