Conflict in the story Soldier’s Home

Ernest Hemingway’s story titled “Soldier’s Home” features a youth, Harold Krebs who is unable to adapt and lead an ordinary life after returning from war. Akin to several fellow soldiers-turned-writers, Hemingway uses this tale to explain his own problems with adjusting to a civilian life after the war. Though Krebs does set store by the truth, circumstances and society coerce him into lying. The tale depicts, in an accurate manner, the contradiction between his personal values (which changed drastically following his experiences on the battlefield) and people’s expectations from him (he is expected to display compliance with societal values). Ultimately, Krebs resorts to a life of seclusion, alienating himself from love, ambition, societal relationships, and religion (LAGGC).

Several circumstances combine and give rise to the conflicts outlined in the story. But three elements, in particular, contribute significantly to Krebs’ conflict: the failure of Krebs’ hometown inhabitants to welcome him back like a hero; Krebs’ family’s failure to comprehend his woes and struggles; and Krebs’ very own nature and values which pose a challenge to his adapting to society (Temper).

Society contributes greatly to the conflict witnessed in the tale. The townsfolk regard Krebs’ exceedingly late return from battle peculiar. Krebs anticipates a grand welcome, which he fails to receive owing to his late arrival. This gives rise to feelings of betrayal within him; he could have died at war but nobody acknowledges him. As his community is not interested in real war-time stories, Krebs begins to avoid mingling with people. Owing to his noncompliance with the societal rule that he seek employment and marry, society doesn’t accept him (Temper).

The second element contributing greatly to conflict within the tale is Krebs’ family. Krebs ceases to feel a sense of belongingness at home. His mother is unable to grasp the fact that he has endured anguish and struggle during the war. She attempts at persuading Krebs to seek employment like other men. Krebs doesn’t have faith in God any longer. He grapples with attempting to reconcile his personal war-connected feelings and his community’s perceptions of the war. "Krebs found that to be listened to at all he had to lie, and after he had done this twice he, too, had a reaction against the war and against talking about it. A distaste for everything that had happened to him in the war set in because of the lies he had told" (Hemingway, 170). Both Hemingway (who fought in the First World War) and Krebs are coerced into telling lies with regard to their war-time experience simply so others would hear them out. Hemingway became accustomed to telling lies in this regard, and ultimately became disgusted by it: his deceit in sensationalizing the actual dullness of war kept eating at his conscience (Meyers).

The final big conflict is Krebs’s struggle with adjusting to an ordinary civilian life. The physical and psychological effects of war have caused him to enter an idle phase of life. Krebs cannot identify any goal he wishes to accomplish in life. Here, the conflict lies in his identification of what he is now. He realizes the fact that war has transformed him; Hemingway has theatrically presented this transformation against the backdrop of a small town that has seen little change besides the coming-of-age of little girls. Clearly, the townsfolk have no interest in listening to real wartime stories but are ‘all-ears’ when it comes to fantasies of war. Thus, Krebs’s attitude towards the war turns bitter and he begins to despise all that has occurred with his life (LAGGC).
As the tale progresses, Krebs forcefully attempts to bond with his family. At breakfast one day, when his mother attempts to persuade him to participate more enthusiastically in social life, she poses the following question, “Don’t you love your mother, dear boy?” (Hemingway, 125); to which he honestly replies, “No…I don’t love anybody” (125). He is unable to hold back what he truly feels, leaving his mother in tears. Krebs reacts by lying once again, and experiencing feelings of disgust for doing so. As Johnston states, her vision is blurred by tears and self-pity renders her unable to hear fact. She is apparently oblivious to the profound humiliation her son is facing by forcibly telling lies. He feigns love – he calls her ‘mummy’, attempts to become a good son, prays, and kisses her; but in the end, these serve to achieve nothing but send him fleeing from home that much faster (Johnston).

All through the course of the tale, readers are consciously aware of the growing clash between Krebs’ personal beliefs and societal expectations of conformance from him. The moment he returns, society requires him to offer productive input to community life. His family is concerned with his isolation from society though they appear not to grasp how serious the issue is. His wartime experiences have cultivated a certain numbness within him that keeps him from enjoying the simple things in life. This is a live example of war’s dehumanization of a person’s brain. Further, the story examines societal response to a war-traumatized person. The story, however, does not resolve the conflict. Krebs lacks the power to comply. Nothing is known, ultimately, of Krebs’ life in the future, except that he plans on relocating to Kansas, a place where he would not be forced to comply and where he could lead a peaceful life sans any emotional complications. His decision to leave for seeking employment suggests he needs to get away from a system he doesn’t trust any longer (LAGGC).


Bibliography
Hemingway, Ernst. “Soldier’s Home, Contact Collection of Contemporary Writers.” Boni & Liveright: New York (1925).
Johnston, Kenneth G. The Tip of the Iceberg: Hemingway and the short story. Greenwood: The Penkevill Publishing Company, (1987). 75-79.
LAGGC. "Ernest Hemmingway research paper." CUNY.edu (2011).
Meyers, Jeffrey. “Hemingway: A Biography.” New York: Harper and Row Publishers, (1985).
Temper, Kelly. "Factors in “Soldier’s Home” Conflict." Warehouse (n.d.): 3.