Soldier's Home

“Soldier’s Home” is a short story first published in Ernest Hemingway’s 1925 debut collection In Our Time. The version discussed in this guide is from The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition (Scribner, 2003).

The story’s protagonist is Harold Krebs, a young man who returns home to Oklahoma after serving in World War I. It is one of many works by Hemingway, a WWI survivor, to show the impacts of the war on the Lost Generation.

Harold joins the Marines in 1917 while attending a Methodist College in Kansas. After serving in Belleau Wood, Soissons, the Champaign, St. Mihiel, and the Argonne, he returns to Oklahoma in the summer of 1919 after the war ends. Harold does not receive a hero’s welcome from the residents of his hometown, who are fatigued by the war and stories about its atrocities.

At first, Harold doesn’t want to talk about his experiences in the war. When he does feel the desire to talk, he discovers people don’t want to hear the truth about the war. When Harold meets fellow veterans, he is reminded of how sick and frightened he felt during the war.

Harold spends his days wandering around town. He sleeps late and stays in bed, walks to the library, eats lunch at home, and reads a book on the porch. When he becomes bored, he spends his afternoons in the pool hall. When the sun goes down, he practices his clarinet, walks through town, reads, and goes to bed.

Harold does not have the energy or courage to speak to young women, but he enjoys looking at them from his front porch. He pays attention to their appearance and likes looking at their short hair, silk stockings, and flat shoes. He would prefer a girl who doesn’t talk much, like the French and German girls he encountered during the war. But he concludes it is not worth it to become close to one. Harold doesn’t want to lie to impress the girls, and doesn’t want to deal with the “consequences” of closeness. He thinks about France and Germany and wishes he were still in Germany.

Harold reads a book about the war and finds it the most interesting book he ever read. He wishes it included more detailed maps, and he looks forward to reading another book in the future with maps. After he has been home for a month, Harold’s mother comes to his bedroom to tell him that his father has permitted him to drive the family car in the evenings. Before the war, he was not allowed to drive the car as his father is a real estate agent and uses it to show clients properties. Harold accuses his mother of forcing his father to let him take the car. She assures him it was his father’s suggestion, and she asks him to come downstairs for breakfast. Harold washes, shaves, dresses, and then joins his mother and sister Helen in the dining room.

Helen, who is Harold’s favorite sister, asks him if he will come to the school to watch her play indoor baseball. She says she calls him her beau in front of her classmates, and he doesn’t object. “Couldn’t you be my beau, Hare, if I was old enough and you wanted to?” she asks him. “Sure. You’re my girl now,” he says (114). She asks if she is really his girl, and he says “sure.” She asks if he will love her always, and he says “sure.” She asks if he will watch her play indoor baseball, and he says “maybe.” She says that if he loved her, then he would come to the school and watch her play.

Harold’s mother asks Helen to leave so she can speak to Harold privately. Harold’s mother asks if he has decided what to do for work. He says no. His mother worries that it’s about time he decides. She says that she and his father are worried about Harold’s lack of ambition and direction, and that she prays all day that he will overcome his weakness. She explains that others are settling down and becoming productive members of the community, and she tries to persuade Harold to do the same.

Harold, feeling embarrassed and resentful, stays silent. His mother reiterates that she and his father love him and just want him to get a job. They want him to enjoy himself and don’t want to hinder his freedom. He’s welcome to use the car to take out girls in the evenings, but he must get a job and “make a start at something” (115). She says it doesn’t matter what type of job he gets, since all work is honorable. She says that his father asked her to speak to him over breakfast and to stop by and see him in his office later. Harold’s mother asks if he loves her, and Harold says no. She starts to cry. “I don’t love anybody,” he says (116).

Harold sees his mother is upset and tries to console her. He says that he didn’t mean what he said: He was feeling angry, and he does love her. He puts his arm on her shoulder and pleads with her to believe him. She agrees to believe him, and he kisses her hair. “I held you next to my heart when you were a tiny baby,” she tells him, which makes him feel sick. “I’ll try to be a good boy for you,” he says (116).

Harold’s mother asks him to pray with her. He says that he can’t. She asks him if he wants her to pray for him. He says yes. He watches her pray and then kisses her before leaving the house. Harold feels sorry for his mother and that she made him lie about loving her, but he is unmoved by the encounter. “Still, none of it had touched him,” the narrator says (116).

After returning from the war, Harold tried to keep his life simple, and although things went smoothly for a while, he sees that simplicity is no longer possible. He decides to go to Kansas City and get a job to make his mother feel better. He also decides that before leaving, he will spend a little more time in his hometown. He will not see his father but instead go to the school and watch Helen play indoor baseball.