Harold Krebs and Norman Bowker Essays

Harold Krebs and Norman Bowker Essays Harold Krebs and Norman Bowker Paper Harold Krebs and Norman Bowker Paper War is a terrible thing. It destroys lives and can forever change the landscape of the mind and soul. Harold Krebs from Ernest Hemingway’s story â€Å"Soldier’s Home† and Norman Bowker from Tim O’Brian’s story â€Å"Speaking of Courage† both show that coming home from a military lifestyle and reintegrating themselves into a civilian lifestyle can be both difficult and emotionally draining to one’s self esteem and psyche. Harold Krebs wants the simple life. He’s tired of the lying and the feeling he gets from having to lie to friends and family about the war and about everyday things just to get them to back off. His mother and father both want him to become like the other men that have returned from the war, that is, to get a job, find a nice girl and settle down. But Krebs doesn’t want that. He’s been too changed by the war. His army training has seriously affected how he looks at girls. He doesn’t want to work at getting a girl having to go out and driving them around and talking to them. Hi wants a girl that doesn’t care about the war or wants him to tell them war stories. His sister, on the other hand, is the only person that thinks of him as a hero and still loves him, without provocation, without temptation, and without being cynical, even though, the war has changed him. This is shown when Krebs sister ask’s him to be her beau. His sister asks him to be her beau: â€Å" I tell them that you’re my beau. Aren’t you my beau, hare? † â€Å"You bet. † â€Å"Couldn’t your brother really be your beau just because he’s your brother? † â€Å"I don’t know. † â€Å"[†¦] Couldn’t you be my beau, hare, if I was old enough and if you wanted to? † â€Å"Sure, You’re my girl now. †(Hemingway 168) : Finally in the end, he realizes that coming home isn’t right for him in the aspect that the town has not changed except for the girls who are now all grown up. His father still drives the same car and works at the same job and lives in the same childhood home that Krebs grew up in. He misses his appointment with his father, on purpose, but in the end, trying to be simple, it isn’t enough. In realizing this he goes to watch his sister play indoor baseball. On the other had Norman Bowker, form Tim O’Brian’s story â€Å"speaking of courage†, deals with survivor’s guilt having served in Vietnam. His character is depressed with the death of his fellow solider Kiowa. Kiowa was a native-American solider, peaceful and gentle, helping the team with problems and keeping the camaraderie of the group going. Norman Bowker tried to help him as his friend sunk beneath the sewage. Norman tried to pull him out, but in the end failed to do so and watched him die. For example, Norman Bowker thinks that he was as brave as he thought he could have been , but even that much bravery was not enough to save his friend. This is the terrible price that he pays as his guilt washes up upon him like the sewage did to his friend. His seven medals mean nothing to him, but in his imaginary discussion with his father, he tries to make them mean something. Now that he ahs returned, he finds himself lost as he travels around the lake in his fathers’ truck. The road that leads around the lake is seven miles ling and can be traveled in around 25 minutes at a slow crawl. Towards the end of the twelfth revolution he stops, gets out, and wades into the lake. This could be seen as sort of baptism to wash away the feelings of the guilt. â€Å"On his twelfth revolution, the sky went crazy with color. He pulled into Sunset Park and stopped in the shadow of a picnic shelter. After a time he got out, walked down the beach, and waded into the lake without undressing. That water felt warm against his skin. Hi put his head under. He opened his lips. Very slightly, for the taste, then he stood up and folded his arms and watched the fireworks. For a small town, he decided, it was a pretty good show. † These men share a lot in common as well as have their distinct differences. The first similarity is that both men can’t or won’t talk about the war. Norman Bowker never discussed the war not because he didn’t want to but because he couldn’t. He didn’t know the right words to say anything about the war. On the other hand, Harold Krebs found out that because he came home from the war long after it and ended that nobody wanted to hear anything about the way because they had already heard about the atrocity that suffered there: though to be listened to, he later found out, he had to lie, and after lying twice about the war he too had a reaction against the war and against talking about it. Another thing that both men share is the fact that both men have a problem with reconnecting with girls. Norman Bowker lost his girl to the war, only finding out that when he returned she had gotten married and had a family of her own now, without him. Krebs ha been conditioned by the army to not need girls. Coming how from the war, all he wants is a simple life, yet the town has somewhat evolved and gotten more complicated since Krebs was last there. Men his age were getting married and finding good jobs. The men were settling down. Krebs is unable to love. This is what the army had done, they and broken him down to rebuild him into a killing machine, thus destroying the love and most of the emotions in the process. This is why he shows such coldness towards his mother. â€Å"Yes. Don’t you love your mother, dear boy? † â€Å"No. † Krebs said. His mother looked at him across the table. Her eyes were shiny. She started crying. â€Å"I don’t love anybody,† Krebs said. It’s the differences, which separate them. After a while Norman Bowker writes to the author Tim O’Brien. Over 17 disjointed letter Bowker ends up telling O’Brien about the war. Then simply eight months later quietly hangs himself with a jump rope tied to a water pipe in the men’s locker room, leaving neither a note nor letter of explanation. Krebs, on the other hand finds some resolve in his sister. He finds that he has no need for the family car or the familiarity of others. But his sister doesn’t give up on him like his parents do in a way. Krebs comes back a cynical an, unable to love and his siter is the only one that sees thru the facade to a point. This is a new bond that the two begin, which is one of the reasons that he watches her at her indoor baseball game. War is a terrible thing. It destroys lives and can forever change the landscape of the mind and soul. Both Krebs and Bowker share some very similar traits even though coming from two different wars. And yet each man can stand-alone without the need for the other.