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Paradox
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
The setting of "Soldier's Home" is Krebs's small, unnamed hometown in Oklahoma. The story takes place in the summer of 1919, after World War I has ended and after many of the soldiers who fought in the war have already returned home. The story prominently features Krebs's childhood home as well as the attached porch where he spends much of his time.
Centering the story around an unnamed small town conveys the universality of Krebs's post-war experience. While Krebs is one soldier returning home from World War I to a specific set of circumstances, the details of his individual story are not as relevant as the common experience he undergoes and the mental state that experience entails. Indeed, leaving out such specifics makes it a little bit easier for the reader to identify with Krebs and to understand his story as not unique to him.
The unnamed nature of Krebs's hometown juxtaposes sharply against the places Krebs fought as a soldier in Germany and France, including Belleau Wood, Soissons, the Champagne, St. Mihiel, and the Argonne. By locating Krebs's time as a soldier precisely and specifically, as opposed to an unspecified hometown, the contrast between Krebs's purpose-filled life as a soldier and his aimless life as a civilian is established through the setting. Krebs's later interest in maps and history books, specifically with pictures of the war, further emphasizes this divide between the war and its named locations and Krebs's unnamed hometown.
