In a weird way, Hemingway's story "A Soldier's Home" made me feel grateful. I was happy to look back on my life so far and be proud of my decisions and to have kept my ambition which has frayed and faltered many times but seldom failed. The story made me question what the definition of home really is and how I'm going to feel when I go away to college and grad school for the coming 6-8 years. I'm now legitimately terrified that in losing my stable sense of security I won't be able to succeed and all my effort will be useless. The aspect that really stood out for me is that he lost his drive. He no longer wanted to try anything he could possibly fail. There aren't any incidents of my past that this piece has made me ponder however as I stated earlier it has made me fearful for my future.
When you live in a society for long enough you begin to become a part of it, walk the way they do, dress the way they do, talk the way they do and share common thoughts. An example of this is when he was in college him and his fraternity brothers wore "Exactly the same height and style collar". Home isn't just one place, every time you leave one home a part of it follows you to the next and may possibly never fade. After his old social crowd, the army, had taught him that he "did not really need a girl" (166) he faced a challenge when his new society encouraged marriage as healthy and standard behavior. He did not wish to pursue a relationship and in his new world was therefore considered somewhat less successful as a man.
They say home is where your heart is but through his use of an omniscient third-person narrator Hemingway delves into the mind of Harold Krebs to show that home is simply what you've become accustomed to.
This question is going to be short but take some time to really think about this: What is home?
I like the final sentence about how you suggest that Hemingway "delves into the mind of Harold Krebs to show that home is simply what you've become accustomed to." I can totally see that in Krebs, who has an issue with conforming to social standards of his society. He tells himself throughout that in a sense he doesn't need those "things" to feel at home. Home was were he knew what he was doing and was doing what he wanted. He liked germany and didn't want to leave, he was accustom to it.
ReplyDeleteI like the question. Clearly from the story we can tell that home is not simply the four walls that make up a house, but the environment and people that surround you. He considered being with his family and in his hometown to be "home" when he left for the war, but upon returning from the war his idea of what home should be and the lifestyle he wanted had changed. Now he finds himself out of place and certainly not at home because what he wanted had changed. I think this happens a lot. As people grow up and their interests or lifestyle change what they see as comfortable, normal, or expected changes. I think home is where people find themselves comfortable and surrounded by an environment that they enjoy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kiefer about home being somewhere a person has been use to living. When Krebs came "home" it was not the same as he remembered. It was as if he was a stranger in the house he lived in for so long (i assume). It is an interesting point about him not wanting to "pursue a relationship". Do you think it could be a little old fashion that he would not want to do that because when krebs left there was not a huge push for marriage and there is when he gets home?
ReplyDeleteI just got to read your comment and yes we pretty much do have the same idea! I really like how you elaborated how his society encourages marriage. Also when you said how he lost his "drive," I never thought of that when I read the story myself, but that made a lot of sense because after he returned from the war, he pretty much didn't try to "improve" his life, instead he waited for long to finally move on and find a job; he also didn't find the girls around him attractive rather not too appealing. And I thought it was cool how you related the story to your life! Now that you mentioned going away and having a drastic change made me think if I really want to move far from home.
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