War Stories Earnest Hemingway and Tim O'Brien both draw from personal experiences in war to write “A Soldiers Home” and “How to Tell a True War Story”. The character Krebs in “Soldiers Home” and the narrator in “How to Tell a True War Story” both display the psychological and emotional tolls that war takes on those who have experienced it. Both of these stories give the reader a view of the experience of war from a soldier’s perspective. While Hemingway focuses the emotional apathy of Krebs, O'Brien's perspective is much more graphic and detailed, with strong descriptions of the scenery, the sights and sounds. The methods used by O'Brien and Hemingway vary, but the end results are similar. Both authors draw from personal experience from war to tell their stories and create the characters there in. In “Soldiers Home” Krebs has a hard time rejoining society. He feels out of touch and unappreciated. This is pointed out when Hemingway states “By the time Krebs returned to his home town in Oklahoma the greeting of heroes was over” (Hemingway 187). Krebs was unable to relate to the people in his home town, as most had already heard the war stories and “His town had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities. Krebs found that to be listened to at all he had to lie, and after he had done this twice he, too, had a reaction against the war and against talking about it” (Hemingway 187). The fact was that the truth was either too boring or too strange. The narrator in “How to Tell a True War Story” explains that “In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical” (O'Brien 342). It is easier for people to accept a lie that their mind can process than a truth that is too brutal to comprehend, as further stated “In other cases you can't even tell a true war story. Sometimes it's just beyond telling” (O'Brien 342). The experiences soldiers have in battle change the way they see the world, it often leaves them feeling disconnected from the people around them. The feeling of disconnection is demonstrated when Krebs states “He would have liked to have a girl but he did not want to spend a long time getting her” (Hemingway 188). He didn't want to have to talk or interact with the people he had distanced himself from. Rather he missed the simplicity of the girls in Europe. “That was the thing about French girls and German girls. There was not all this talking. You couldn't talk much and you did not need to talk” (Hemingway 189). O'Brien gives evidence to this fact when describes Rat writing a letter to Curt Lemon's sister. She doesn't reply and is thus described “listen to Rat Kiley. Cooze he says. He does not say bitch. He certainly does not say woman, or girl. He says cooze” (O'Brien 341). This choice of a name for the girl makes it easier to dehumanize her and disconnect from the reality of the situation. Her brother is dead, and Rat has lost his best friend, and the war just keeps going on. O'Brien further explains the way soldiers have to distance themselves from their feelings in stressful situations when the narrator and Norman Bowker had to peel Lemons remains off of a tree “The gore was horrible, and stays with me, but what wakes me up twenty years later is Norman Bowker singing “Lemon Tree” as we threw down the parts” (O'Brien 348). The description of scenery by O'Brien helps drive the story he tells, by contrast the scenery of Krebs home town is merely a back drop used to contrast and emphasize the emotional apathy that Krebs feels towards everything. Its plainness makes Krebs even more unhappy. Krebs came home from war a changed man. Home, however, had not changed. “Nothing was changed in the town except that the young girls had grown up” (Hemingway 188). Even those girls that he enjoyed looking at were nothing he had any interest in “He did not want them themselves really. They were too complicated” (Hemingway 188). The girls, the town, his family, none of these things interested Krebs. Even the prospect of driving the family car didn't matter. “Before Krebs went away he had never been allowed to drive the family motor car” (Hemingway 188). Now his mother and father are fine with him driving it, but the idea of doing so doesn't matter to Krebs anymore. While Krebs didn't have much thought about his surroundings, O'Brien's narrator is very descriptive about his surroundings and the effect it had on each story. By stating and detailing the “shade of some giant trees-quadruple canopy, no sunlight at all” it highlights the contrast of the peaceful shade with the tiny white blossoms and the explosion that follows (O'Brien 341). “when he died it was almost beautiful, the way the sunlight came around him and lifted him up and sucked him into a high tree full of moss and vines and white blossoms” (O'Brien 342). O'Brien draws a very detailed picture for the reader to help them clearly visualize the blast that killed Lemon. When O'Brien tells about the listening post patrol, he describes the environment in great detail to once again pull the reader into the story and help them draw a better image of the events that take place. “You don't know spooky till you've been there. Jungle, sort of, except its way up in the clouds and there's always this fog – like rain, except it's not raining – everything is all wet and swirly and tangled up and you can't see jack, you can't even find your own pecker to piss with” (O'Brien 343). This detailed imagery lends to a better understanding of the surreal environment that the patrol is in, and draws a clear picture for the reader. Hemingway and O'Brien use setting, style and tone differently, but both achieve success in drawing the reader into the story. “A Soldiers Home” used the quite backdrop of small town America to contrast the emotional unrest of a soldier come home, who cannot fit back into his previous life. Krebs has seen more than his Oklahoma home town can ever show him, and wants no part of the life he left when he went to war. “How to Tell a True War Story” uses detailed visual descriptions to put the reader in the middle of some of wars worst moments. With detailed descriptions of the sights, sounds and environment, O'Brien tries to give the reader a first person view of war. Both stories succeed in bringing the reader into the heart of the matter.

Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernest. “Soldier’s Home.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer.10th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013. 186-192.Print.
O’Brien, Tim. "How to Tell a True War Story." The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer.10th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013. 340-49. Print.