Soldier's Home is one of Hemingway's stories in his first collection In Our Time. Hemingway once again takes us to the war, but this time he focused on its aftermath, and the struggle to move on in life. Who could transfer that experience into deep, harsh and heart-touching words more than Hemingway, who had to go through that himself.
Krebs came back home two years after the war, and as Cecil Harrison said, the war is never over. When he was back, all the glorifying of heroes and celebrations were done.
The story is about Harold's take on life after what he had seen. We get no details about his experiences, but we know the consequences. For him, noting is worth fighting for anymore. He wanted things to happen in their own accord; he did not want to seek anything anymore; he wanted things to come his way by their own without having to work for them because everything was not worth it. He never was desperate to get anything. He never wanted things bad enough that he had to go for them. He did not have it in him to seek and fight. He lost faith, even in prayer, love and family. He just wanted life to go on so smoothly until it ends one day.
In such tough times, people resonate so much with Krebs, and all the feelings of emptiness, depression and nothingness.
Personally, as a Gaza Strip citizen, a person who went through an Intifada and three wars, I have been there for a while. I felt every word of the story and found Krebs' state of mind quite familiar to some people here.
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