Reader-Response on Soldiers Home Essay -- American Literature

Reader-Response on Soldier's Home The initial reaction I received from reading Soldier's Home, and my feelings about Soldier's Home now are not the same. Initially, I thought Harold Krebs is this soldier who fought for two years, returns home, and is disconnected from society because he is in a childlike state of mind, while everyone else has grown up. I felt that Krebs lost his immature years, late teens to early 20's, because he went from college to the military. I still see him as disconnected from society, because there isn't anyone or anything that can connect him to the simple life that his once before close friends and family are living. He has been through a traumatic experience for the past two years, and he does not have anyone genuinely interested in him enough to take the time to find out what's going on in his mind and heart. Krebs is in a battle after the battle. Imagine your hometown, a small, affluent community where everyone knows each other. This small community is where many of your childhood friends and some of your family also reside. If you left your hometown for a two-year period to go into the military, to go to college, to travel the world, or just to experience life somewhere else, how would you expect your friends and family to treat you when you arrived home after a two-year period? Would you expect a warm welcome from your love ones, would you expect to be able to share your experiences, or major events that took place in your life? Would you expect that everyone has changed at least a little bit, and you have changed somewhat as well? I definitely would not expect or would not want my friends and family to reject me, because I had changed due to my life experiences outside our sma... ...has failed to help him deal with his inner emotions from his military experience. He has been through a traumatic experience for the past two years, and he does not have anyone genuinely interested in him enough to take the time to find out what's going on in his mind and heart. Kreb's is disconnected from the life he had before the war, and without genuine help and care from these people he lived with, and around all his childhood life, it's difficult to return to the routines that everyone is accustomed to. Works Cited Hemingway, Ernest. "Soldier's Home." The Bedford Introduction to Literature, 6th Edition. Ed. Michael Meyer. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's. 2002. 152-57. "Reader Responses to Soldier's Home." Literature and Composition. 10 Feb.,2003. David Toth. 14 Feb., 2003. .