Soldier’s Home Questions by Ernest Hemingway, Essay Example

The title, “Soldier’s Home,” focuses on the setting. Do you have a clear picture of Krebs’s home? Describe it, filling in missing details from your associations of home, Krebs’s routine, r anything else you can use.

The Krebs’s home is a two-story home on the corner of a upper middle class neighborhood. There are four bedrooms, and the floors are a made of dark, polished wood that is accented by Oriental rugs throughout the house. The dining room has an immense, oak table, with seating for six. The front parlor has a plush couch, high back chair, and a Steinway piano in the corner next to a window that overlooks the back yard. There is also a bay window that looks out to the front yard and the street.

What does the photograph of Krebs, the corporal, and the German girls reveal?

The photograph shows how the war has changed Krebs and the corporal physically, and the strain of war on the civilians in the middle. They have become thin and weak under harsh conditions, while the women focus more on survival than on beauty. It is a huge contrast to the beautiful women and town that Krebs returns to.

Belleau Wood, Soissons, the Champagne, St. Mihiel, and the Argonne were the sites of fierce and bloody fighting. What effect have these battles had on Krebs? Why do you think he won’t talk about them to the people at home?

It appears that these battles left Krebs permanently damaged. The horror and violence of the war was all around him. Whatever sense of childhood he had was lost, and he became a different person. Since he remembers his home as a place of innocence, he believes that the truth is too appalling to hear, and so he withdraws and disconnects.

Why does Krebs avoid complications and consequences? How has the war changed his attitudes toward work and women? How is his hometown different from Germany and France? What s the conflict in the story?

Krebs’s experiences in the war have shown him that there is a lot of suffering, and that it is better to not feel than to experience the emotions that come with losing someone you love. This feeling is what creates the conflict in the story. Krebs is a different person now, and he is having trouble fitting back into this world.

Why do you think Hemingway refers to the protagonist as Krebs rather than Harold? What is the significance of his sister calling him “Hare”?

Hemingway calls him Krebs because it is the way he was referred to as a soldier.  However, when we meet his sister, she calls him by a nickname, one she probably used all the time. The use of the two names show us that Krebs is a different person than before.