Ernest Hemingway Soldier's Home Analysis

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Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” , is a short story that really gives you a semblance of a war soldier’s return home. Ernest Hemingway was an ambulance driver in World War I. After he suffered a serious wound, he returned home to write stories that were related to the war such as “Soldier’s Home”, which may have been influenced by his own return home, from the war. Harold, or otherwise known as Krebs, is a veteran that is returning home after a delayed departure after the war ended. He has a mild case of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which makes him think a lot about the war, and does not want to talk about it, or particularly move on from it. He eventually decides and is encouraged by his family members that he needs to move on with…show more content…
The definition of setting I think best applies to this story is, time, place, and social environment. Krebs just got back from the war, whether he delayed his departure or not he just returned home from an area that he will forever associate with war, meaning home is his safe haven or at least it’s supposed to be. Since he arrived home later, he didn’t get the celebratory greeting like many of the other veterans in his town did, even though he fought the exact same war they did, for the exact same cause. His family members compare him to other people his age that are already have jobs and are starting families, but he isn’t quite ready to move on from his time in the war and the experiences he went through. Particularly his mother seems concerned that he has not started his life…show more content…
Although his drive to impress his parents does win and he does show signs of him moving on in his life, he still needs that readjustment period. For a better understanding of Hemingway’s short story, a reader-response strategy increases the reader's understanding of the story. The reader feels like after Harold’s return home, he wasn’t given the proper welcome a war hero should have, along with sympathy they need to be given, because of all the things they experienced while they were away. It may upset the reader, because Harold needed time to heal and you can’t rush that or it may lead to detrimental consequences. There are many veteran families that have dealt with the very same thing, except they handled it the proper way by giving them time to heal, along with being supportive, and willing to listen when the soldier was ready to speak of his or her own experiences. The writer’s work suggests the audience is any generation that will have a general understanding of war and its side effects. As the reader, war is understandable, because there are many wars occurring right now as this is being written. As the reader reads through the short story for the first time they understand that the main character has just gotten back from war and that he is struggling with moving on from it. The second time the reader reads the story, they get the feeling
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