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Karina Parker

Dr. Rich

ENG 455

25 April 2023

For Changed Men: The Status of Veteran Mental Health Support in “Soldier’s Home”

The story “Soldier’s Home,” a part of the collection of stories by Ernest Hemingway in In

Our Time, tells of Harold Krebs’ return home from fighting in World War I and the conflict of

returning after becoming changed by his experiences. The collection originally published in 1924

is a part of the literature movement of Modernism typically characterized for themes such as

isolation, disillusionment, and its critique of a post WWI society and their response. “Soldier’s

Home” adopts many of these characteristics, as Hemingway details the conditions of Krebs’

return home, especially in its potential to act as a critique of society. “Soldier’s Home” reflects

personal and collective experiences of a soldier’s return home from WWI, qualifying as a

critique of Hemingway’s contemporary society’s response in terms of mental health support for

veterans.

From the moment that America joined the fight in World War I, Ernest Hemingway planned

to participate in some fashion, even despite the initial denial of his father (Lynn 66). These plans

came to fruition when he volunteered with the American Red Cross, where he would collect and

deliver wounded soldiers as a part of an ambulance unit in Italy (77). While other works of

Hemingway explore the action he experienced as an ambulance driver, it is “Soldier’s Home”

that shows what may have become of this changed man in his return from action. Many scholars

suggest “Soldier’s Home” is an almost semiautobiographical chapter of In Our Time for how

close many of the personal conflicts relate to Ernest Hemingway’s own life. John McKenna
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draws these comparisons, beginning with the idea that Hemingway’s return home to the Midwest

after World War I “was a sentence worse than death” (83). As Hemingway struggled in his return

home, he projects into his own fictional creation, Harold Krebs, to do just the same.

Hemingway and Krebs alike are men changed by war, only to return home reluctantly to an

unchanging place. The first several lines of the story say Krebs enlisted in 1917 and returns to

American two years later in 1919 (Hemingway 68). In his narration, Krebs acknowledges the

stagnant state of his hometown and his family even despite the two years away. He describes his

family’s motor car as something that always stood outside of his father’s office building and

reflects, “Now, after the war, it was still the same car” (71). It acts as a symbol of the unchanging

state and contrasts against his own. Krebs alludes to this by reflecting on how much he has

learned in the army about dealing with girls and relationships, reiterating over and over “He had

learned that in the army” (72). It is not his hometown that made him into the man he is. It was

war, and he cannot conform again. This serves as one of the major conflicts in this story: the

world around him seems unmoved by war, but it has undoubtably transformed him. Hemingway

found this to be difficult in his own life too, as in seeing and experiencing a larger world, his

return home to a place so conventional led to discontent (McKenna 85). Both Hemingway and

Krebs can no longer happily exist in such places as war has redefined their personal worlds in

such ways their families did not experience.

Familial dispute develops because of this conflict. Hemingway situates Krebs’ mother as one

of the principal antagonists of this story. Krebs’ mother seems to worry for her son, but it is such

worrying that fosters a deep resentment for her in Krebs. In their last conversation, his mother

confronts him about the temptations he may have taken part in as a soldier and pushes him to

settle down with work (Hemingway 75). In such minimal narration, it becomes a haunting scene
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as Krebs’ emotional disconnect from his previous life gets ignored by his mother, who should

support him. When Krebs speaks on no longer feeling a part of God’s kingdom, she instantly

rebuttals, “We are all of us in His Kingdom,” and berates him about the “temptations” he may

have partaken in as a soldier (75). Krebs’ mother seems willfully ignorant of what her son may

be going through in order to push her own agenda. It is reasonable that this ignorance would

harm their relationship. Krebs boldly tells his mother he does not love her only a few lines later

(76).

It makes sense to see the mother as the antagonist of this vignette, considering Hemingway’s

own tense relationship with his mother, Grace. McKenna describes his mother as an “insensitive,

domineering matriarch, highly critical of Ernest” (86). Letters from Grace to her son are

evidence enough of the high criticism. In one letter from 1920, only two years after his return

home from war in 1918, Grace wrote to him, saying, “There is nothing before you but

bankruptcy”, prior to essentially kicking Ernest out of their home (qtd. in McKenna 86). The lack

of support in their relationship is something Hemingway projected into the fictional dynamic of

Krebs’ and his mother. Kenneth Lynn suggests, “the utterly relenting, utterly unqualified

characterization of Mrs. Krebs as a monster revealed that the author was in fact still in thrall to

her flesh-and-blood counterpart” (260). It is hard to disagree with Lynn when Hemingway

positions the mother’s character as the antagonist, hurts her emotionally, and then practically

devalues their connection by the end of the story. Even as they make up in some fashion, Krebs

and his mother never truly heal the tension between them, only rather smooth over the hurt to

avoid the truth.

While this selection can function as distinctly personal to its author, the experiences it details

are not entirely unique. A secondary function of this story is the collective experience it has the
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potential to convey. Krebs, at the very core of his character, is a World War I soldier returning

home from war. The disconnect and inadequate responses from his surrounding society would

have been something that any American solider could have experienced.

Krebs presents the return home for the American soldier as one of struggle with a lack of

necessary support. It begins from the moment he arrives home when the town refuses to

celebrate his return, as people consider it ridiculous he got back so late (Hemingway 69). At the

first approach to re-assimilate into society, Krebs meets blatant negativity and dismissal. The

response of the town seems cruel, especially considering World War I ended in November 1918,

only six to nine months prior to Krebs’ return to the United States in the summer of 1919.

However unbelievably cruel seeming, it does not come from a place of inaccuracy. Steven

Trout considers this reaction a result of “cultural preoccupation” as the United States’ desired a

return to their considered “normalcy” to escape the stressors of war (11). It develops the conflict

of stasis further; in the collective soldier’s experience, it is no longer simply a society unmoved

by war, but one wanting to disregard it happening for their own comfort. The citizens of Krebs’

hometown meet him with indifference because of their desire to believe the war is over. His

presence would only reintroduce a past they have collectively decided to move on from.

Society expects Krebs to become ignorant of the past too, but the soldier cannot simply move

on from such a traumatic proportion of his life. Using contextual clues Hemingway provides in

the opening paragraph, Steven Trout even suggests Krebs war experience as one of

“unimaginable ferocity” for his placement in the Second division of the Marines, who holds the

highest death toll (15). Hemingway never outright states that Krebs struggles with mental

illnesses such as PTSD or war shock per World War I era psychology, but the combination of

Trout’s theory and the narration presents a need to heal or at least process the experience. It is
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reasonable to not want to move on and rather need to reflect upon what made him a changed

man.

It is unfortunate that he does not find the room to do so. When Krebs finally feels the need to

talk about the war, he finds “no one wanted to hear about it” (Hemingway 69). Even in his

intermediate family, ignorance permits over support. His mother especially presents the

expectation to move on from the war to a find a job, saying “Don’t you think it’s about time?”

(75). These instances reflect the same notion of avoiding the truth and rather attempt to ignore

the difficulties that Hemingway demonstrates in the conflict between mother and son. There is no

room to heal, only for Krebs to simply move on as the rest of the world has. It forces Krebs into

isolation to the point he decides to remove himself from his hometown and family over

reentering a world he may have once felt solace in. It is these initial reactions to the soldier’s

homecoming that spark the conversation around Hemingway’s contemporary societal treatment

of veterans; a treatment of disregard and, dare to say, neglect.

However, damning the last statement to be, it does not mean attempts to support real-world

soldiers with experiences like Hemingway’s Krebs. Institutionalized veteran support existed to

some degree following World War I, even though considerably critiqued by historians and

veterans alike. For instance, the U.S. Army developed a 60-page pamphlet titled “Where Do Go

From Here?” for servicemen returning home to provide advice on reentering society (Trout 9).

The intent with this pamphlet was good natured, as like Krebs, many soldiers could use guidance

in the readjustment to home after their return from service. Unfortunately, it falls short as its

focuses seem meaningless, such as its commentary about being able to keep your uniform (9).

Trout says, ’Where Do We Go From Here?’ essentially prepared its readers for a postwar
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American in which they would be expected to fend for themselves…”, referencing its faults

further in its lack of mention of psychological and social support (10).

Mental health support did exist, despite its lack of appearance in the pamphlet. Pamela Moss

in “Fixing Soldiers: The Treatment of Bodies, Minds, and Souls” discusses the many approaches

psychiatrists took to treat men returned from war. Following World War I, psychology

professionals began to identify the implications of war on the state of a soldier’s mind, including

anxiety, shock, and violence (Moss 146). Psychiatrists began forms of treatments for soldiers

considered being “neurotics” with therapies such as aversive therapy, suggestive hypnosis, and

electrotherapy (149). Even with the evidence of a budding presence of mental health support, its

absence in veteran guides raises concerns around accessibility and acceptance. Krebs never once

sought or mentioned any form of mental health treatment, suggesting that it is possible

Hemingway found the option unattainable for the everyday soldier in the state it was in.

What made mental health support potentially unattainable to the everyday soldier is the

stigma around mental health. In a study that is the first of its kind, researchers connected the

ideology of masculinity in military environments with self-stigmatization. Veterans returning

from deployment in war zones demonstrated more shameful emotions in regard to their mental

health, avoiding actively seeking treatment (McDermott 234). Though this study is of the

twenty-first century, it examines the implication of gender roles that still would have been

present within Hemingway and his fictional counterpart, Krebs’, military groups. Society

expected men to not show emotion, leaving them to internalize their struggles and avoid

professional mental health support.

