Soldier's Home

Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” uses the story of Harold Krebs, a soldier who returns to his hometown in Oklahoma after serving in World War I, to explore The Psychological Effects of War; Masculinity and War; and Postwar Generational Divides.

Harold’s story begins and ends in despair. After returning from the war to live with his parents and sisters, Harold is unable to move forward. Hemingway shows how war takes a toll on those who serve. In Harold’s case, he is unable to assume responsibility for his life. He sleeps late, wanders around town aimlessly, spends his afternoons playing pool, sits on the porch and reads, and watches girls walk by him without speaking to them. Harold’s mother notices and expresses concern. She says, “Your father is worried too […] He thinks you have lost your ambition, that you haven’t gotten a definite aim in life” (115).

Hemingway shows that Harold was so impacted by the war that he can’t start the next chapter in his life. A task as simple as getting a job is too complex for him, so he avoids the subject altogether. Instead, during the afternoons, he prefers to sit on the front porch of his family home and read history books. The narrator says,

He sat there on the porch reading a book on the war. It was a history and he was reading about all the engagements he had been in. It was the most interesting reading he had ever done. He wished there were more maps. He looked forward with a good feeling to reading all the really good histories when they would come out with good detailed maps (113).

The passage conveys The Psychological Effects of War: Harold is lost, and the lack of maps symbolizes his aimlessness and alienation. Rather than getting a job and building a future, he looks forward to reading more history books with maps in them—Harold needs guidance and direction. These passages capture Harold’s ambivalence about the war and the idea associated with the Lost Generation that the war was pointless. Hemingway creates a portrait of a man who can’t escape his past because he can’t comprehend it.

In addition to the effects of war, Hemingway explores Masculinity and War. The story dismantles traditional conceptions of war and heroism as it relates to men. Even though Harold served in the war, he is depicted as weak. Indeed, he is weak because of his military service. His mother’s phrase “lost your ambition” (115) suggests that Harold had more direction and motivation before the war. Rather than making him a man, the military robbed him of his traditionally masculine traits of ambition and strength. He can’t perform even the minimal acts of traditional masculinity: get a job and talk to girls.

Harold’s father, an apparently successful real estate agent, is portrayed as the stronger man. He provides financially for his family and, as a result, makes all the crucial decisions, including who can drive the family car. The narrator says, “His father was in the real estate business and always wanted the car to be at his command when he required to take clients out into the country to show them a piece of farm property” (112). The story suggests that the soldiers who made it home will not take their father’s places as patriarchs because the war weakened them and left them unable or unwilling to take control of their lives.

Finally, the story explores Postwar Generational Divides. For example, Hemingway establishes crucial differences between Harold and his mother. His mother is a Methodist who prays daily, whereas Harold lacks faith. When his mother asks him to pray with her, he says simply, “I can’t” (116). Hemingway uses religion to show how members of the Lost Generation differed from their parents. In this case, young Americans like Harold literally lost their faith.

Hemingway concludes the story by furthering the divide between Harold and his mother. When she asks him if he loves her, he responds “I don’t love anybody” (116). After realizing that this admission hurts his mother, he retracts it and tries to convince her that he does love her. At the end of the story, the narrator reveals this to be a lie, saying, “He had felt sorry for his mother and she made him lie” (116). Their relationship is based on lies, and it becomes clear that they are unable to connect. Hemingway uses the relationship between Harold and his mother to comment on the relationship between the generations after the war. Harold, and many more members of the Lost Generation, could no longer relate to their parents or the beliefs and values they espoused.