World War I “Soldier’s Home”

World War I “Soldier’s Home”

III. Bloody Conflict • Trenches = No Man’s Land = 1. Tactics • Artillery • Grenades • Bayonets 2. Conditions • Human Smell • Rats • Water

III. Bloody Conflicts (cont.) • Technology 1. Poison Gas 2. Tanks 3. Airplanes

III. Bloody Conflict (cont.) • Allies in Trouble 1. Bolshevik Revolution = Communism a. Russia pull-out in 1917. 2. Famous Leaders a. General Foch – Allies b. General Pershing – US Troops (alone) US unprepared for BATTLE!!

III. Bloody Conflict • 3. Battle of Argonne Forest • a. Last stand for Germans (1918) • i. US breaks through German lines. • D. War Ends • 1. Armistice Day • a. 11-11-11 (1918)

Time it was • And what a time it was, it was • A time of innocence • A time of confidences. • Long ago • It must be • I have a photograph • Preserve your memories • They’re all that’s left you.

Theme: life lesson! • “Preserve your memories.” • Carpe diem! • Time passes on quickly. • Innocence is quickly lost, and old age sets in! • We are about to read a story that reinforces how quickly innocence can be lost!

Metaphor/Symbol • Bookends represent the two ends of life. • “…the pages of our lives” (Jonathon Crain)

Poetic Language • Alliteration • Time = the t’s • What and was = the w’s • Assonance • Was, what, a, and long = the a’s • Consonance • It, what, must, photograph, that’s, left = t’s • Innocence and confidences = the s’s

Ernest Hemingway “Soldier’s Home”

Modernism… • Definition: Modernists sought to capture the essence of modern life in both FORM and CONTENT • Characteristics: How did Modernists capture the essence of modern life in both form and content? • They constructed their work out of fragments. • They omitted expositions, transitions, resolutions, and explanations. • Their themes were implied rather than directly stated. • They created a sense of uncertainty. • They force readers to draw their own conclusions.

Hemingway’s style • Hemingway is Modernism at its finest. • Hemingway is a man of few words… • Hemingway has said that his writing is like an iceberg; that is, one-eighth of the story lies above the surface of the sea (what's written), and seven-eighths lies beneath the surface (what's implied).

Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory

“Soldier’s Home” • This is a short story about a soldier who has returned from WWI.

Your Notes = Your Purpose • Mark 10 textual examples that describe Krebs • Before the war. • During the war. • After the war.

Let’s look at Krebs before the war. • Methodist college student from Kansas • “There is a picture of him among his fraternity brothers, all of them wearing exactly the same height and style collar.” • All Hemingway tells us is that he enlisted in the Marines in 1917. • What can we assume about Krebs without being told by Hemingway? What is implied?

Krebs during the war. • The picture of Krebs and a friend with two German girls. • “Krebs and the corporal look too big for their uniforms. The German girls are not beautiful.” • Krebs has seen combat at Belleau Wood, Soissons, the Champagne, St. Mihiel, and in the Argonne.

After the war… • At first, he doesn’t want to talk about the war. • Then when he starts to NEED to talk, no one wants to hear it. What does this suggest about the American people? • Krebs starts making stories up. How does he feel about his lies? • “All of the times that had been able to make him feel cool and clear inside himself when he thought of them; the times so long back when he had done the one thing, the only thing for a man to do, easily and naturally, when he might have done something else, now lost their cool, valuable quality and then were lost themselves.

After the war… • Even his lies were too sensational for the pool hall. • “Krebs acquired nausea in regard to experience that is the result of untruth or exaggeration, and when he occasionally met another man who had really been a soldier and they talked a few minutes in the dressing room at a dance he fell in the easy pose of the old soldier among other soldiers: that he had been badly, sickeningly frightened all the time. In this way he lost everything.”

After the war… • On the whole he had liked Germany better. He did not want to leave Germany. He did not want to come home. Still, he had come home.

An average day • Slept late • Walk down town to the library for a book. • Ate lunch at home. • Read on the front porch. • Played pool. He loved to play pool. • Practiced clarinet • Strolled down town • Read and went to bed

Girls • Vaguely, he wanted a girl but he did not want to have to work to get her. • He would have liked to have a girl but he did not want to have to spend a long time getting her. • He did not want to get into the intrigue and the politics. • He did not want to have to do the courting. • He did not need a girl. The army taught him that.

Girls • You did not need a girl unless you thought about them. • Then sooner or later you always got one. • That was the thing about French and German girls. There was not all this talking. • He liked American girls, “but the world they were in was not the world he was in.”

The ending • His parents start worrying about him. How do they address it? • Take the car. • Mom not Dad visits with him. • “God has some work for every one to do…There can be no idle hands in His kingdom.” • “I’m not in His kingdom.” • “I’ve worried about you too much…I know the temptations you must have been exposed to…I have prayed for you…”

The ending • The other boys are settling down, getting jobs, getting married… • Your father does not want to hamper your freedom…car…job. • “Don’t you love your dear mother?” • “No…I don’t love anybody…I didn’t mean it…I was just angry at something…I didn’t mean I didn’t love you.”

The ending • Krebs is affectionate. He kisses her hair. Yet he feels sick and nauseated. • “Now you pray.” • “I can’t.” • “Do you want me to pray for you?” • “Yes.”

The ending • “He had tried so to keep his life from being complicated. Still, none of it had touched him. He had felt sorry for his mother and she had made him lie…He wanted his life to go smoothly. It had just gotten going that way. Well, that was all over now, anyway…”

JOURNAL • LIST: How is this Modernism?

Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory

World War I “Soldier’s Home”