FREE ESSAY ON REASONS FOR LEAVING

REASONS FOR LEAVING

Reasons For Leaving
Coming back to what used to be home from an extremely traumatic war scenario creates a
degree of alienation for any returning soldier. It is even more difficult when the
soldier is a teenager whose life away at war is his first lengthy experience away from
home. In "Soldier's Home" by Ernest Hemingway, Harold Krebs, who has had his moral views
and beliefs altered by his life in the army, arrives home to a town that has not change
much at all. Wanting to live a smooth life without any consequences, Krebs is disgruntled
when nobody listens to him talk about the war, when he notices the pretty but complicated
girls, and he finally decides to leave when he ends up making his mother cry. 
When he first arrives home there is a lack of interest in Krebs' stories by the people in
his town, which will lead to consequences that Krebs will have to deal with for the rest
of his life. In an attempt to get anybody to listen to him he discovers that he has to
start lying. After telling a couple of stories with lies that "... consisted in
attributing to himself things other men had seen, done, or heard of..." Krebs gains "...a
distaste for everything that had happened to him in the war..." (146). Because of these
few false stories he has told, Krebs now has to deal with an emotional/mental state that
"nauseates" him every time he discusses or really even thinks about the war.
All he aims for while settling back in at home is a life without any consequences, which,
because of his perspective of the town girls, means that he isn't going to get involved
with any. Though he enjoys looking at these "good-looking young girls" he chooses not to
act upon his desires to be with them. Krebs insists on having no "consequences," and
therefore repeatedly attempts to persuade himself that he does not need a girl by telling
himself that "here at home it [is] all too complicated" (147). Krebs' utilizes self-talk
and self disciplinary tactics that he learned in the army in order to resist desires that
could cause unwanted complications in his life. 
Striving for a life without complications or consequences Krebs realizes that it is time
to go when his mother earnestly shows her concern and expresses how she feels about what
he should be doing with his life. Krebs undoubtedly proves his disorientation caused by
the war when he causes his mother to "[cry] with her head in her hands" (150). By not
being away at the war and experiencing its traumatic effects herself, Krebs' mother is
unable to understand that her only son now sees life differently then when he was her
religious highschool boy. When Krebs exclaims "No" (150), he does not love his mother, he
fathoms it is time to leave because he doesn't feel as if he really fits in his home
environment any longer. 
Krebs undergoes a series of slight hardships, or difficulties in reaching his goal of
minimal complications, throughout his months time back at home. Because his values have
change so drastically through his time with the army and his experiences in the war Krebs
feels that life would be less complicated for him if he were to just move away from his
all too familiar hometown. 
Bibliography
Hemingway, Ernest. "Soldier's Home." The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael
Meyer. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins's, 1999. 543-54.