Ernest Hemingway is not only known for being one of America's most celebrated authors. The haunting of Hemingway’s darkest demons forever lives on in his characters. Like many authors Hemingway paralleled his fictional characters to his own tumultuous life. Many examples of how Hemingway pulled from his own personality and experiences lie between the pages of his stories. To follow I will present how Hemingway's life parallels those of some of his short story characters, specifically Harold Krebs in "Soldier's Home". Close consideration will be given to the similarities in the character Krebs’ childhood and upbringing compared to Hemingway's. I will also display how Hemingway modeled the character’s view of women after his own views. Following will be a closer look at the similarities between Hemingway's war experience and bouts with depression to those of the same character. To conclude I will present how the character Krebs’ attempts at escaping his emotions mirror Hemingway's own code regarding life and love.
Hemingway was born in Oak Park, a small suburb outside of Chicago. His father, Dr. Clarence Hemingway, was a Physician. His mother, Grace Hall Hemingway, was a trained singer that made the majority of the family's income by teaching voice lessons. Between his mother's feminist views and being the only boy in the family, Ernest suffered great oppression in his home life. After high school, Ernest would fore go college o pursue a career as a journalist. His true desire was to enlist in the army to fight overseas during World War II. His dreams of becoming a war hero were quickly deflated by his less that exceptional eyesight and his father's disapproval of his plans for his future. Shortly after taking a position as a cub reporter for the Kansas City Star, Hemingway left for France as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. Only a short time after arriving, Hemingway experienced injuries and spent the rest of his stay in a hospital in Milan. The silver lining to his experience involved the infatuation with a stunning American nurse, Agnus von Kurowsky. He quickly fell in love with Agnus. Shortly after Hemingway returned to the states he received a Dear John letter from Agnus stating she had fallen in love with another.
After the war, Hemingway fell into a depressed mood. His family noted that he slept too much and seemed to have a lack in motivation. Most of his time was spent at the family lake house. There Hemingway drank and slept in late. In his early adulthood Hemingway's feelings of resentment towards his parents and his "suffocating domestic environment" in the Midwest seemed to grow. Throughout Hemingway’s life, he experienced great loss with a staggering number of suicides within his immediate family. He also suffered from the failure of more than one relationship. As a result the public witnessed the ongoing fight with mental and physical health issues, ultimately leading to his suicide in 1961. Like a train wreck, the public looked on as the talented writer self-destructed.
Much of Hemingway’s resentment towards his parents can be seen in his writing. Hemingway’s childhood was filled with an overbearing mother that neglected him emotionally. Hemingway’s mother, Grace Hemingway, “dominated her family, dictating the flow of family life” (Gale). Although Hemingway’s father was a physician, his earnings did not match those of Grace’s. Dr. Hemingway spent the majority of his time with at work, leaving Grace in charge of the family. Grace Hemingway, in all ways, was the head of the household. Grace was also a trained singer. She loved performing and “was by all accounts a dramatic woman, eager to draw attention to herself and less inclined to give attention to her children” (Gale). Grace’s self absorbed ways resulted in devastating loss in connection with her only son, Ernest. Similarities to Ernest’s own relationship with his mother can be found in the story of “Soldier’s Home”. The character Harold Krebs has a disconnection with his own mother. Hemingway writes; “She often came in when he was in bed and asked him to tell her about the war, but her attention always wandered” (Hemingway). God forbid Krebs’ mother did not use her manners and ask her son of his experiences in the war. Hemingway displays to the reader Mrs. Krebs’ true colors by showing her lack of interest in her own child. How very familiar this neglect is to Hemingway. Ernest also suffered from his mother’s constant nagging. “In a long 1920 letter, she warned him ‘Unless you come to yourself; cease your lazy loafing and pleasure seeking… and neglecting your duties to God and your savior Jesus Christ; there is nothing before you but bankruptcy” (McKenna). Ernest’s mother specialized in belittling his life and by conveniently preaching in such a religious manner. The character Krebs experiences a similar relationship with his mother. Mrs. Krebs nags Harold: “Have you decided what you are going to do yet, Harold? Don’t you think it’s about time? God has some work for everyone to do… there are no idle hands in his kingdom” (Hemingway). The reader sees the undeniable similarities between the young Hemingway and the character Krebs and the similar suffering they endured with their overbearing and disengaged mothers.
