Written for my English Class, not as an assignment, but because I felt like it:

Upon reading “Soldier’s Home”, by Ernest Hemingway, I couldn’t help but have a differing first reaction to a certain section of a book based on my own experiences.  There is a moment where the main character, Krebs, describes his want of a girl.  As we came to discuss this in class, we determined that Krebs views women as objects for his sexual desires, as his want for a life without consequences shapes his view that a relationship would just be too complicated.  As a somewhat “normal” audience, we understand that no one can live without consequence, and that we have to take on the complications to get what we want and to take that risk. Krebs, however, is so distant that he feels the talking (relationship) just isn’t worth it.  We cast a disapproving eye on his viewing women as only an object and “not want[ing] themselves really,” but I couldn’t help but relate to him and his predicament, to a point where I even felt sympathetic.

Going to war isn’t an easy thing, as can be sure, and I cannot fathom the things that Krebs went through as my time in the military never amounted to the sacrifices he made.  Yet I can relate to this distance.  Spending 9 months overseas, whether fighting or otherwise, can put a lot of perspective into one’s life.  You see the struggle that most people go through outside of America, and realize that some things back home are trivial compared to the things that most people face in these countries day-to-day.  This is why I agreed with Krebs.  No one wants any complication, and most can agree that relationships can get pretty complicated at certain times.  It says, “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.” It’s like he realizes the façade that people portray in order to have these relationships.  There is a time, both then and resonating now, that you go through the motions with that significant other, always putting your best foot forward in order to impress.  Krebs, however, seemed to want to only be himself, and for everyone to be honest with their feelings and to stop playing games over trivial matters.  In simple interpretations of Love, you find that person, and you hold on to them.  In America, there’s a lot of pretense that is involved with getting to know that person, and it all becomes insignificant when you’ve spent some time away from it all and understanding the more important things in life.

“You did not need a girl unless you thought about them.  He learned that in the army…You did not have to think about it. Sooner or later it would come.” The military is able to break everything down to the bear minimum in order to reach both individual and mass objectives.  Attention to detail, stay focused, and follow Standard Operating Procedures, and things will be much easier.  There’s a time in every person’s lonely life where someone says, “Don’t go looking for her. Find your passion.  You’ll find her when you stop searching, or she’ll find you.” Upon first glance, it is almost as if Krebs has come to this conclusion himself, that he can just wait and she’ll come along.

Upon further reading we realize that Krebs is just very afraid.  The same phrase is repeated over and over again “It was not worth it.”  The trouble he knew it would take, the risk of a broken heart or just putting his feelings out there, was enough to keep him from even trying.  He does not want to lose that battle.  As he says at the end of this section, “Not now when things were getting good again.” We are understanding that he had quite a tough time overseas fighting a war.  There was simplicity in his life now, without conflict or emotional stress, and if we believe that the defining line between Love and War is so often blurred, it’s not hard to imagine why he would suddenly want to get back into it again.  He wants a girl, you can feel it within him, and he struggles with it (which is why he spends so much time on the subject) but he is just so afraid of getting hurt that he does not want to pursue it.

This is actually quite sad to me.

I understand his predicament.

These girls who “live in such a complicated world of already defined alliances and shifting feuds that Krebs did not feel the energy or the courage to break into it” have not seen the world he’s seen.  They’ve been living in the same town in the same state in the same country as everyone else, dealing with the same trivial problems that people have been dealing with for years and years.  Krebs, and anyone who has ever gone overseas to witness the strength of man when stripped of everything material down to the bear bones of existence, doesn’t want to deal with all the fluff of relationships.  He wants it to be real, honest, and without pretense.  The girls wouldn’t understand that.  They are just too young.  He would have to deal with it in order to get with one, he knows it, but it would be a tough experience, another war he is not willing to face.