Short Story Soldiers Home example essay topic

Ernest Hemingway was a very talented writer of short stories. He is even thought by many to be better at writing short stories than at writing his novels. He portrays the philosophy of existentialism. A philosophy that is centered upon the analysis of existence and of the way man finds himself existing in the world. He combines this with a code that Hemingway expects his characters to adhere to. They are, a person must be responsible for their actions, a near death experience is probably as closes to the truth as a person can come, above all else courage, if there is no god, than mans fate is in his own hands, and man must always be active.

The first code, a person must be responsible for his actions, is shown in his short stories, The Battler and The Killers. In The Battler, Nick Adams is beaten down into a deformed lonely man because he c houses to fight and continue to fight. This quote from The Battler shows that Nick is in bad shape, (Nick) was dead looking in the firelight (131). In the short story, "The Killers" this code again is portrayed. Ole Anderson, a character in The Killers, did something wrong earlier in his life and he will now pay for it with his life because there are killers out to get him. As this quote shows, Ole Anderson knows he will now die, There isnt anything I can do about it.

(287) The second code, a near death experience is probably as closes to the truth as a person can come, is shown in the short story Soldiers Home. In Soldiers Home, Harold K arps grows up in an Oklahoma, God-loving society and then goes to war. When he comes home, he has the will to live. This quote represents Harold, just sitting around waiting to die, (like) bacon fat hardening on his plate (151) Hemingways third code, above all else courage, is shown in Hemingways short story, The Undefeated. In The Undefeated, Manuel, even at his age, shows courage and defeats the bull. In this quote, Manuel displays a courageous act, All right you Bustard!

Manuel drew the sword out of the mule ta, sighed with the movement and flung himself on to the bull. (264) The fourth code, if there is no god, than mans fate is in his own hands, is shown in the short story, Soldiers Home. In this story, Harold Krebs goes to war and he sees a lot of death and sadness that he was never exposed to before, so he lost his faith in God. This is shown in this quote, God has work for everyone to do, his mother said, there can be no idle hands in his kingdom, Krebs said.

(151) Hemingways fifth and final code is man must always be active. This is shown in the short story, A Clean, Well Lighted Place. In this story, a sad old man at a bar was not active in his life and now he has nothing to live for. This quote shows how sad this man is, Last week (the old man) tried to commit suicide (379) One aspect that can be questioned is whether this story has a religious connection or whether it is just a story with little meaning. The main plot of A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is how an old man is suffering from the emotional consequences of the pain of old age. Hemingway contrasts light and dark to show the difference between this man and the young people around him.

The old man is deaf and Hemingway cleverly uses this deafness an image of the old mans separation from the rest of the world. Hemingway concretes this image by having the workers discuss how the old man attempted to take his own life. Near the end of the story with this line: The old man counted the saucers took a leather coin purse from his pocket and paid for the drinks, leaving half a peseta tip. The waiter watched him go down the street, a very old man walking unsteadily but with dignity Hemingway is showing how empty can be the soul of a person.