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What is the mood of the story "Soldier's Home" by Ernest Hemingway?

First of all, it's important to remember that mood is the feelings created within the reader. Since mood is a response to the work—and every reader responds differently to a piece—the same work may have a different mood for different readers. This is my response.

In "Soldier's Home," Ernest Hemingway creates a feeling of loneliness and isolation in his story about Krebs, a soldier who just returned home from The Great War (World War I). 


Throughout the story, Hemingway makes it clear Krebs is out of place back at home. Krebs has returned home from the war too late to take part in the heroes' welcome ceremonies and, in fact, "People seemed to think it rather ridiculous for Krebs to be getting back so late, years after the war was over." Moreover, Krebs did not have anyone to listen to his stories about the war because the people in his town "had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by casualties."


Hemingway also uses clothes throughout the story to symbolize the change that has occurred since Krebs left for war. When he left, he and his friends all wore their collars "exactly the same height and style." However, when he returns home the styles have changed, particularly those of the girls who "had their hair cut short" and "wore sweaters and shirt waists with round Dutch collars." While Krebs likes looking at these girls, he never has the urge to speak to them, instead thinking of them as "too complicated" and "something else."


This feeling of being out of place continues at his actual home with his parents and sisters. Harold and his mother's conversations are stagnant and far too formal ("Will you come down to breakfast, Harold?" and "Have you decided what you are going to do yet, Harold?"). It's clear Harold's mother is tiptoeing around his feelings. In addition, his mother does not see Harold's feelings as a sign of trauma, but as a sign of weakness. She sees him as morally broken, when it's clear that is not what is going on with him. She tells him, "I know the temptations you must have been exposed to. I know how weak men are." When she attempts to pray with him, Harold is unable to do so.


Overall, these incidents in the story generate a mood of isolation and loneliness. It's a loneliness perhaps only soldiers can understand and is actually mentioned in the story when Krebs runs into another soldier and they are able to talk and admit the truth about the war: "that he had been badly, sickeningly frightened all the time." Unfortunately for Krebs, these moments of connection do not happen often and he finds himself alone and unwilling to reach out and connect to the world.

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