SOLDIER’S HOME

6~ Ernest Hemingway ~

1/ Ernest Hemingway Biography (1899–1961)

Who Was Ernest Hemingway?

• Ernest Miller Hemingway

• one of the great American 20th century novelists
• a famous author and a journalist
• born in the affluent Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois
• love writing as a young man:
• wrote for his high school’s newspaper
• worked for the Kansas City Star newspaper

His works

1. The Old Man and the Sea

• a short novel written in 1951 and published in 1952

• the last major work of fiction written and then published during his
lifetime
• awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953
2. For Whom the Bell Tolls

• published in 1940
• based on Hemingway's experiences during the Spanish Civil War
• one of his best works, along with The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to
Arms, and The Old Man and the Sea.

3. Soldier’s Home

2/ Setting:
• Time:
 • The United States in this period: World War I had just come to an
end. Significant growth in the industry was witnessed all over the
country.
• This story takes place in the summer of 1919 when Harold Krebs
has just returned home after years of living as a soldier in World War
I. The war had ended before his return so he missed all the
monumental welcome from the town.
• Place: It happens in Krebs’s hometown in Oklahoma, more particularly in
his own house. Hometown becomes where he has realized his changes in
soul, mindset, attitude, and belief toward his family, girls, love, life
goals,etc.
• Physical environment:
• The weather is hot and sunny but people seem the most dynamic
and joyful in summer. It contributes to creating the general
atmosphere for this short story

=> Highlight the contrast between his hometown and Krebs when he could not
integrate himself in the postwar society.

• Their prosperity is represented through some details such as “the

First National Bank building where his father had an office on the
second floor”, the family car, The Kansas City Star newspapers, the
breakfast.

=> living in good conditions does not make him feel belonged to this place, he
still feels alienated in his own house.

• The late hearty breakfast “a plate with two fried eggs and some crisp
bacon on it and a plate of buckwheat cakes”

=> shows the relationship between Krebs and his mom: She is very kind and
generous to him, somewhat pampers him.

• The newspapers his sister gives him

=> shows the harmonious relationships among family members, especially

between his sister and the main character. In addition, his father is the most
powerful and influential member in the family “Harold, please don't muss up the
paper. Your father can't read his Star if it's been mussed.”

• The family car

=> shows the relationship between Krebs and his father: His father is quite strict
but he loves and cares for Krebs a lot. However, Krebs seems not close to his
father.
 • Social environment:
• The United States: The country experienced many social changes
especially the economic boom after World War 1 but there was a big
wealth gap among classes.

=> People forgot about the war and only concentrated on making money so
those who did not hunt for a job were considered lazy and worthless.

• In this short story:

+ People in the town seem optimistic, hard-working, and well-

mannered. Their biggest life target seems to be settling down and
having a stable job.

=> Krebs might be seen as a weird and irresponsible man when not having a job
and staying at home all the time.

+ Krebs’s family is Catholic and seems like a model family.

They might be in the middle class of society. “God has some work
for everyone to do”, “There can be no idle hands in His Kingdom”

=> Krebs loves his family but he feels that no one can understand his feelings
and perspective.

3/ Characters:
KREBS

I.Krebs’ past in the army represented through 2 pictures ( 2 first paragraphs)

• all of them wearing exactly the same height and style collar.

→ Krebs integrated into his community, he shared the same appearance with his
partners.

• Krebs and corporals look too big for their uniforms.

→ His dissimilarity had someone to share with, then the difference somehow
became harmonic.

→ unforgettable memories of the soldier, which opposites and traumatizes his

later life.
 II. On returning days: By the time Krebs returns to his hometown… In
this way he lost everything.

-Public’s attitude towards return (relationship)

“The men from the town who had been drafted had all been welcomed
elaborately on their return. There had been a great deal of hysteria.”

><

“Now the reaction had set in. People seemed to think it was rather ridiculous” →
people failed to appreciate the trauma of war.

