Soldier’s Home Free Essays

In Ernest Hemingway’s short story, â€Å"Soldier’s Home†, a young man named Krebs is unable to relate to his mother and home life after he returned from the First World War. After Krebs saw death and destruction in the wars most bloody battles, he returns home where his parents try to get him back to his normal routines. His view of the world has changed drastically since the war. We will write a custom essay sample on Soldier’s Home or any similar topic only for you Order Now He no longer feels love in his heart and cannot lie to his mother when she asks if he loves her. One of the famous lines Hemingway wrote, â€Å"Krebs looked at the bacon fat hardening on his plate.† Like bacon his heart has been hardened by what he had seen in World War I and he knew he must get far away from his parents to be able to get his life back in order. Harold Krebs after graduating from a Methodist college in Kansas enlisted in the Marines in 1917 and did not return to the United States until 1919. While at war he saw many tragedies that changed his life forever. When he returns home he does not get a heroes welcome because many had returned before him. At first Krebs did not want to talk about the war but later on when he felt the need no one would listen. He spent his days reading, walking and admiring the girls but a lot had changed since he had been gone. He thought about going out with some of the girls he used to know and remembers the girls he knew overseas but finds, â€Å"the young girls had grown up. But they lived in such a complicated world with already defined alliances and shifting feuds that Krebs did not feel the energy or courage to break in it.† Krebs has a hard time relating to his parents and he finds himself not wanting to go watch his sister play ball. The climax to the story is when Krebs’s mother asks, â€Å"Don’t you love your mother, dear boy?† and he answers, â€Å"No†. Even though he had been feeling unhappy, useless, and out of place since he had returned from the war, he had been drifting along, going through the motions. He had been stagnating, spending his time sitting on the front porch, reading, trying â€Å"to keep his life from being complicated†. The final conflict with his mother forces Krebs to face the fact that he cannot stay. He lies to his mother to make her feel better after he has hurt her with the truth, but is â€Å"sick and vaguely nauseated† by his duplicity. As his mother prays over him at the end of the story, Krebs resolves to go away to Kansas City and start his life again, away from the home and family to which he can no longer belong. In the story, â€Å"Soldier’s Home† it is told from the third person narrator point of view. Hemingway, having been a former journalist is able to show how distant Krebs is because of being the type of journalist who is detached just like Krebs was detached by his experience in World War I. As Hemingway writes he shows how Krebs holds his emotions in that he knows his mother will not understand. When Krebs calls his mom â€Å"Mummy† he is trying to comfort her by acting like a child. At the end Krebs makes a decision to leave and go to Kansas City because he feels he may not ever reconnect with his family. Harold Krebs is a man who has gone through a life-changing event and has experienced many consequences made by his own choices and decisions. He then has to come to the understanding that he has to try and rebuild his life as he knew it. Things weren’t working out at his family’s house so he decided to move to Kansas City where he would get a job. This war was a hundred years ago and Krebs came back and had no clue what to do with his life when he got back. The same thing goes for the soldiers of the war in Afghanistan they see so much that traumatizes them that they do not know how to act when they are around their families. How to cite Soldier’s Home, Essay examples Soldier’s Home Free Essays â€Å"Reading† a Film – Smoke Signals Segment 1 0:00:00 – 0:30:00 Begins with: opening credits Ends with: Thomas telling his story about Denny’s 1. What is the significance of a person cutting their hair? Why would Arnold Joseph cut his hair? 2. The writer and director intended to include the 4 elements – fire, earth, air, water. We will write a custom essay sample on Soldier’s Home or any similar topic only for you Order Now Where do we see any of these elements? 3. What is the effect of all of the time shifts in the film? 4. How does Thomas feel about Victor’s father? 5. What is Victor Joseph’s attitude toward his father when he begins his journey? . Describe each relationship Thomas and Victor have with their home and the women that raise them. 7. Fry bread is a symbol in this film. Where do you see the fry bread? How can it be a symbol in this segment? 8. How is KREZ different from radio stations run by non-Indians? What was the screen writer attempting to tell us by repeatedly referring to the station in the film? 9. In the film Victor Joseph’s mother makes him promise several times that he will come right back from Phoenix. He says: â€Å"I promised you I would. You want me to sign a written contract, Mom? She replies, â€Å"Nah, we Indians have a thing about signed documents. † What was she referring to? 10. What are some historical references mentioned in the film? 11. Describe the relationship between Thomas and Victor. 