Though Hemingway does not consider these professional mental health treatments, there

seems to be a reference to the ideas of religion to heal the mind. Krebs’ mother acts as an
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advocate for using prayer as a way to solve problems as she asks her son to kneel with her and

pray (76). The reference is relevant to being on the front lines and coming home from serving in

World War I. Rachel Seddon notes the presence of chaplains on the front lines of the war. The

role carries significance through military history, beginning with World War I and into the

modern day. Seddon emphasizes their importance, saying “A chaplain who visited the front line

provided an opportunity for soldiers to speak about distressing thoughts or feelings without being

labeled mad or “windy” (1358). It is the fear of seeming incapable that drives these men to seek

out a chaplain rather than a psychiatrist. It is more socially acceptable to seek God in times of

hardship. Jeanne Rennick says it is stigmatization that made military personnel approach a

chaplain over any professional, allowing them to be the first people to identify mental injuries in

soldiers (qtd. in Moss 153). It becomes a viable option for those needing some form of support

who can find comfort in religion.

Hemingway does not allow this to be a viable option for Krebs, though. As discussed earlier,

Krebs feels disconnected from the religion his mother has high faith in. After his mother asks

him to pray, he responds with, “I can’t” (76). He is incapable of using religion as a tool to aid his

reflection process and potentially heal from the traumas of war. Considering it as one of the few,

if only, socially acceptable, and viable option for mental health treatment in society, one must ask

what else is there for Krebs then? Is it the treatments devised by mental health professionals that

may be inaccessible? Krebs ends the story barely having coped with his experiences, only able to

do so in reading in isolation, making sense of what war meant (Hemingway 72). There is no true

resolution that fulfills Krebs’ original desire to speak on his experiences with the intent to

process them. He ends his story with a resolution that acts more of an avoidance tactic than soul

healing, as it is all Krebs is capable of.

In a story demonstrating both a personal and collective struggle with the return home from

war, it introduces the necessary groundwork to critique veteran support of his contemporary

society. Hemingway shows how the intentional ignorance of a post-World War I society’s kept

veterans from receiving the proper psychological support needed to make an efficient return to

society. Its lack of true resolution for the internal conflict Krebs experiences that puts forth the

question of what should have been different to assure the success of this changed man, rather

than to see him isolated and outcasted. While it may not have been Hemingway’s intention to

discuss such matters, rather reflect personally upon his tense relationship with his unsupportive

mother, it is his relatable experiences that find meaningful places in conversations around

veteran support. It is an important conversation persisting today, considering it is only within the

last ten years, research has begun exploring mental health stigma in relation to the ideologies of

military personnel.
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Works Cited

Hemingway Ernest. “Soldier’s Home.” 1924. In Our Time, Scribner, 2003, pp. 69-77.

Lynn, Kenneth Schuyler. Hemingway, Simon and Schuster, 1987.

McDermott, Ryon C., et al. “Student Veterans’ Self-Stigma of Seeking Help: Contributions of

Painful Self-Conscious Emotions, Traditional Masculine Norms, and War-Zone Service.”

Psychology of Men & Masculinity, vol. 18, no. 3, July 2017, pp. 226–37. Academic

Search Ultimate, https://doi-org.libproxy.eku.edu/10.1037/men0000117.

McKenna, John. “No Homecoming for Soldiers: Young Hemingway’s Flight From and Return to

the Midwest.” MidAmerica, vol. 36, 2009, pp. 83–92. Worldcat.

Moss, Pamela, and Michael J. Prince. “Fixing Soldiers: The Treatment of Bodies, Minds, and

Souls.” Weary Warriors: Power, Knowledge, and the Invisible Wounds of Soldiers, 1st

ed., Berghahn Books, 2019, pp. 138–60. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt9qdd3s.12.

Seddon, Rachel L., et al. “The Role of Chaplains in Maintaining the Psychological Health of

Military Personnel: An Historical and Contemporary Perspective.” Military Medicine,

vol. 176, no. 12, Dec. 2011, pp. 1357–61. Academic Search Ultimate, https://doi-

org.libproxy.eku.edu/10.7205/MILMED-D-10-00124.

Trout, Steven. “‘Where Do We Go from Here?’: Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Soldier’s Home’ and

American Veterans of World War I.” The Hemingway Review, vol. 20, no. 1, 2000, pp. 5–

21. MLA International Bibliography, https://doi-

org.libproxy.eku.edu/10.1353/hem.2000.0002.