This story made me truly appreciate what soldiers in war have to face everyday. We are fortunate enough now to have an abundance of services offered to these veterans to help them deal with their experiences but soldiers back during the turn of the century were not as fortunate. I really thought that Hemingway's use of vague details was a great strategy for pulling the reader in. It forces the reader to become more involved in what is happening in the story and for them to have to create detailed events in their own mind rather then being told what is happening.
I felt that Hemingway used setting very well in this story. Much like how he describes details of Krebs past, he uses vague details to describe Krebs home and neighborhood. I feel that this can be both a positive and a negative for a story like this. By giving us vague details on the setting it forces the reader to take a more active approach in reading the story. While this can help keep a reader interested and focused, it can also give us a false idea of the setting, subject to however the reader interprets what little details we are given from Hemingway. This means that the setting of this story can vary wildly from one reader to the next. This makes discussing the setting between people difficult but also interesting due to different interpretations.
I would like to know what other people thought the setting of Krebs home was like. Did he live in a small town or was his house in the city? Was his house big or small? These are just some of the questions that are not completely answered in the text and are left to us to figure out.
I felt Krebs lived in a small town and in a two-story middle class home. The mention of “already formed alliances and shifting feuds” definitely sounds like a small town of people who are connected in one way or another. Another clue within the story that this is a small town is that the pool hall and the library were within walking distance of his home. Also, the introduction of the story tells us that the story takes place in a small town in Oklahoma. As far as his home, it must have been at least a three bedroom two-story house. Krebs, his sister, and his parents lived there. Krebs had his own bedroom upstairs as noted when the conversation took place about him coming down for breakfast.
ReplyDeleteI also felt that Krebs lived in a small town. Aside from the clues that LaDawn mentioned, I felt that there was just an overall feeling of the town being tight-knit. I think that is what added to the conflict of the story. In a town so small, transition from life at war to life at home would be very difficult. Krebs had been to far off places, coming back to a place that had not changed was difficult for him because of the changes that he had been through.
ReplyDeleteI felt as though Krebs lived in a town which had enough people to provide work and a way of life, but small enough that most of the town's people knew each other. I think that he lived in a two story Victorian house with a large wrap-around deck, located within town. Only because the author mentioned how Krebs would like to watch the girls walking “on the other side of the street” as he watched from his front porch. I can imagine him sitting in an old wicker chair on the front porch watching his surroundings outside.
ReplyDeleteI also liked the way that Hemingway used the vagueness to pull the reader in. Making the reader work to get the details creates a more intimate reading experience and makes you care for the character. I agree with it being a small town from the details in the story and the comments here. Since it is a small town where people know each other and life moves at a slower pace, it may have been a shocking change in a return from war.
ReplyDeleteI also think he lived in a small town. An example of this from the text occurs when Krebs’s mom discusses the status of a boy named Charley Simmons, and how he is on his way to “being really a credit to the community”. Gossipy things like this are characteristic of a small town, where everyone knows each other’s business. I also think the mention of Krebs sitting on the porch is another example. Only in a small town is such behavior normal. In a city environment, I imagine one would not be able to peacefully sit on their porch.
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