World War I
“Soldier’s Home”
III. Bloody Conflict
A. Trenches = No Man’s Land =
1. Tactics
A. Artillery
B. Grenades
C. Bayonets
2. Conditions
A. Human Smell
B. Rats
C. Water
III. Bloody Conflicts (cont.)
A. Technology
1. Poison Gas
2. Tanks
3. Airplanes
III. Bloody Conflict (cont.)
A. 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)
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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!
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“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
“Soldier’s Home”
Ernest Hemingway
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
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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…”
Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory