Initial
Personal Reaction: Upon reading A
Soldier's Home,
I was instantly drawn into Hemingway's world of a quaint small town.
The story gave me greater insight into what a person feels like while
readjusting to life after war. Throughout the story, Krebs was trying
to forget the consequences of war and deal with society's pressures
of conformity. It was particularly interesting to me that Krebs lost
all motivation for having a girl. I would think that having a girl
would help take his mind off war, but Krebs felt the opposite way. He
didn't want to have to go through the process again, and he didn't
want to talk to her. I also though it was interesting that Krebs
couldn't say that he loved his mother. How couldn't he love the woman
who gave him life and was nothing but loving and supportive of him?
LiteraryElement/
Thematic Analysis: Through the image of Dutch collars contrasting
with Kreb's uniform, Hemingway highlights the idea that Krebs doesn't
fit in with society. Before Krebs went off to war, he went to a
Methodist college. We learn from a photograph that all his fraternity
brothers wore the same height and style collar, which emphasizes
conformity. The picture of Krebs wearing a matching collar is a stark
contrast to the photograph of Krebs in his uniform. No longer was he
a part of the fraternity, but he had moved on and now identified with
his fellow soldiers. When Krebs came back home, he noticed that all
the girls were wearing their hair differently, and that "they
all wore sweaters and shirt waists with round Dutch collars. It was a
pattern." Hemingway is showing that things had changed since
Krebs had returned home. All the girls at home dressed similarly,
reaffirming the view that they had already formed their social
connections, and Krebs wasn't a part of it. When Hemingway
wrote, "but the world they were in was not the world he was in,
it showed that he felt alienated; however, he did like the pattern of
them. The pattern was visually reinforced through the repetition of
the Dutch collars.
Questions/Comments:
Why
don't you think Kreb's father never spoke in the story?
Do
you think that one of the girls in photograph taken in front of the
Rhine was Kreb's girlfriend?
Why
could Krebs tell his sister he loved her, but not tell his mother he
loved her?
This is what I visualized when Hemingway talked about the short bobbed hair cuts that ladies were wearing.
Very nice wording I was thinking the same but couldn't find the words
ReplyDeleteGreat post Christina, I was wondering about the girl by the Rhine as well. I don't think that she was his girlfriend, because she probably couldn't speak English. Also, Krebs wanted a girl who would be easy to just be with without the pressure of getting to know her or trying to understand how women "worked." Very good insight into the difference of uniforms, I definitely didn't get that as clearly by reading the book. I think that Krebs was able to say he loved his sister because of her young innocence and simplicity. I don't understand the significance of the father though.
ReplyDeleteThis blog was greatly written, i love how you used information from the story to back you up. You also had great details that really made me think twice about the story. I learned a lot from your blog.
ReplyDeleteWow you got a lot out of the story, very nice post. I like how you described the identity with the fraternity to the identity to the military brothers. To answer some of your questions I don't think his father talked to him because it showed that much more alienation. Kreb's was so out of the loop with the American society that even his own father couldn't relate to anything that Kreb's was going through. He maybe felt that Kreb's was kind of weird and maybe felt ashamed of him.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the pictures. It made me visualize the women in the story better. You had alot of great points and I learned alot. I do wonder why Krebs could say "I love you" to his sister but not to his mother. If this sexual relationship between Krebs and his sister is true (which I'm having a hard time swolling but could very well be the case) then his sister was probably the only woman Krebs could still have feelings for and could have a connection with. His mother was part of the conformity he felt alienated from.
ReplyDelete