War and Post Traumatic Disorder in “Soldier's Home”

Name: Instructor: Course: Date: War and Post Traumatic Disorder in “Soldier’s Home” Ernest Hemmingway gives a story titled a "Soldier's Home" to narrate a life experience of Harold Krebs who is a soldier at the time when he attended Methodist college in Kansas. Krebs spent two years at the Rhine and returned home a different person in 1919. The author uses the theme of war and post traumatic disorder (PSTD) to show the reader how Krebs underwent a distraught state of the mind with sad memories that he yearned to narrate to the people and his family. Hemingway elaborates the theme of war and PSTD in "Soldier's Home" through the experience of the protagonist Harold Krebs by the use of setting, characterization, and symbolism in the novel. Krebs has been on the battlefield for a long time. In most cases, he has been witnessing deaths and destruction of properties that take a toll and increase his mental torture. In several incidences, Krebs watched his fellow soldiers blown to pieces or shot to death and he had nothing in his capacity to rescue their lives. Secondly, Krebs was in a sad state, recalling how they killed other people for a meaningless cause. After his return back home, Krebs found it difficult to come to terms with the present life in his home town Oklahoma after returning from war. Initially, Krebs expected many things to remain the same when he arrived at home (Kobler 377). He never believed himself when he could not conform to the society. The atrocities of war alienated his family and other people who he cared for away from him. Therefore, the experience at war times coupled with the new environment he exhibited back in Oklahoma town traumatized his mind. Thus, he never received a warm reception when he arrived back home (Kobler 377). Elsewhere, Hemmingway indicated the theme of post-traumatic disorder as a consequence of war. For instance, Krebs for a long time remained isolated and felt loneliness. The narrator said, "He wanted to live alone without consequences" (Hemmingway 166). Krebs was afraid to get an emotional attachment to anybody since he has been afraid of losing the close friends just like his colleagues and soldiers in the war. On a separate note,...