With the atrocities associated with wars, and amid recent reports that there is a high prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among war veterans, one could wonder whether soldiers are able to get back to their pre-war lives after serving in wars. There couldn't be a better person to write about the post-war life of a soldier than Ernest Hemingway; he enlisted in the First World War as an ambulance driver for the Italian army (Young, 2019). Moreover, Hemingway was a writer from an early age; he was a journalist for his school's newspaper while in school and the Kansas City Star immediately after graduating (Young, 2019). He went on to write many popular books and win the Nobel Prize in 1954. In Soldier's Home, the central theme is the alienation of soldiers from the society after war, the style and literary devices that Hemingway uses in the story are in harmony with the content thus enriching the central theme.
Hemingway wrote Soldier's Home in 1924, six years after the end of the world war. The story revolves around Howard Krebs, a US marine who has just returned to his home in Oklahoma after serving in World War 1. Though he finds his home town the same way he left it, his life has changed, and he finds it hard to blend with the society and live a normal life again. He is isolated and spends most of his time alone reading or playing pool. Nobody is interested in his stories about the atrocities of the first world as they had already heard more convenient stories about the war from other sources. Eventually, the alienation becomes so much that he decides to leave Oklahoma for Kansas in an attempt to live a normal life again.
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The narration point of view that the Hemingway uses is indicative of alienation and isolation; He uses the third-person narrator point of view. The narrator is not close to the characters in the story; he is as detached from the story as Howard Krebs is from his community. The narrator's detachment from the story is seen right from the first paragraph; he does a shallow introduction of Howard Krebs, only telling the reader that Krebs went to the war from a Methodist college in Kansas. Also, the use of the objective point of view can also demonstrate how a writer's style is affected by their environment and experience. Prior to writing Soldier's Home, Hemingway had worked as a journalist, meaning he was accustomed to the objective narrator point of view.
The sentence structure that the author uses is also in marriage with the central theme, thus enhancing it. When Howard Krebs returned to his home in Oklahoma, his relatives and friends were disinterested in his accounts of the war. Krebs also developed disinterest in the things that were happening around him. For example, Krebs gives short answers when conversing with his sister
"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 your brother?"
"I don't know."
"Sure you know. Couldn't you be my beau, Hare, if I was old enough and if you
wanted to?"
"Sure. You're my girl now." (Hemingway, 1925)
The use of clipped speech in the dialogues with his mother and sister underlines Howard Krebs alienation from his surroundings. Clipped sentences are mostly used by people who are in a hurry or disinterested in the topic of discussion.
Symbolism is one of the literary devices that Hemingway has used throughout the book, and it has helped him develop the theme of alienation. The picture of Howard Krebs and his fraternity brothers, his father's cars, and the book on war that Krebs was reading are all examples of symbolism in the short story. Of those symbols, the book symbol is more effective in developing the main theme than the others: “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” (Hemingway, 1925). After returning to Oklahoma, Krebs was indifferent to the things that were happening in the community. He couldn't even work to put his life back on track, but a book on war was one of the few things that got his attention. This indicates that the war had left a permanent mark in his life and he was unable to leave the war experiences behind.
Hemingway also uses repetition to enhance the theme of alienation in the story: “He did not want to get into the intrigue and the politics. He did not want to have to do any courting. He did not want to tell any more lies” (Hemingway, 1925). Here, sentences starting with ‘he did want are repeated.’ The repetition emphasizes that Howard Krebs wanted to remain detached from what other people were doing in his community. The use of repetition in the story also creates rhythm, which makes the story interesting to read.
In conclusion, the theme of a literary work is the message that the author passes to the reader. The literary styles and devices employed by the author can either build or destroy the delivery of the message. In Soldier's Home , Earnest Hemingway uses objective narrator's point of view and clipped sentences in the dialogues; this brings out the theme of alienation and detachment from the society effectively. Further, literary devices such as symbolism and repetition also develop the central theme.
References
Hemingway, E. (1925). Soldier's Home . doi:http://www.somanybooks.org/eng208/SoldiersHome.pdf
Young, P. (2019, May 24). Ernest Hemingway. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ernest-Hemingway
