Shell Shock In Soldier's Home

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War is a terrible thing and kills many people physically for some sort of power or will. Some return from war with their bodies though and are suffering mentally with what was known at the time as “shell shock”. This is the case in the story “Soldier’s Home” where a young man Krebs Krebs comes home from war destroyed, mentally. We are faced with a character who is suffering from “shell shock” and has returned home from war seeing traumatic war experiences. Although he is lucky that he was not a physical casualty; he was a mental casualty. Krebs Krebs suffers from traumatic experiences that he fought through in WW1. He is damaged from the traumatic experiences more than anyone knows and Krebs is an example on how society demands conformity, and the…show more content…
He enjoyed playing pool, reading on his porch, and in the evening practicing his clarinet. These were the simple things that he enjoyed because he could be isolated and relax and not have anyone bothering him. Another thing he liked was the French and German girls because they did not talk, they did not question. They were simple, like him and in that way he was friends with them. Krebs talk about the girls in his town and how they were fun to look at. They were good looking and he liked the clothes they wore and the way they wore their hair but simply put they were too complicated. He wanted a girl but he did not want to have to work to get her. He figured that if he wanted to date one of the girls from his town then he would have to lie. It was too much work for him and to him it wasn’t worth it. Again mentioning that he did not want any consequences and that he wanted to live without consequences. Krebs said, “…he would have liked a girl if she had come to him and not wanted to talk. But here at home it was all too complicated…” (Hemingway). It was not worth his trouble and all Krebs wanted was just the simple life to forget about the war. To not have any consequences or have to fit
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