12. Describe the life depicted on the reservation so far. What do you think are the writer’s and/or director’s feelings about the reservation? Segment 2 0:30:00 – 1:01:00 Begins with: Victor’s painful flashback about his father’s leaving Ends with: Victor going into his father’s trailer . How is the importance of hair mentioned in this segment? 2. How is the reality of life off the reservation made clear for Victor and Thomas? Think back to the discussion where Victor tries to teach Thomas how to be a real Indian? 3. What does Victor think of as a â€Å"real Indian†? Why do they sing â€Å"John Wayne’s Teeth†? Why does the song switch from diegetic (soun d the characters can hear) to nondiegetic (sound only the audience can hear), and how is it different when it becomes nondiegetic? 4. Fry bread is a symbol in this film. Where do you see the fry bread? How can it be a symbol in this segment? 5. The writer and director intended to include the 4 elements – fire, earth, air, water. Where do we see any of these elements? 6. What are some historical references mentioned in the film? 7. Everyone in the film seems to like to tell and hear stories except Victor. Why do you think this is? Are the stories that Thomas tells the truth or fiction? Does it matter? 8. Describe Suzy’s character. What purpose is she serving in the story? What is she trying to teach Victor? Segment 3 1:01:00 – end Begins with: Victor in his father’s trailer Ends with: closing credits 1. Why do you think Victor cuts his hair? 2. What does Thomas mean when he tells Victor that they are â€Å"traveling heavy with illusion†? 3. What does Victor mean when he says â€Å"everything burned up in the fire†? 4. What do you think Thomas means when he says â€Å"I think we were in 2 wrecks last night? Then Victor goes on to say that he’s sorry about â€Å"every wreck†? 5. The writer and director intended to include the 4 elements – fire, earth, air, water. Where do we see any of these elements? 6. How is the ending a perfect contrast to the opening fire scene? 7. Look at the lyrics to â€Å"Father and Farther. † Even though this song was not written specifically for the film, it fits very well. How does it relate and comment on the events that have been depicted? 8. What do you make of the film’s ending? How have things changed for Victor? Is anything different for Thomas? 9. Think of Thomas’s last comment at the end of the movie: â€Å"If we forgive our fathers, what is left? † What do you take as the meaning behind this? How does this relate to the story told in the film? 10. Why was Victor Joseph raging when he threw his father’s ashes into the river at the end of the film? Some Final Questions 1. The director of this movie said that â€Å"Anytime you put an Indian on the screen it’s politics – that’s kind of the luggage that comes with the whole Indian package. † What do you think he meant by this? Do you agree or disagree? 2. In Hebrew the name â€Å"Thomas† means â€Å"good company,† and in Latin â€Å"Victor† means â€Å"conquering. † How did these two characters play out their own names in this film? . A line of dialogue that was cut from the very end of the film has Thomas asking Victor if he might listen to one of his stories sometime, and Victor says yes. What role do stories and the art of storytelling play in this film? Why are stories important? 4. Victor Joseph’s father was abusive to him on occasion. But when his fath er leaves home, Victor tries to stop him. Can you explain how a young boy, 10 to 12 years old, would not want his father to leave home even if the father was abusive? â€Å"Father and Farther† Father and Farther |Sometimes, Father, you and I | | |Are like a dirty ghosts | | |who wear the same sheets every day | |Sometimes, Father, you and I, |as one more piece of us just dies and dies and dies. | |Are like a three-legged horse | | |who can’t get across the finish line |Now can I ask you Father? | |no mater how hard, he tries and tries and tries. |If you know how much farther we need to go? | | |Now can I ask you Father? |Sometimes, Father, you and I |If you know how much farther we have to go? | |Are like a Warrior, | | |who can only paint half of his face |Father and farther | |while the other half cries and cries and cries and cries. |Father and farther | | |’til we know? | |Now can I ask you Father? | |If you know how much farther we need to go? |Fath er and farther | |Now can I ask you Father? |Father and farther | |If you know how much farther we have to go? |’til we know? | | | | |Father and farther |Father and farther |Father and farther |Father and farther | |’til we know? |’til we know? | | | | |Father and farther |Father and farther | |Father and farther |Yeah, how much farther | |’til we know? |’til we know? | | | |Sometimes, Father, you and I, |Sometimes, Father, you and I, | |Are like two old drunks |Are like a three-legged horse | |who spend their whole lives in the bars |who can’t get across the finish line | |swallowing down all those lies and lies and lies. |No matter how hard, he tries and tries and tries†¦ | | | | How to cite Soldier’s Home, Papers