In the Story " A Soldiers Home" Krebs comes back after being in
World War 1. He comes home only to find that something's in his
home town have changed. The girls in his town have grown up and his
parents want him to move on get married and get a job. The war has
effected Krebs in a way that he can not go on with his normal life.
Before Krebs came home from the war he was not allowed to
use the family car. But now his mom said that they discussed it and
that if he wants he can take the car out and drive some of the girls
around. He loved to look at them from the porch. Most of them had
short hair, they all wore sweaters and shirt waists with round Dutch
collars. He says it was a pattern. He liked, " The round Dutch collars
above their sweaters. He liked their silk stockings and flat
shoes."(141) This shows me that he is looking for patters to make the
He also could not meet his parents expectations because he
could not tell them the truth. Like when his mother asked if he loves
her and he says no. But then she starts to cry and he says that he
didn't mean it and that he does love her, but at the end he said, " He
had felt sorry for his mother and she had made him lie."(144) which
shows us he had no compassion for her.
There is one more thing I think is why he could not meet his
parent expectations and that was because his mind was still in the war
stage. He is the narrator and he refers to himself has Krebs which
would be his war name while his mother called him Harold. This is
showing us that he needs to find more patters in his life to maybe
steer himself into reality. Also when he tries to tell people the real
story's they dont want to listen. Maybe if someone would have listen to
him he could get all the thought's out of his head and that could be
another step in helping him settle in.
In conclusion Krebs can not meet his p...