The Impact of Killing, Essay Example

The impact of killing on the main characters in both Killings by Andre Dubus and Soldier’s Home by Ernest Hemingway are in comparison similar and different. While the main character’s lives are immensely changed, the reactions differ.  Matt Fowler and Harold Krebs undergo emotional events which change their lives and alter the outcomes of their relationships with family and friends. Whereas one story is based on crime, revenge and morality, the other is a story of lost innocence and hope.

In Killings the main character Matt Fowler is struggling with the loss of his son due to a crime of murder. Richard Stout murders Matt’s son in a crime of passion over Richard’s soon-to-be ex-wife. Matt and Ruth’s son, Frank, had begun to see Strout’s wife and spending a lot of time at her home. Matt and Ruth were worried over this situation and tried to speak with Frank about it. However, Frank was not worried. When Frank is murdered, Matt feels even angrier over the situation that he could not prevent.

When Matt learns of the killing he realizes that “he had not so much moved through his life as wandered through it, his spirit like a dazed body bumping into furniture and corners” (Dubus, 1980, chapter 15, p. 9). The event turns his emotional state into one of uncertain of the past and the present. He was confused and depressed over the murder. There was clear guilt of Strout pulling the trigger killing Frank; but he is still a human being and this created a lot of conflict for Matt.

As Matt watches his wife, Ruth, struggle with her son’s death and become despondent and miserable, his thoughts turn to the same evil he so hates which killed his son. As he loses touch with himself and his wife, he feels he has no choice but to satisfy his own horrifying desire to take another person’s life. He wants to restore his relationship with his wife and find closure to his son’s death. Matt desires some form of a normal life again. But he feels isolated and alone; separated from others by his anger and guilt.

As Dubus (1980) wrote, “the gun kicked in Matt’s hand, and the explosion of the shot surrounded him, isolating him in a nimbus of sound that cut him off from all time, all his history, isolating him standing absolutely still on the dirt road with the gun in his hand” (Chapter 15, p. 18). This action depicts the character’s struggle to find solid ground and relief from his anger and anguish of his son’s death. Hemingway uses this verbal picture to demonstrate the emotional struggle death has on the characters.

The main character in Soldier’s Home, Harold Krebs, is vastly different from Matt. Harold is affected by the killing he has been involved in through the war and is looking for normalcy through the route of acceptance and not revenge. While the war and the killings have changed his live also, his dilemma is centered on withdrawing from people and being unable to feel any emotions. He needs for the world to be simple again and be able to move beyond the horrors he has seen. He attempts to fit in but feels that on one is really listening to him. So he withdraws further into a life he is trying to make simple.

His fellow companions in the war have settled in and found a way to life past the war. Harold is unable to focus or find a path to follow. He hangs around and shoots pool in a local tavern and refuses to find employment or date women. “He did not want any consequences ever again. He wanted to live along without consequences” (Hemingway, 1987, p. 113). He also does not wish to date or find a wife as he prefers that women do not talk. He cannot commit emotionally to anyone and therefore prefers not to talk whenever possible.

When Harold’s mother confronts him he realizes that he must make a decision and that he cannot live this way any longer (Bernardo, 2010). He has been completed left unbalanced in life and emotion due to the war. He has lost his faith in the things that he grew up with and believed in. When he returns to his hometown nothing has really changed. The town is the same, his father parks his car in the same spot, he sees the same people he went to school with and the same restaurants are there. However, the change is in Harold himself. He has a difficult time grasping this and dealing with this. As he deals with his mother’s unhappiness over his change and lack of emotion, he realizes he will never be able to change and assimilate into the home he left to go to war for.  He understands the need for him to leave. He has lost his belief system which is meant to protect him.

Dubus and Hemingway both use a set of moral and ethics in their stories. Matt struggles with his thoughts, plan and final act of murdering another human being. In the end, he gives up his morals and commits murder for which he will never recovery emotionally. Harold has lost his set of values and conveys this through a demeanor of apathy and disinterest in people and life. Both characters end up isolated and alone. The authors both use the premise of killing and the response to it to demonstrate the effect it can have on the people it touches.

Works Cited

Bernardo, Karen. Commentary: Ernest Hemingway’s Soldier’s Home. 2010. Web. Retrieved May 6, 2010 from http://www.storybites.com/hemingwaysoldier2.htm

Dubus, Andre. Killing. Finding a Girl in America: A Novella and Ten Short Stories. David R. Godine Publisher, New Hampshire. 1980. Web. Retrieved May 6, 2010 from http://books.google.com/books?id=LlwI_0rUh6YC&dq=killings+by+andre+dubus+short+story&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=mi_jS9iNKYS0lQegh6n-AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=12&ved=0CEsQ6AEwCw#v=onepage&q=explosion&f=false

Hemingway, Ernest. Soldier’s Home. The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. Simon & Schuster, New York. 1987. Web. Retrieved May 6, 2010 from http://books.google.com/books?id=GG7Y6ZFGk0AC&pg=PA111&dq=soldiers+home+by+ernest+hemingway&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false