The short story, 'Soldier's Home,' offers a good example of Ernest Hemingway's system for extracting deductions from the reader by omitting critical details from the narrative. Harold Krebs, the story's soldier protagonist, is unenthusiastic to talk to local girls after returning from World War I. The reason for his defensiveness is never explicitly given. Instead, Hemingway drops hints leading the reader to infer Krebs has already suffered through an intense and unsuccessful love affair. By delicately suggesting Krebs' experiences, Hemingway displays a stylish narrative style in this early story. (Kennedy, J Gerald)
In the works of Ernest Hemingway, that which is excluded is frequently as important as that which is included; a hint is often as important and stimulating as an unambiguous statement. This is why we read him over and over again. "Soldier's Home" is a major example of this art of echo and indirection. Harold Krebs, the protagonist of "Soldier's Home," is a young veteran portrayed as suffering from incapability to readjust to society. The story is also about "a conflicted mother-son relationship". Krebs' small-town mother cannot comprehend her son's struggles and sufferings caused by the war. (Lamb, Robert Paul) She devotes herself to her religion and never questions her own values; she manipulates her son. She is one of the Hemingway "bitch mothers". Her sermons to her son lack any power to heal his spiritual wounds. She has determined that Krebs should live in God's "Kingdom," find a job, and get married like a normal local boy. (Lamb, Robert Paul)
Even though Hemingway locates the story in Oklahoma and prohibits it from the Nick Adams group, the husband and wife relationship observed in "Soldier's Home".
