English Literature

The stories Soldiers Home by Hemingway and How to tell a true War Story by O Brien are two very different stories that deal with the same theme of war.  In the first story by Hemingway, however, the story is told from a third person perspective and is about a young war veteran, Harold Krebs, who comes home from the war years later than the rest of the soldiers.  The story unfolds as Krebs narrates his perceptions using the war as a contrast reality in his narrations.  The other story by O Brien deals with the same war theme but is told from the perspective of an unknown narrator who recounts the events that happen to some of his friends during the Vietnam War.  The narrator uses these events to illustrate how to tell a war story the way it should be told.  In both of these stories, the narrators express certain attitudes towards patriotism.  In these two stories by both Hemingway and OBrien the narrators perceive patriotism as something that is deeper and more tangible for a person who has been exposed to such violent circumstances such as war that patriotism is a deeper form of respect for what they themselves fought for.

While these two stories do not directly refer to patriotism, there are many incidents in each of the stories that suggest attitudinal perceptions of the characters toward patriotism.  In Hemingways story, patriotism is viewed as something that has to be respected, hence, the line, But they lived in such a complicated world of already defined alliances and shifting feuds that Krebs did not feel the energy or the courage to break into it (Hemingway) referring to the young girls whom Krebs had been watching from his porch.  In this line, one instantly sees that the protagonist in the story recognizes the status quo with his description of the current period as having already defined alliances and shifting feuds.

(Hemingway)  With this recognition of the status quo, the protagonist admits that such status quo should be kept as it is, like innocence that should not be shattered by one who has a more privileged view of the whole picture, hence the protagonist does not want to complicate matters more by breaking into the status quo.  This particular line suggest that the protagonist knows that what the young girls are enjoying is a result of what he had been fighting for, and breaking into this status quo in the interest of making known what he had gone through as a soldier would be like spoiling the fruits of his fights for his countrymen who are the reason for his sacrifices.  Here Hemingway, through the story, implies that while patriotism is viewed as love of country for most people, from the soldiers point of view this love is manifested with a deeper and sometimes indifferent view of the status quo.  In the same thread, in the same story, the narrator reveals the inner thoughts of the protagonist in the lines, Besides, he did not really need a girl.  The Army taught him that. (Hemingway)  Here, the implied patriotism is in the rigor that a man has to go through when going into the army.  Men need girls, and for the army to teach its men that they did not need girls was breaking away from normalcy.  Young men who were drafted into the army had to give up their normal lives (with girls) to fight for their country.  Here, we find a deeper sense of patriotism in that the narrator suggests that the price of patriotism is the loss of normalcy  a sacrifice too great and too often underestimated.  This loss of normalcy in the protagonist of the story is validated with the mother and the father of Krebs encouraging him to take on a normal life towards the end of the story (Hemingway) highlighting how significant the effects of the war were on Krebs psyche, another sacrifice that he had to make for love of country.  The story closes with Krebs deciding to go over to the schoolyard and watch Helen (his younger sister) play indoor baseball.

(Hemingway)  This final line in the story wraps up how the protagonist still holds on to the thought that the sacrifice he made for country should not stop with his returning home, and an internal battle of preserving the status quo for the benefit of his countrymen over being adamant to calls for his return to normalcy still rages on within his head.  In effect, Krebs, even when already home, still clings on to his concept of patriotism which is to preserve the peace and suffer internally, instead of make his experiences bother other people other than himself.  Hemingway, in this story gives patriotism a more personal tone  which each person can be patriotic in his own right, and there are some who do more to this effect than others.

In the second story, How to tell a true War Story by Tim OBriens patriotism is still perceived in almost the same way as the first story, but in contrast to the first story, where patriotism involved respecting the status quo, in this second story, patriotism is viewed as not shattering the illusion of adventure and heroism of those who have not gone to war themselves.  Many times in the story, the narrator refers to telling a war story as lying because, If at the end of a war story you feel uplifted, or if you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie.  (OBrien)  While the narrator, with this line, suggests that telling a war story in all its truth can be very disturbing, he also implies that there is no need to tell a true war story by referring to it as a terrible lie hence, discouraging the audience to want to know what that lie is all about.  Here we see how the narrator implies at patriotism being able to allow those who enjoy the fruits of war to live peacefully in the illusion of peace to keep their spirits intact.  Again, what we have here is a soldier sacrificing the truth for the sake of country.  In another line, the narrator suggests that patriotism is blind allegiance to the country that one is fighting for this is found in the line, thinking about the coming day and how we would cross the river and march west into the mountains, all the ways I might die, all the things I did not understand (OBrien) where the narrator reveals that a soldier is prepared to die for his country even without logical cause.  In addition to patriotism being the intentional concealment of the truth for the sake of order, we also have the line, You recognize whats valuable. Freshly, as if for the first time, you love whats best in yourself and in the world, all that might be lost. (OBrien)  In this line patriotism is given a deeper meaning  which being the recognition of what has been lost, and what could be lost with the exposure of the truth.  At the end of it all, we find the narrator delivering the lines.

In the end, of course, a true war story is never about war. Its about the special way that dawn spreads out on a river when you know you must cross the river and march into the mountains and do things you are afraid to do.  (OBrien)

These lines suggest that the narrator, while being wary of what truth to reveal, also considers war a form of patriotism  a true war story is never about war in addition, the narrator says, a true war story is, about love and memory. Its about sorrow. (OBrien)  So, with these final lines one can easily conclude that the tangibility of patriotism is not often in how one perceives war but in what war was able to achieve for those who have not gone to battle.

Regarding the settings of both of the stories, the first one is set at the home of Krebs where his story unfolds, and the second one is set in the wilderness of Vietnam.  These settings give both stories a distinct contrast.   In the first story, the setting serves to give the reader a sense of remembrance of what soldiers have to go through, not at war, but when they return, for the sake of keeping things together and for the sake of patriotism.  The second story, while set in Vietnam, is already a recounting of events, and has the same effect of allowing the audience to appreciate what transpired in the comfort of a page.  Both of these settings serve to highlight the effects of war even more and make the horrors more real.  While the settings both serve to reiterate the terrible effects of war, these also serve to allow the reader to appreciate and value what war achieved more.

In reading both of these stories, it becomes clearer that what Hemingway and OBrien were able to achieve was give their readers a more informed understanding of war, thus enabling a deeper appreciation for what the men and women of these wars had to go through, a deeper sense of identity and a healthy respect for what has been earned, what was fought for, and the price that had to be paid for the privileges we are all enjoying today.