America Leaves One Soldier Homeless in "Soldier's Home"

What happened to over 100,000 America soldiers during World War I was obvious-these soldiers perished and became a statistic in history books. However, what happened to the countless other soldiers who came home alive after the war remains largely untold. Examining “Soldier’s Home” (1925) by Ernest Hemingway along with historical facts of this era brings a deeper appreciation of the surviving American soldiers and one in particular, Harold Krebs, who no longer felt he had a place in his own country and hometown. 

World War I had brought about major changes throughout the world. It started in the summer of 1914, and many thought that they would be home by Christmas. Instead, it lasted until 1919 and America was not prepared financially nor emotionally for the lasting effects it would have on the country. “The experience of the war had all kinds of unexpected effects on American life, heavily qualifying the sacrosanctity of personal liberty for the sake of patriotism” (Lane xxiv). After World War I, many of America’s soldiers found their home to now be a foreign place. Ernest Hemingway relates one soldier’s experience after returning to his hometown in the short story, “Soldier’s Home”. As a war veteran himself, Hemingway fully understood the complexity of a post-war homecoming. When he returned to his hometown in 1919, he found his hometown boring and uneventful compared to his war experiences. We also see his war experience paralleled in another of his writings.