→ The unwelcome greeting of his hometown initially evokes alienation. Due to

Krebs’ s late return, he’s different from his corporals-> discrete treatment of
society.

-Krebs’ s effort to readjust by lying but failed.

• Action: . At first, he did not want to talk about the war at all

. Later he felt the need to talk but no one wanted to hear about it,
which leads to the action he had to lie

→ Public’s demands totally oppose him. The lie demanded the public's
needs but not his real nature. -> underscores his alienation.

• Thought + Feelings:

. After he had done it twice, he 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.

→ The truth which is sore, painful and naked is camouflaged by the marvellous
stories, which make him badly, sickeningly frightened all the time.

. Lost their cool, valuable quality and then were lost themselves.

→ Not only was he separate from the current community, the lies also
disconnected him with his past. They made him guilty, he betrays his own
memories, which are parts of his youth, half-life.=> totally disoriented.

III. Repetitive, tedious days after returning.

• The extraneous sense in the homeland.
 • Action:
o sleeping late
o walk downtown to the library to get a book
o eating lunch
o reading on the front porch
o go to the pool room
o practiced on his clarinet, strolled downtown, read and went to bed.

→ Going through the motions of life without a sense, purpose and direction.

• Relationship:
o Mother: asked him to tell her about the war her attention always
wandered
o Father: non-committal

→ Not only his society but also his family deepen his alienation.

• Thought:
o Car: Now, after the war, it was still the same car.
o Girls: Nothing was changed in the town except that the young girls
had grown up.

→ Krebs's perception of his town: the visible, material world Krebs's perception
of his town: the visible, material world is still unchanged, but the psychological
state inside.

•The conflict between two psychological states.

• Thought:
o Girls (now): hair cut short, wore sweaters and shirt waists with round
Dutch collars, good-looking young girls >< Girls (in the past): their
appeal to him was not very strong.
o The chorus: He liked...: to look at, to watch >< he did not want
(repeating 8 times).

→ The change in both sides creates a strong inner conflict, which results from
the prevention of Krebs’s feelings of disintegration.

• Krebs’s perspective (reason of disintegrated mind)

• Thought & Relationship:
o he did not really need a girl
o Disagree with his fellow’s opinion about the needs of a girl.

→ The opposition in beliefs between fellows.

 o Consequences (3 times): lying is considered as a result of forming a
new relationship with others and He did not want to tell any more
lies. It wasn't worth it
o You did not need a girl unless you thought about them
o The refrain of the army: (He learned that in the army, The army had
taught him that)

→ Materialism: The army environment has a great influence on Krebs’s thoughts

and actions.

o German girls: There was not all this talking (opinion, lifestyle)
o Girls (in his hometown): good-looking (Appearance)
o But the world they were in was not the world he was in.

→ Although Krebs liked the look of the girls in his hometown, he found the same
opinions in the lifestyle in Germany. [On the whole he had liked Germany better
>< But the world they were in was not the world he was in (“them”: girls in
hometown)] → That’s why He would have liked to have a girl but he did not want
to have to spend a long time getting her because He did not want any
consequences

→ He isolated himself from his hometown because of disharmony.

o He did not want to leave Germany. He did not want to come home
>< Still, he had come home. He sat on the front porch.

→ Disharmony in his desires, beliefs, which made Krebs reach the deadlock and
his series of repetitive days in his hometown.

•
Disorientation in his inner self:
• Action & Thought:
o He sat there on the porch reading a book on the war
o It was the most interesting reading he had ever done

→ It seems to be the happiest moment of the soldier in his tedious life.

→ The great influence of war.

Thought:

o He wished there were more maps.

o He looked forward with a good feeling … with good detail maps.
→ The paradox: A soldier has to rely on an outside source (a history book) to
recall his feelings he had experienced.
 o Now he was really learning about the war. He had been a good
soldier.

→ The paradox: Only when he read the history book did he deeply understand
why and what he had done → somewhat deficiency, disorientation.

→ Deadlock: Not finding harmony in his own home, he immerses himself in

history books with hope of going back to the old days, but it seems that he
exposes his sense of disorientation.

IV. Krebs and his mother’s conversation on the morning

• Speech: (when his mother tells him his father's decision in allowing him to
take the car out)
o Yeah?
o Take the car out? Yeah?
o I’ll bet you made him
o Yeah. I’ll bet you made him

→ The interrogative and confirmation repeating 4 times indicate that Krebs was
suspicious of his mother’s utterance.--> He thought that he did not deserve
others’ belief and expectation. ( doubt himself)

• Krebs’ s conversation with his sister

• Speech

Krebs His sister_Helen

Have you got the "Well, Hare",
paper? "You old-sleepy-head. What do you ever get up for?"
" We 're playing indoor over at school this afternoon"
"Good" "I'm going to pitch"
"How's the old wing?"
"I can pitch better than lots of the boys. I tell them all you taught
"Yeah?" me. The other girls aren't much good."
"I tell them all you're my beau. Aren't you my beau, Hare?"
"You bet"
"Couldn't your brother really be your beau just because he's
I don't know. your brother?"
" Sure you know. Couldn't you be my beau, Hare, if I was old
"Sure, you are my girl enough and if you wanted to?"
now" " Am I really your girl?
 " Do you love me?"
"Sure" " Do you love me always?"
"Uh,huh" " Will you come over and watch me play indoor?"
"Sure"
" Maybe"

→ Kreb said very little >< Helen talked too much

• “Pitch better than lots of the boys”, “you are her beau”, though he assured
her “ you are my girl now”,>< his tone was non-committal,
• He said “ maybe” when she asked him to watch her play.
• “Hare” instead of “Harold” or “Krebs” → intimate name, made “ Harold”
which is different from his father’s name, sound young.

→ They used to have a close relationship.

→ Krebs’ s response was quite numb and emotionless. His answer was
uncertain about everything, though it was just a normal talk.>< his sister’s
enthusiasm, eagerness.

→ He tried to escape from questions leading him to a complicated position by

short and uncomplicated answers. >< Helen’s pure, naive, pristine thought ( she
didn’t consider what she said were serious questions, this just a way she used to
communicate, to share her stories with brother).

• He loved his sister. He liked her, she was his best sister.--> Krebs loved
Helen as she is simple, she still loved him even without his participation in
her talk.
• Krebs went on the conversation with Helen → she is naive, simple, safe to
talk to.

→ Conversation with his naive innocent sister highlights the repugnance for his
loved ones.

• Krebs’ s conversation with his mother.

• Speech→ relationship: he was conflicted with his mother’s view( standard
public criteria): God’s laws, family life, regular job.
 o At first, his mother wants to know his future intention, he replies by
double negative answers: No, I hadn't thought about it >< Job
o I'm not in His Kingdom → Krebs believes himself neither a part of
society nor a part of religion.>< spiritual connection
o Krebs said nothing, Is that all?, No, I don't love anybody → repudiate
verbal-communication.>< family
o "Can't you believe me, mother?", "Please, please, mother. Please
believe me." → he didn’t know how to express his utterances
emotionally.

→ His mother expresses her emotion physically and dramatically, >< Krebs'
extreme lack of emotions. He distates talking and hates sentimental
expressions_an important connective rope of a relationship.

• Thoughts + Feelings
o Kreb felt embarrassed and resentful as always → impotent, angry
because his mother can't understand him.
o It was silly to have said it. He had only hurt her. → he was definitely
conscious that his words would offend the mother.
o He felt sick and vaguely nauseated. → he hated emotional
expressions.
o He had tried so to keep his life from being complicated. → Krebs’s
acceptance to cover himself by affected manners>< his nature →
avoid being different.

→ This is the only time during the story, Krebs’ speech was adequate with his
feelings and thoughts but they seriously wounded his mother. → Confliction(
between him and the public) was pushed up to climax. Then, his solution was
another contradiction ( he himself:inner nature>< outer manner).

• Actions:
o Krebs' refusal to pray further→ alienated not simply from the world
of man, but the world of God.
o He went over and took hold of her arm.
o Krebs put his arm on her shoulder.
o Krebs kissed her hair.
o Krebs kissed his mother and went out of the house.

→ Soft manners >< his characteristics. Though he tried to sympathize with his
mother, he at the same time hurt himself more.( betray what he had learn before:
a soldier had to be strong-minded, courageous, emotionless)

→ He compromised himself with the whole contemporary society to live similar to

the masses.>< disconnect to his nature.
⇒ Due to the savage war, Krebs, representing millions of soldiers, had to pay the
price for freedom and adventure. What he received after war were actually
disillusion, drowsiness, nausea, alienation, solitude and lost faith in God.

V. His final decision( the last paragraph)

• Thought:
o He had tried so to keep his life from being complicated >< Still, none
of it had touched him

→ His trial in living like normal people, but he fails.

o He had felt sorry for his mother and she had made him lie.

→ He believed that engaging with others forces him to lie, which keeps him away
from his proud memories and experiences.

• Action:( His intention)

o He would go to Kansas City and get a job. → Kansas- a much more
modern, hustle and busy city than Oklahoma- a small peaceful town.
→ If he plunged into a much complex place, his complicated souls
might be settled down.

→ He also considered getting a job could appease his mother.

o He would not go down to his father’s office. He would miss that one.
→ He exposes an aversion to the masculin lifestyle that is imposed
on him.
o He would go over the schoolyard and watch Helen play indoor
baseball. → The story ends with hope, but little because of the use
of a conditional tense “would” → There is no certainty.

→ The end of the “Soldier’s home” is obscure with unresolved intentions of

Krebs, and is still left in the open.A small ray of light which had just illuminated
through Krebs’ s promise with his sister was immediately put out after that due to
his non-committal intention. Whether Krebs could socialize with his new place or
continued to live in his shell, there was no definite answer.

⇒ War caused personal consequences beyond the national consequences. War

changed people, war hurt individuals in different ways. Soldiers who returned
from the battle had to experience a lot of harsh trials, there would be a serious
challenge for them to assimilate to their community.

→ Round character
KREBS’ S MOTHER

• Normal days:
o Action:
▪ His mother would have given him breakfast in bed if he had
wanted it. → She indulged him like a baby.
▪ She often came in when he was in bed and asked him to tell
her about the war, but her attention always wandered. → tried
to understand, connect and sympathize with him but failed.
▪ She asked Krebs ‘s father to let him take the car out. →
created changes for him to readjust, socialize. →
unconditional love for her son.
▪ She smoothed her apron before starting a serious
conversation → she disliked wrinkles → she was a type of
model and standard woman.
▪ She always mentioned Krebs’ father in most of the talk. → her
deference and respect for her husband.
▪ She cried when Krebs said he did not love her → very
emotional
▪ If Krebs’s father presents with the image representing the
power, his mother often appears with her kitchen. She
smoothed her apron, her frying something downstairs, his
mother stood in the kitchen doorway, Krebs's mother came
into the dining-room from the kitchen … a plate of buckwheat
cakes. → The world of masculinity has an effect on the life of
a woman.

⇒ A traditional woman ,a deft housewife, she loved her children unconditionally,

respected for her husband. But she failed to get her son back to the public’ s
connection. → different generation, age, thinking → different world.

• Speech:
o “ Have you decided what you are going to do yet?”, “ Don’t you think
it’s about time?” → thoughtful attitude, she worried about Krebs ‘s
future intentions.
o “ There can be no idle hands in His Kingdom”, “ We are all of us in
His Kingdom” → she was devout and she wanted him to believe in
God.
o “ I know the temptations you must have been exposed to. I know
how weak men are. I know what your own dear grandfather, my own
father, told us about the Civil War and I have prayed for you. I pray
for you all day long, Harold.” → She made his son believe in her by
 giving evidence showing that she, better than any one, used to
suffer from serious losses of the war, so she deeply understood and
sympathized with Krebs → reasons why her advice is reliable.
o “ Your father is worried, too”, “ He thinks you have lost your ambition,
that you haven’t got a definite aim in life.” → Her husband always
was a premise to initial her speech( masculine) → misunderstanding
Krebs' s situation.
o “ You know we love you and I want to tell you for your own good how
matters stand. Your father does not want to hamper your freedom.”
o “ Don’t you love your mother, dear boy?”

⇒ Krebs' mother treated him as a boy indicates that though she loved him, she,
conversely, dispersed him from the family by her behavior. Being treated as a
boy must be a major insult for any veterans who believe that he completed “ the
only thing for a man to do”

• “ I’m your mother. I’ll held you next to my heart when you were a tiny
baby.” → emotional, sentimental, touching women

⇒ Krebs’ mother was completely opposite to him by viewpoint, expression,

action. She was also affected by old prejudice: rewarded man with toughness
and girls with gentleness.

⇒ She expects him to step out of the war without understanding this is never
easy for a soldier, especially whose memories in the war engrave in his kind and
become a part of his youth. However, her method and understanding was
deviated → create an invisible pressure on her son.

→ Flat Character

KREBS’S SISTER

• Action:
• At breakfast, his sister teases him about sleeping a lot.
• brought in the mail, handed him The Kansas City
→ does not disturb Krebs’s peace.
• Speech:
• I can pitch better than lots of the boys. I tell them all you taught me. →
Krebs is her hero in her eyes
• I tell them all you're my beau. Aren't you my beau, Hare? →
Expressing her love to Krebs by assuming to be his girl.
 • "Aw, Hare, you don't love me. If you loved me, you'd want to come
over and watch me play indoor." → influenced by her mother by
becoming coercive, making her belief in his love.
• Using the nickname "Hare"
→ Helen is naive, innocent and her life is quite simple. Her love is natural,
spontaneous and unconditional and she gives all her love rather than take, and
Krebs is still her hero even if his responses are quite numb and short → Her
dialogue does not touch complex issues, do not complicate his life, so she was
his best sister.
→ Flat Character

KREBS’S FATHER

• No appearance, action, speech, thought, but in the stream of Kreb's

consciousness, behind the symbol "car", and through the speech of his
mother.
• A man who seems to be indifferent to what Krebs has been through.
o his father was non-committal
• A successful businessman.
o His father was in the real estate business and had an office on
the second floor + car
o … always wanted the car to be at his command → a very
clever businessman who can take over everything belonging
to him.
• A man of habit with rather limited horizons.
o he had never been allowed to drive the family motor car
o The car always stood outside the First National Bank building
where his father had an office on the second floor.
o Krebs’s mother tells him about his father’s permission to let
him take the car out
o Krebs’s mother expresses his father’s worries about the loss
of ambition, a definite aim in life.

→ Krebs’s father is outside the severity of the war → he does not deeply
understand about it, so seems to show no sympathy with the trauma of the war
and does not share it with her son. He let Krebs take the car out in the evenings
with girls just to force Krebs to soon be a man as he expected.

→ The shadow of Krebs’s father covers the whole family → a stereotypically

masculine trait

→ Flat Character
4/ THEME + POINT OF VIEW:
Alienation:

- Villagers: men completing the duty of a typical soldier => heroes => they had
welcomed and celebrated all the men returning from war >< it is ridiculous when
he came back later than other men => had been ignored and not celebrated as
them.

- His family’s mindset about men: finding a stable job, getting married, starting
a family >< his depressed mood and laziness.

=> He didn’t live up to the expectation of villagers and his family (the major
people around him).

=> Isolation and alienation.

The internal conflict:

- He wanted to tell the atrocity stories about the war >< no one wanted to hear
about it => to attract people => had to lie >< his lies made him nauseous. (“Krebs
found that to be listened to at all he had to lie …the lies he had told.”; “Krebs
acquired the nausea in regard to experience that is the result of untruth or
exaggeration”).

- He saw growing girls in his village => wanted to win one as his girlfriend ><
felt it not worth pursuing => he didn’t want to put too much effort into this. (“He
would have liked to have a girl but he did not want to have to spend a long time
getting her... It wasn't worth it.”; “He did not want any consequences. He did not
want any consequences ever again.”)

=> He conflicted with his internal mind (his inner weakness).

POINT OF VIEW:

- Using the pronoun “he”, “his father”, “his mother”;

- About other characters: the writer just depicts them through their talks and
actions (the father even did not have any talk in the story) => readers just can
guess through those and cannot imagine and understand exactly their minds.

=> Third-person narrator and limited perspective.

5/ Figurative language + Symbols
Figurative language
“The German girls are not beautiful.”

->Understatement: The girls are ugly but the way the author describes them
makes them seem less ugly

“There had been a great deal of hysteria.”

-> Hyperbole: hysteria (uncontrollable excitement) emphasizes the

elaborate welcome that people had given the soldier.

ð Provides a contrast to the welcome of Krebs

“His town had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities.”

-> Synecdoche: his town refers to the people in his town.

“At first Krebs, who had been at Belleau Wood, Soissons, the Champagne,
St. Mihiel and in the Argonne did not want to talk about the war at all. Later
he felt the need to talk but no one wanted to hear about it. His town had
heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities. 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. All of the times that had been able to make him feel cool and
clear inside himself when he thought of them; the times so long back when
he had done the one thing, the only thing for a man to do, easily and
naturally, when he might have done something else, now lost their cool,
valuable quality and then were lost themselves.”

-> Situational irony: At first, Krebs wanted to keep all the bitter memories to
himself.
When he wanted to share what happened, no one cared about his stories.

He had to lie about his stories to be listened just to end up hating his lies.

“Krebs acquired the nausea in regard to experience that is the result of

untruth or exaggeration”
-> Hyperbole: “nausea” (the feeling that you are going to throw up) the
author shows his deep hatred towards his own lies.
ð Situational irony: He wanted to draw other’s attention to his lies but
then hated his own lies

“…when he occasionally met another man who had really been a soldier
and they talked a few minutes in the dressing room at a dance he fell into
the easy pose of the old soldier among other soldiers.”
-> Situational irony: He lied so many times that he believed his own lies,
that he himself was an old soldier while the truth is he had recently returned
from the war.

“…attention always wandered.”

-> Paradox: “attention” vs. “wander”
ð Situational irony: His mother tried to show him that she cared about
him but in fact she did not know what to care.
“Nothing was changed in the town except that the young girls had grown
up.”

-> Paradox: The town was still the same

“He liked to look at them from the front porch as they walked on the other
side of the street. He liked to watch them walking under the shade of the
trees. He liked the round Dutch collars above their sweaters. He liked their
silk stockings and flat shoes. He liked their bobbed hair and the way they
walked.”
-> Repetition: Deep within, he still wanted to date a girl

“When he was in town their appeal to him was not very strong.”
-> Understatement: He did not care about the girls at all before he left for
the battle field.

“He did not want to get into the intrigue and the politics.”

->Metaphor: “the intrigue and the politics” is a metaphor of pursuing a girl

=>Shows readers Krebs didn’t want to begin a relationship
“He did not want any consequences. He did not want any consequences
ever again. He wanted to live along without consequences.”
-> Repetition: he was obsessed with the war experiences, he couldn’t let go
of the past, he didn’t want any more sufferings

“The army had taught him that.”

-> Metonymy: “the army” refers to what he had experienced in the army

“…could not get along without girls, that he had to have them all the time,
that he could not go to sleep without them.”

-> Hyperbole: emphasizes the need to have a woman in life

“He learned that in the army. Then sooner or later you always got one.
When you were really ripe for a girl you always got one. You did not have
to think about it. Sooner or later it could come. He had learned that in the
army.”
-> Repetition: to emphasize what he had experienced in the army strongly
affected him.
“He liked the girls that were walking along the other side of the street. He
liked the look of them much better than the French girls or the German
girls. But the world they were in was not the world he was in. He would like
to have one of them. But it was not worth it. They were such a nice
pattern. He liked the pattern. It was exciting. But he would not go through
all the talking. He did not want one badly enough. He liked to look at them
all, though. It was not worth it. Not now when things were getting good
again.”

-> Repetition: the conflicts within himself: he wanted to date a girl but he
thought it didn’t deserve his time and efforts, he didn’t want anything to
interfere with his life

ð He felt he did not belong to the society, so he did not need to make an
effort to reintegrate into the society.

"Yeah?" said Krebs, who was not fully awake.

"Take the car out? Yeah?"
I'll bet you made him," Krebs said.
"No. It was your father's suggestion that we talk the matter over."
"Yeah. I'll bet you made him,"
Repetition: he did not believe what his mother said

ð Deep within, he did not believe himself, he did not believe that his
parents thought he was mature enough

"Don't you think it's about time?"

-> Rhetorical question: His mother didn’t expect an answer from him but
rather reminded him that it was time for him to settle down
"There can be no idle hands in His Kingdom."
Synecdoche: “hands” for “people”

ð His mother wanted to encourage him to find a job

Symbols:
The family car:
- “His father was in the real estate business and always wanted the car to
be at his command when he required it to take clients out into the country
to show them a piece of farm property.”
=> The car is a symbol of great wealth and high social status at that time.
After his return, his parents allowed him to use the car but he didn’t mind
=> He didn’t care about pursuing wealth or social status
- “Before Krebs went away to the war he had never been allowed to drive
the family motor car.” But after he returned home, he was allowed to take
the car out.
=>The car symbolizes his family’s trust in him. Before he went to the war,
his parents didn’t think that he was mature and reliable enough, but after
his returned, their opinion on him changed.
- “He thinks you should be allowed to drive the car. If you want to take
some of the nice girls out riding with you, we are only too pleased.”
=>The car is also a symbol of his family’s encouragement. Allowing him to
driving the girls out is how they pave the way for him to reintegrate easily
into the society.
The pictures:
- The picture of him before going to the war “There is a picture which shows
him among his fraternity brothers, all of them wearing exactly the same
height and style collar.”
=> The picture is a symbol of a normal life. Before he went to the war, he
was an average man living a normal life like others.
- The picture of him during the war “There is a picture which shows him on
the Rhone with two German girls and another corporal. Krebs and the
corporal look too big for their uniforms. The German girls are not beautiful.
The Rhine does not show in the picture.”
=>The picture symbolizes Krebs and his corporals’ disconnection from the
battle field.
The girls: symbolize a conflict between his affection for the town
and his unwillingness to reintegrate. He wanted to watch the
society secretly rather than engage in it.
“…they lived in such a complicated world of already defined alliances and
shifting feuds that Krebs did not feel the energy or the courage to break into
it. He liked to look at them, though.”
“He liked to watch them walking under the shade of the trees. He liked the round
Dutch collars above their sweaters. He liked their silk stockings and flat shoes.
He liked their bobbed hair and the way they walked”

The book on the war: his obsession with the war experiences. He was the one
that returned from the war but he liked reading the book about "all the
engagements he had been in" “It was the most interesting reading he had ever
done.” -> couldn't let go of the past.

The mother: symbolizes the society's attitude towards soldiers’ sufferings: lack
of awareness and sympathy

“She often came in when he was in bed and asked him to tell her about the war,
but her attention always wandered.” “Charley Simmons, who is just your age, has
a good job and is going to be married. The boys are all settling down”

they never experienced what the soldiers had been through but they still
expected them to move on easily.

6/ Haiku + Game
War, trauma and pain

Over but deep scars remain

Back home, try in vain

Play a game: Compose your group’s a Haiku poem.