Introduction

In the story "Soldier's home", Hemingway, rather succinctly, tells the story of a young soldier who returns home after the First World War The story is about Krebs, the young soldier who has returned to his home only to feel alienated from the rest of the world. Symbolism plays quite a role to emphasize the deepening alienation of the society and the fact that Krebs is progressively getting carried away by his own mental projections.

Analysis

Hemingway has used symbolism to identify a person who seems to be a failure in life. Nothing seems to create enthusiasm in the young soldier and he also seems to be unlucky in life. The fact that Krebs returns home well after the euphoria that returning soldiers could elicit on ordinary people seems to indicate his laid back approach and his inability to convert circumstances to his favor. We see that even though he is a soldier, he kills his time playing pool, reading books, or simply sleeping. Hemingway throws light on his attitude to life when he says that Krebs liked to spend the hottest part of the day in the dark pool rooms: a symbolism that alludes to the fact that he was an escapist; one who wanted to escape life or see it in an imaginary that manner suited him best.

His relationship with the family also shows him as a cold person. He is unmoved by the fact that his father has allowed him to use the car even though as a young child he often looked forward to using the car. He feels that he no longer belongs to God's kingdom and is disillusioned by organized religion. The fact that he loves his bubbly sister more than his mother perhaps shows that he cannot stand demands made by others. That he prefers to leave home and go away in search of a job indicates his need to escape from a system that he no longer believes in.

Krebs attitude to life is in great contrast to other men who have returned from the war. For example Krebs’ mother indicates rather subtly, that he is not employed or making worthy use of his time even though men of his age were already settled in life. She even goes to say that he is not ambitious and that his father would approve him doing any kind of job since all jobs are honorable. We see that his family members are fed up of the lack of motivation and zeal in a young man who spends his time unproductively. Perhaps Hemingway alludes to the fact that the system that attracted so many young men and women with high ideals of patriotism failed miserably to deliver. Hemingway tells us that Krebs often lied to others in order to project himself as a brave soldier. This means that Krebs was not a good soldier. Often Hemingway shows Krebs going back to the lessons learnt from the army; an association that made him cold and insensitive. We feel that Krebs was a virtuous person whose morale and zest for life was destroyed by the horrors that he witnessed in war. He is so disillusioned by life that he becomes fatalistic and believes that the events in life will happen when it was the ripe time for them to happen.

He did not want any consequences. He did not want any consequences ever again. He wanted to live along without consequences. Besides he did not really need a girl. The army had taught him that....You did not need a girl unless you thought about them. He learned that in the army. Then sooner or later you always got one. When you were really ripe for a girl you always got one. You did not have to think about it. Sooner or later it could come. He had learned that in the army [Hemingway, 1925]

Krebs attitude toward girls is one important factor that shows that he had accepted life as it is. He no longer believed that he needed to strain himself to achieve something. We see Krebs admiring the girls when they walked past his room, but he sees a pattern in their behavior and dressing; a pattern from which he is far removed. In the opening paragraphs of the story, we see that Krebs too was locked within a pattern "Krebs went to the war from a Methodist college in Kansas. There is a picture which shows him among his fraternity brothers, all of them wearing exactly the same height and style collar". He is now free from any patterns of restrictions set by the society. He is a free man now and could do as he pleased; not according to the dictates of the society that ostensibly gave it a liberal outlook. Krebs observes the girls and feels that they have not changed much other than some minor changes in their appearance. This also shows Krebs' mind that finds no novelty in the world around him. He finds life as it is even though outwardly, the world seems to have changed much. That his mother asks him to invite girls for ride shows that she somehow wanted to bring back Krebs into a life that she saw as normal. Krebs on the other hand wanted nothing from life. The fact that he wanted no consequences shows that he refrained to act in life. Only actions bring consequences. Hence he was not prepared to act or talk even for a girl. If they selected him, he was happy; he would not go in search of them.