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Foreshadowing
Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
"Soldier's Home" is a fictional, Modernist short story. Hemingway's personal brand of Modernism revolves around his self-coined "Iceberg Theory," an imagism-inspired conception of writing where, much like an iceberg floating in the ocean, much of the work's meaning is hidden beneath the surface. Imagism is a 20th-century poetic movement that favored imagery, precision, and sharp language.
Consequentially, Hemingway's writing is also realism, predominantly characterized by short descriptions of immediate and concrete details. Considering "Soldier's Home" centers around the effects of World War I on soldiers long after the fighting itself has ceased, the realism of the story emphasizes the quotidian elements of life even when that daily existence is markedly different from that of a civilian. Hemingway himself served in World War I, and much of his work surrounding the war has autobiographical qualities as a result. Indeed, "Soldier's Home" is part of a tradition of post-World War I stories that deal with the effects of the war after the war has ended: Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises is another example of such a work. "Soldier's Home," then, blurs the line between fiction and autofiction, although none of the particular experiences described by Krebs in the story should be attributed to Hemingway.
Related Themes:
