Compare and Contrast the Writing Style of Two Stories
The two stories, "Soldier's Home" by Ernest Hemingway and "How to Tell a True War Story" by Tim O'Brien, have two different writing styles that impact the reader in different ways. The main focus of this essay is to compare and contrast the writing styles of the two stories. Ernest Hemingway's "Soldier's Home" is about a man in conflict with the past and present events in his life. A young man, known as Harold Krebs, struggles to find a balance in the beliefs of his past and present. The images of war shattered many of his past beliefs, so he struggles to find his current beliefs. Krebs's parents, like most parents, raised their son with beliefs very close to their own. "Krebs went to the war from a Methodist college in Kansas" (152) and was previously taught not to cheat, lie, steal, or kill, and was also taught the "Power" of prayer. Krebs was a Marine and was sent over to fight in the First World War. During the war, Krebs put aside most of his beliefs and did as he pleased. Due to the nature of war, he was forced to kill the enemy troops or be killed himself. He watched most of his fellow servicemen die on the battlefield. After the war, Krebs tried to bury the emotional pain he felt through his relations
Throughout the story, different characters portray different aspects of Nam, and some stories are true and some are false. Tim O'Brien's "How to Tell a True War Story" was a story shares of a war experience based in Vietnam. When Curt died, anyone visually experiencing this situation 3would normally bring a feeling of complete sorrow for the complete destruction of a life. Though he was not a soldier himself, he probably heard many stories from the victims of the war "as an ambulance driver in World War I" (152). O'Brien told this story based on his experience during the Vietnam War and through the eyes of the soldiers, one is directly connected to the true atmosphere of the battlefield. It killed Rat and he called her a dumb cooze. O'Brien, however, saw beauty in the scene. The two authors of these two stories have similar writing styles. Rat then killed a baby water buffalo in rebellion to Curt's death. He returned home after a few years to his family, where a mother who wanted Krebs to refresh his faith and settle down, a sister who wanted to feel love from her brother, and an unforgiving father who wanted Krebs to support himself. In O'Brien's eyes, war stories do not serve the purpose of retelling a true event, but they describe certain ideas and themes that are connected to the war itself. 2Ernest Hemingway was trying to convey his own self image when he wrote about "Krebs" in his short story, "A Soldier's Home". Both authors tell a war story based on self experience and through the soldiers that were actually in the war. He revealed that the war was over but the images of "the war, however, [was] never distant from the protagonist's mind as he struggles to come home again" (152).
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