Comparing Soldier's Home 'And How To Tell A True War Story'

Soldiers need Heroes too
Though Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” (1925) and Tim O’Brien’s “How to Tell A True War Story” (1987) were written about sixty two years apart and portray different experiences after the war settling back into everyday American society, both works have similar situations, a setting of war, and experiences. In “Soldier’s Home”, Harold Krebs, a nineteen year old soldier, fought in the Belleau Wood, Soissons, the Champagne, St. Mihiel, and in the Argonne battles of World War I, while the soldier in “How to Tell a True War Story” is deployed during the Vietnam War. Both of the stories have protagonists who are both returning veterans. “Soldier’s Home” and “How to Tell a True War Story” have soldiers who have a tough
After World War I, Krebs returns home later than everyone else. Krebs copes by trying to pray, but is not able to. Next, his sister tries to playfully cheer him on, but that doesn’t work either. Everyone he tries to tell the story to have heard it already. Due to no one listening to his stories he feels a disconnect from society. Harold Krebs thinks about being in a relationship, but realizes he is not in the same mindset the girls are in. Krebs says, “But the world they were in was not the world he was in” (Hemingway 167). Krebs lived many years on the frontlines doing dangerous missions. His mentality is different from that of a civilian where they do not see brutality or know the truth about war. This changes his perception to something else than a normal everyday citizen. To get a girlfriend Krebs realizes he would have to talk and banter with the girl which he is not used to. Even though he lives in the United States, he prefers girls from Germany because they do not talk as much causing more disconnect and self sympathy. In contrast, in “How to Tell a True War Story” Tim O’Brien describes a different way of coping. Rat’s dear friend dies and he genuinely writes a letter from the bottom of his heart to his friend’s sister. He begins the letter by writing a few stories about how her brother would do things no one else wanted to do such as formidable night patrols. Rat writes
Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” and Tim O’Brien’s “How to Tell A True War Story” shows it is hard for soldiers to find a job, spouse, or settle back home and that the soldiers must lie to receive attention and tell the reality of the war. Also, Hemingway and O’Brien show a physical disconnect and a mental disconnect in which both soldiers were struggling to face to get back into