Although Hemingway’s father nutured his son’s love of sports and the outdoors, his lack of a backbone in the family superseded. “The discovery of his father’s apparent cowardice… and his suicide several years later left the boy with an emotional scar” (Gale 2ed, 17Vols). Hemingway portrays Krebs’ father in a similar light, writing “His father was non-committal” (Hemingway). Despite his absence in the everyday Hemingway household, the doctor maintained a devout Christian role and was very strict with the Hemingway children. “Nineteen going on thirty, he (Ernest) still did not own a library card… his father refused him that privilege” (McKenna). The character Krebs suffers from a similar controlling relationship with his own father. Hemingway writes “Before Krebs went away to the war he had never been allowed to drive the family motor car”. Both Hemingway and the character Krebs manage to bow at the mercy of their emotionally absent, controlling fathers.
Hemingway, like many authors, creates his characters with the same likes and dislikes as himself. “In the autumn of 1920, Hadley was twenty-eight, a tall young woman with bobbed auburn hair” (Beegel). Hadley was Hemingway’s second love and his first wife. When Hemingway wrote “Soldier’s Home” in 1925, he displays Krebs’ preference in women to his own. Hemingway writes “There were so many good-looking young girls. Most of them had their hair cut short… He liked their bobbed hair and the way they walked”. Hemingway also shares his history of interacting with women with the reader in the relationships Krebs has with the women in his own family. Author Susan Beegel writes that “Hemingway grew up in a female-dominated household, used to quarreling and competing with his older sister, Marcelline, and showing off for three admiring younger sisters”. Hemingway showing off for his admiring sisters carries an uncanny resemblance to the relationship Krebs has with his younger sisters. This is evident when Hemingway writes “In the evening he practiced on his clarinet… He was still a hero to his two younger sisters”. The reader is also invited to glimpse of Hemingway’s views of himself in regards to women when he writes about how Krebs “liked the girls that were walking along the other side of the street”. Hemingway implies that the girls walk on the other side of the street in order to avoid the awkward Krebs. Hemingway portrays Krebs as a monster in the eyes of women. The irony is that Hemingway was actually a good looking man and found adequate success with women throughout his life. He, however, sees himself as a. Hemingway is the awkward and inadequate character Krebs.
It is known that Hemingway suffered from depression for most of his life. “In November 1960 he was sent to the Mayo Clinic and diagnosed as suffering from diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver, and depression so severe that his psychiatrist prescribed electroshock treatments” (Literary pg. 35). His sister Marcelline recounts his mood by stating “In between (his) extrovert activities Ernie had quiet, almost depressed intervals… She describes her brother as staying in bed for long periods of time, drinking on the sly to ease his pain, retreating from family activities and showing little inclination to forge on adult identity for himself” (Stewart). This speculation displays Hemingway’s manic moods and his lack of motivation to do much of anything productive. This description parallels the character Krebs after his return from the war. Hemingway writes “During this time, it was late summer, he was sleeping late in bed, getting up to walk down town to the library to get a book, eating lunch at home, reading on the front porch until he became bored and then walking down through the town to spend the hottest hours of the day in the cool dark of the pool room”. The character Krebs, like Hemingway, was displaying the same depressed mood. His day was quite mundane as it only consisted of him “practicing his clarinet, strolling down town, reading and going to bed” (Hemingway). Hemingway also evokes to the reader Krebs’ severe depression by writing “His mother would have given him breakfast in bed if he had wanted it”. This implies that Krebs was not eating and his mother would even resort to bringing it to him in bed if it meant he would eat something. Author Susan Beegel writes “For months after his return home in January 1919, Hemingway hung around his parents’ home and cottage drinking and smoking clandestinely, hunting and fishing with friends, swimming and boating with local girls”. Although Hemingway appears to have possessed a more active and social role after his return from the war, Krebs represents how alone and depressed Hemingway felt inside.
