*Initial response: After reading, “Soldiers Home" by Hemingway I could not help but feel empathy for Krebs. He comes back home to Kansas after spending a couple years in war, to find that things are different. When Krebs went to war, it was straight out of college so when he comes back a different person he realizes that the town and the people are different in his eyes. Krebs went to war a teenager and came out a man. In the story it shows how Krebs is having a hard time adjusting to how life is supposed to go on now that he is back home. The literary element that sticks out to me the most is the setting. Hemingway writes this story so good that it seems as if I was Krebs experiencing what was taking place in front of me. As I was reading the story I felt for Krebs because I could see how he comes back home a different man and has to pick up where he left off and is lost. He had to grow up quickly when he joined the marines however back home is a different lifestyle. He doesn’t seem to have any fight left in him because the story goes on to say that Krebs avoids confrontation. He also doesn’t seem to have any drive left in him either and it shows when Krebs gets up every morning sits on his porch then goes to play pool. It seems as if he is going through some depression.
*Literary element: Hemingway does a wonderful job describing how enlisting in the marines straight out of high school and coming home a man is a hard task. Hemingway shows this experience by using the setting as a literary element. Hemmingway is trying to show how Krebs is having difficulty adjusting to life as a "normal" person. Krebs comes back from war and he seems as if he comes home right where he left off. His mother still cooks for him, his father doesn’t seem to have a good relationship with him, the girls are different, and he really can’t figure what to do next. He has this set schedule of sleeping in, walking to the library, going home for lunch, sitting on the front porch, and playing pool. This shows that he is trying to adjust but it doesn’t seem to be working. Hemingway shows that his environment is different from where he left off and on top of that the character Krebs is different so it seems like too much to handle for Krebs.
*questions/comments: I think Hemingway wanted the reader to infer something from the character known as the father of Krebs but I really could not point out his meaning for doing that. The Father of Krebs is mentioned but really doesn’t play a big role. Did anybody make any inferences on Krebs’s father?
