Ernest Hemingway's "Soldier's Home" is a story of a soldier who returns from World War I as a changed person. The story shows his struggle to fit back into a post war society. He is expected immediately to be a productive member of the society. The society wants him to follow their norms and values but his values are changed after his experience with the war. The main conflict in "Soldier's Home" is between Krebs and the community to which he returns.
Krebs has been transformed into a different person and also his values have changed. The values in his life are simplicity, honesty and authenticity. He doesn't like to lie, and he always wants to be honest and doesn't like to hide anything inside him. Lying makes Krebs feel lost within himself and when he lies he experiences "nausea" (5). However, he is forced by the society to lie about his military experience in order to be listened to, because "the town had heard too many atrocity stories to be thrilled by actualities" (2). He is also forced by his family to lie in order to show how much he loves them. When his sister tells him during the breakfast "'Aw, Hare, you don't love me.'" (51), and his mother asks him "'don't you love your mother, dear boy?'" (78) Krebs says "'No'" (79), it shows that Krebs doesn't love anyone, including his mother. Krebs also rejects relationship with girls. He thinks it's useless and too "complicated" (11) to have a relationship with them. He doesn't like to talk a lot with them, he just want to be "simple and friendly" (11-12). These are the values which Krebs believes in.
On the other hand the society has its own values which everyone who lives there have to follow it. The widely accepted values by the society are ambition, religion, marriage and work. Likewise the society want Krebs to follow their traditional norms and values.