As discovered thus far, Hemingway’s war experience was less than ideal. His less than perfect eyesight kept Hemingway from enlisting in the army as a soldier during World War I. Although the young Hemingway still participated in the war as an ambulance driver, his “own war story embellishments are recounted by Reynolds” (McKenna). Hemingway’s pride superseded his conscience. From Milan, Hemingway wrote letters to his family telling of his experiences during the War. Author Matthew Stewart recounts “Besides putting on the brave and happy face the later letters could well constitute a bid for public attention”. Stewart continues “Hemingway’s early letters were delivered to the local press by his parents, and Hemingway’s subsequent letters were surely written under the apprehension that they might well find a public audience”. The character Krebs experiences a similar desire to be heard and respected for his time in the war. Hemingway displays this when he wrote “His town had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities. Krebs found that to be listened to at all he had to lie…” Author J.F. Kobler notes that “Ernest Hemingway’s ‘Soldier’s Home’ is the author’s mea culpa for his exaggerations about his role in World War I”. The reader can see the same blame lying with the character Krebs as Hemingway writes “Krebs acquired the nausea in regard to experience that is the result of untruth or exaggeration”. The guilt of his lies and exaggerations about the war were making Harold Krebs physically ill. Both Hemingway and the character Krebs are portrayed as guilt ridden soldiers. The difference is Hemingway dealt with his guilt by writing a an autobiographical story about his war lies.
As proven thus far, Ernest Hemingway experienced an unconventional home life compared to most young people. His feminist mother and his absent father essentially created the monster within Hemingway that he would fight for his entire life. To try to repress his emotions and avoid an outcome similar to his parents, Hemingway used emotional barriers to escape his fear. Hemingway believed that “It is the code of the hero who suffers from an unreasonable wound, and who is inwardly tough and outwardly reticent. One must show no emotions and form no emotional attachment” (Pidgeon). He believed that by becoming hard and showing no emotions he would remain protected from the hurt of the world. Like Hemingway, the character Krebs portrays a similar code. As his mother nags and preaches to him about his less than exceptional life “Krebs looked at the bacon fat hardening on his plate” (Hemingway). At this moment the author uses symbolism to compare Krebs’ hardening emotions to that of “the bacon fat hardening on his plate”. Krebs is becoming numb to the constant berating of his parents. Hemingway was not only building up emotional barriers against his parents. Over the years, he had become emotionally detached from the opposite sex. “In Hemingway’s code, love is dangerous and therefore inadmissible since to love is to render oneself vulnerable to fate. When you love you lose, and the law lies beyond the will of man” (Pidgeon). This code is sadly dark and cold. It is apparent in the story of “Soldier’s Home” that Hemingway modeled the character Krebs’ own alienation from emotions to his own. After Harold’s return from the war “He liked the girls that were walking along the other side of the street” (Hemingway). One may first notice the distance between Krebs and the girls and feel pity for the character. However, one might consider that Krebs feels more comfortable with the distance. Krebs states that “you did not need a girl”, especially “not now when things were getting good again” (Hemingway). Both Hemingway and the character Krebs are searching for a way out of their paralyzing emotional baggage. They find this escape in emotional barriers.
Ernest Hemingway suffered from an unconventional family life that undoubtedly left him emotionally scarred. His domineering mother and cowardice father left Hemingway with a less than perfect model of how to be a mentally strong and persevering man. As Hemingway once said “The writer’s job is to tell the truth, all you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know” (Gale). As depressing as it may have been, Hemingway indeed wrote the truest sentence he knew. He, undoubtedly, wrote several true sentences. Writing was Hemingway’s outlet. It was his fate to share his life within the pages of his stories. In “Soldier’s Home” Hemingway brings his pain to life, to be forever immortalized in the character Harold Krebs.
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