Modernism Assignment 2: Soldier's Home

After returning home from the war Krebs seems disinterested in life. He continually says that he wants life to go smoothly, and isn't inclined to put effort into anything. He doesn't pursue girls because he comes to the conclusion that over all they aren't worth the effort, they were complications, he would have to talk to them and bother with "the intrigue and the politics." Instead he sits on his front porch and observes them walking by. He likes to watch them walk by while he is observing them from the detatchment of his porch, but he doesn't like seeing them in the socially interactive setting of the ice crean parlor.

He isn't particularly interested in any vocation. His mother tries to persuade him to get a job, saying that God has work for everyone to do, and that there are "no idle hands in His Kingdom," at which point Krebs states that he is not in "His Kingdom". This adds to the sense of aimlessness in his character. He tells his mother that he doesn't lover her, that he doesn't love anyone. He seems to resent his father, who is portrayed with vague distance throughout the story. He seems to like his younger sister best out of the family, maybe because she is innocent and looks up to him.

He talks about how life was simpler in Germany and he didn't want to come back. This displays disillusionment in that it attacks the idea of America as a great nation of freedom and happiness, Kreb was happier in Europe. This probably reflects Hemingways feelings ont he subject. Kreb says that things are more complicated in America, illustrating this he uses the subject of girls, saying that "He liked the look of them much better than the French girls or the German girls. But the world they were in was not the world he was in. He would like to have one of them. But it was not worth it." This could possibly be used as a metaphor for America in general, superficially better to look at, but lost in complications and less substantial.

When Krebs wanted to talk about the war people in his town were uninterested, having "heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities." People were interested in hearing things that affirmed their view of the war and its horrors. Krebs says that "His acquaintances, who had heard detailed accounts of German women found chained to machine guns in the Argonne and who could not comprehend, or were barred by their patriotism from interest in, any German machine gunners who were not chained, were not thrilled by his stories." People were resistant to the idea that those on the other side had felt the same about the war as they did. They wanted to view their country as the conquering saviour, disregarding the fact that whether or not they initially supported the cause or reasoning behind the war, once you begin invading their country and destroying their homes it makes very little difference.