After reading Soldier’s Home, I felt like Krebs is someone who’s completely disconnected not because he wants to be, but because he hasn’t found anyone who feels like his person. He is surrounded by people who expect things from him but don’t actually understand him, so of course he doesn’t feel love or attachment. You can’t feel gravitated toward a life that doesn’t match who you’ve become.
The idea of him “having to lie” about his experiences just so people would listen (l. 34) made me think about how sometimes people want stories more than they want truth. If your life doesn’t fit the dramatic version they are expecting, it can be a “let down” and uninteresting.
However, the part I connected to most was when Krebs admits he “did not love anybody” (l. 100). I don’t relate to that personally, I do love people in my life, although, it made me think. I don’t think Krebs is incapable of love, it just seems like he hasn’t found the right kind of connection since coming home. Instead of reading him as being cold, I started thinking about how love doesn’t just appear when your life feels empty or out of place. He’s not drawn to relationships because nothing around him feels real or meaningful enough to hold onto. When you’re surrounded by people who can’t understand what you’ve been through, it’s hard to feel anything that is deep or could be long-lasting.
By the end of the story, Krebs’ mother wanted him to pray, to take responsibility, and to slip back into the version of himself that existed before the war. Obviously Krebs can’t pretend to be that version of himself anymore, he’s changed mentally, physically, and emotionally. In my eyes, it seemed like Krebs’ mother wanted to enforce a facade of mental stability, when Krebs was struggling.
Overall, the story made me think about how complicated it is to come home and realize your old life doesn’t fit anymore, and how love can’t grow when you haven’t found the right person or the right place for it to land. However, when you do find the right person, love stops feeling like you’re being pressured, and starts to feel like something you truly want.
The point you bring up about how dramatics for stories are a constant is well written, and I like that you point out that maybe he feels disconnected because nobody connects with how he is now. 🙂
Your first sentence is very powerful and a really good way to start your personal response. I like the way you worded your feelings towards the book and how you think he had nobody who would understand him.
I like how you showed that Krebs isn’t cold, just misunderstood that was really clear. And what you said about love needing the right person and place felt really real and simple to understand.