War and Social Protest in 20th Century American Literature
This essay examines two major themes in 20th century American literature — war and social protest — through close readings of Amy Lowell's poem "September, 1918" and Ernest Hemingway's short story "Soldier's Home." The paper analyzes how both works respond to the aftermath of World War I, contrasting Lowell's hopeful, bucolic vision of a world without war against Hemingway's portrayal of a traumatized veteran unable to reintegrate into civilian life. Together, these texts illustrate how the unprecedented carnage of modern warfare dismantled romantic notions of combat and gave rise to a powerful literary tradition of anti-war protest in American writing.
- War and Social Protest in American Literature: Overview of war and protest as literary themes
- Amy Lowell's Vision of a World Without War: Lowell's poem contrasts peace with wartime destruction
- Hemingway and the Trauma of the Returning Soldier: Krebs's post-war alienation and psychological damage
- Contrasting Responses to the Aftermath of War: Hopeful versus mournful anti-war literary visions
- The Enduring Anti-War Message: Both authors challenge readers to reject war's costs
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What makes this paper effective
- The essay uses close textual evidence — such as Krebs's line "I am not in the Kingdom of God" — to anchor its interpretive claims in specific moments from the primary texts.
- It builds a clear comparative framework, pairing a poem and a short story to show two distinct but complementary responses to the same historical event.
- The conclusion ties both works together thematically without forcing artificial agreement, acknowledging that Lowell is hopeful while Hemingway is mournful, yet both serve the anti-war argument.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates comparative literary analysis: it reads two texts side by side, identifies their contrasting tones and narrative strategies, and synthesizes those contrasts into a unified argument about how war reshaped literary expression in the 20th century. This technique shows how different genres — poetry and short fiction — can address the same historical trauma from distinct angles.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a broad contextual claim about war and protest in American literature, then devotes a paragraph each to Lowell and Hemingway before moving into comparative analysis. It closes with a personal evaluative section that synthesizes both works' messages. The structure is that of a focused comparative essay: introduce, analyze individually, compare, conclude.
War and Social Protest in American Literature
Two of the major themes in 20th century American literature are war and social protest. The United States has been engaged in a steady series of wars since the beginning of the 20th century. With the carnage of the First World War, the horrors of the Second, and the futility of Vietnam, many writers and artists contributed to a literature of protest concerning war and America's involvement in it.
Amy Lowell's Vision of a World Without War
Amy Lowell's "September, 1918" is a good example of how writers reacted to the First World War. Its presentation of a wistful era without war, juxtaposed against the current "broken world," illustrates the yearning that many people felt for lasting peace. The First World War had essentially eliminated whatever romance still clung to the idea of combat, and its brutality sparked this kind of response across the world. For the first time, it became quite popular to envision a world without war, because war had revealed itself as nothing but senseless destruction. Lowell highlighted this realization and the natural conclusion many drew — that WWI was the war to end all wars.
Hemingway and the Trauma of the Returning Soldier
Hemingway's "Soldier's Home" shows other after-effects of the war. The focus of this short story is on the post-traumatic stress faced by the soldier Krebs. By the time he returns to his small-town Kansas home, it becomes clear that the soldiers who survived the war were shattered, damaged beings. The homecoming is anything but joyous — even though they survived, in many cases these were lives ruined. In an exchange with his mother at the breakfast table, Krebs tells her, "I am not in the Kingdom of God," alluding to the horrors he has endured.
The reality of the world is harsh for returning soldiers. Krebs cannot bear the fact that he must lie, because he sees war as built on lies — and he reflects on how many millions died for those lies. The circumstances that brought about his wartime experiences seem, in a sense, repeated in the society where he is now trying to live. He has changed and evolved from what he witnessed, but his small town has not, and there is a profound disconnect. Hemingway's story captures the way war does not end for its combatants, even long after the fighting stops.
References
Parini, J. & Cutter, M. (2009). Themes in Contemporary American Literature. Cengage.
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