Ernest Hemingway is an American writer who lived and wrote his works at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. His literature covers lots of questions and problems. One of the main problems of his works is war. Hemingway took part in war, so this question is very familiar to him from his own experience. He wrote some stories about war, and “Soldier’s Home” is one of them. The book represents the reader with the problems that veterans are faced with when they return from war.
It should be very difficult to adapt to normal life after taking part in war. Veterans who participated in war and were lucky to return home face lots of problems and misunderstandings in civil life. Veterans often look for some activities which can distract them from remembering the war.
Coming home, the main character, Harold Krebs, wants to tell about his experience, he wants to share his emotions about the war, but it is not interesting to anyone. People have already discovered everything (Krebs returned in summer of 1919, and the war ended in November 1918). All the stories and emotions had already been discussed and Krebs appearance does not awake any interest.
Hemingway described the situation which appears in many families after the war ended. He represents the reader with “a remarkable illustration of the conflict and tension that result from the collision of different core values arising from contrasting temperaments” (Mckenna 2000). People who returned from war think differently, they have absolutely different values and they began to treat life differently.
The Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” represents the reader with his point of view that “a nation without a clear and honest picture of what its soldiers have endured will be incapable of understanding them when they return, and, therefore, will be incapable of ensuring their successful reentry into civilian life” (Trout 2000). Trout gave a very clear explanation of what Hemingway wanted to tell the readers, what purpose he followed while writing his story.
The social adaptation of veterans in civil world is one of the main problems which may lead to veterans’ estrangement if they are not accepted by society. And the society, in its turn, is afraid to accept veterans as they do not understand them, and as we know all inexperienced frightens us.
It is very difficult for veterans to adapt to civil life as people do not understand them, very often people suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which can create lots of problems while communicating. The post-traumatic stress disorder causes lots of problems not only to veterans but also to their relatives, friends and people who surround them.
There have been provided lots of researches on the problem of veterans’ adaptation in the civil world and came to the conclusion that post-traumatic stress disorder is a very serious problem that can prevent veterans to return to normal life. People suffer this disaster in 80% of cases. The PTSD may be apparent in different symptoms and have different natures. Some people do not consider nightmares as a problem, they think it must be so, and they are mistaken. The problem is really very serious and if not to start treatment can lead to lots of questions.
Tamar Nordenberg in his article “Escaping the Prison of a Past Trauma” represents the reader with the types of post-traumatic stress disorder, which are distinguished according to symptoms that appear after the veteran return. Tamar Nordenberg provides such information that the veteran may have re-experiencing the event. The nightmares are the main symptoms. People may re-experience flashbacks, can hear the voices of injured soldiers and even feel pain in cut leg or hand. The causes of the nightmares may be films about war that awake sad remembering. After war people may lose interest in life, they may avoid some social gatherings and stop doing things that they liked before war. One of the main problems which can cause post-traumatic stress disorder is the unequal reaction in some situations. (Nordenberg 2000)
Veterans often begin to drink to stop thinking about war, to forget those terrors they experienced during war. Drank veterans become uncontrolled, they may start arguing and even fight without any effects. People are afraid to be near such people as their reactions may be unpredictable. They may become irritable almost from nothing and it creates some difficulties in communication.
People who returned from war have different visions of life. The events they have experienced change their lives irreversibly. They begin to percept the life and the whole world as absolutely different. The cruel killings of people, the death of friends brings lots of changes in the supervision of these people, their outlook has changed and there is no way back. The horrors of war will be recollected in their minds during all their future life and will never obliterate it from their memories.
Unless, there is contrary evidence when people after war return with a great amount of experience. They become wiser and more reasonable. Such people know the value of life, they saw death and do not want to spend their lifetime on some trifles. Such people estimate every event and action; they never do anything in vain. It is easy to run business with these people as they are the men of their words and they always try to pick as much as possible from the day they live as they know that the life is not so long as some people might think.
Some people during the war understand that the life they led was wrong, they make some conclusions and become to live differently. These people become to treat people better as they know the cost of living and that sometimes it is impossible to take the offensive words back. Such people managed to re-think all their life and managed to change them, to make them better and useful.
In conclusion, it is no doubt that war changes people. Some people, who have come from war, became irritable. They can say some injury words without understanding what wrong they have done as the rules of the war is different. The cruelty and rudeness are the way of life in war and people are used to that life. For others, war was something like a life test which they have stand and was ready to start a new life with understanding its real cost and value.
It is very difficult for war veterans to enter the normal civil life: people avoid them and everything has changed. The interests and values of veterans differ greatly from those which were before they went to war. Veterans have lost most of their friends there and very often they looked in the eyes of death but were lucky to escape it.
Works Cited
Mckenna, John J., and David M. Raabe. “Using Temperament Theory to Understand Conflict in Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home”.” Studies in Short Fiction 34.2 (2000).
Nordenberg, Tamar. “Escaping the Prison of a Past Trauma.” FDA Consumer, Vol.34, 2000.
Trout, Steven. “Where Do We Go from Here?”: Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” and American Veterans of World War I.” The Hemingway Review 20.1 (2000).