SOLDIER’S HOMEEarnest Hemingway

Characters

Author

Summary/ Plot

Historical background

Theme Irony

1. Author

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

(1899 – 1961)

Place of birth

Place of death

Clarence

Edmonds

Hemingway

Grace

Hall

Hemingway

KANSAS CITY

1917

graduated from high school.

1st job: reported for Kansas City Star for a few months.

ITALY

WORLD WAR I

joined the Red Cross Ambulance Corps.

1918: was seriously wounded and returned home

PARIS

1922

worked as a foreign correspondent.

fell under the influence of the modernistwriters and artists of the 1920s “Lost Generation" expatriate community.

=> The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway's first novel, was published in 1926.

SPAIN

SPANISH CIVIL WAR

worked as a journalist for the North American Newspaper Alliance.

=> For Whom The Bell Tolls was published in 1940.

CUBA

1945 - 1960

won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and the Nobel Prize in 1954.

The Old Man and the Sea was published in 1952.

Works

* 7 novels* 6 short-story collections * 2 non-fiction works

Three novels, four collections of short stories and three non-fiction works were published posthumously.

Novels: The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), The Old Man and the Sea (1952),….

Short-story collections: Three Stories and Ten Poems (1923), Men Without Women (1927), Winner Take Nothing (1933),…

Non-fiction works: Death in the Afternoon (1932), Green Hills of Africa (1935), A Moveable Feast (1964),…

STYLEplain grammar

easily accessible language

few adjectives

short, rhythmic sentences that concentrate on action rather than reflection.

The Iceberg Theory

THE ICEBERG THEORY

"If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing ."

The hard facts float above water, while the supporting structure, complete with symbolism, operates out-of-sight.

The readers have to feel the whole story and fill the gaps left with their feelings.

2. Theme/ Historical background

Theme:

Experience of war changes a person so much that he may never be able

to fit back into the life he had before.

Historical Background- "Soldier's Home" was written in 1924 while Ernest Hemingway was living in Paris with his wife Hadley Richardson (at that time). - The story was first published in 1925 in ”Contact Collection Of Contemporary Writers”, an anthology that included works by such important writers as Ford Madox Ford, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and Ezra Pound before appearing in Hemingway's exceptional first short story collection, ”In Our Time”.

Historical background

“Soldier’s Home” is Hemingway's subliminal confession of his life serving on the Italian front during the World War I.

• After the loss-making battles had been ceased, many of the soldiers returned to their home countries by ship. On their return there were usually a big welcome celebration because they were the ones that ended the war and brought glory for the United States

During the war they had to face death countless times and saw how their comrades died in the battles. Some of the minds of these people just could not process these visual impacts.

Many of them were not able to find a place to work because of the instable economic conditions after the war which negatively affected the labour market

The realization of the fact that all the great sacrifices they had had to make brought little honour or attention made many of the soldiers depressive and disillusioned.

Several places and dates mentioned in the story are factual places where the European battles were fought.

Methodist College KANSAS CITYBelleau WoodArgonne forest

3. Characters H

arol

d Kr

ebs

Harold'

s

mother

Helen Krebs

Harold'

s father

Harold Krebs, a young man who is tormented from his experiences in the war. He comes to the realization

that he does not belong in his childhood home

anymore.

Harold's mother, a religious woman. She

tries to get her son out of his post-war trauma

by focusing on getting a job and finding a girl.

Helen Krebs, Harold's younger sister. She

plays indoor baseball and looks up to her

brother.

Harold's father, who is absent most of the time. He never makes a direct appearance

in the story.

Harold Krebs • He returns from World War I too late for the heroes welcome, and finds a society interested only in lies not the realities of war

• The true stories he tells of the war differ dramatically from the lies that the others tell. >> He embellishes his stories >> He cannot deal with the guilt of the lies >> The conflict between him and the people of the town

• He loses the purity of experience which he encountered at times in the war. >> Harold Krebs now finds himself adrift in a society that he no longer feels he belongs in.

• Krebs has been thrust into the confines of small town America, and all the cultural doldrums that go with it. The town was never affected by the war, not as Krebs had been.

• Harold feels the conflict of his belief in God, and is unsure of how to deal with this.

• Krebs is an observer, rather than a participant. He is always looking and watching, but rarely interacting.

Harold's mother

Krebs' mother reflects the typical view of women during this era: she is a God fearing mother and a housewife. She attempts to persuade Harold that he should find a job and be more like the other boys.

Helen Krebs

• Harold's younger sister

• She plays indoor baseball and looks up to her brother

He is absent most of the time and never makes a direct appearance in the story

Harold's father

4. Summary

IRONY

• The name of the story: “ A soldier’s home”

• -Home: the place we return when life is too rough-The ironic meaning: A place full of sadness and sorrow

The return of Krebs when “the greeting of heroes was over”

• put the story in a down spiral for the lead character => Krebs seemed disappointed in coming home late missing a hero welcome.

• Nobody shares Krebs' experiences • He can’t justify his actions in war. =>War was a bad dream for Krebs

“You didn’t need a girl unless you thought about

them.”

• War has taught him to control his desire, which was why he didn’t like doing anything at home.

“Now he would have liked a girl if she had…not wanted to talk. But here at home it was all too

complicated.”

• his obstacles were too big and unnecessary to give an effort to overcome.

• He liked girls. He would have like one if she had just come to him

• Unlike other tradition heroes, Krebs was an antihero who didn't want to do any big task

Thanks for

your

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