Soldiers Home

In 1924, Ernest Hemingway told Robert McAlmon that he had just completed the best story that he had ever written. He was talking about Soldier's Home. Aesthetically, Soldier's Home term papers do not usually consider the story one of his very best pieces of writing, but some term papers on Soldier's Home contend that Hemingway saw it in this manner because of the psychic relief it brought to Hemingway in writing it. A Soldier's Home term paper goes on to contend that it is Hemingway's mea culpa for the lies that he told and the exaggerations of truth that he allowed the media to make about his involvement on the Italian front in 1918. Similar to the story, Hemingway took credit for feats that he was not involved with and allowed the media to give him credit without actually having to claim it or do anything to receive it. While many Soldier's Home term papers wonder at the fact that it took Hemingway six years to make this hidden sort of apology, Peter L. Hays may have an answer. He contends that Hemingway was clinically depressed declaring that he had, "put on so much weight that his jowls are evident in photos of the era". He continues on to list many, many more symptoms that may lead one to believe an apology was necessary in order for him to purge his conscience and begin to rise out of his depression.

It is clear that in one way or another, or perhaps in many ways, Soldier's Home is a tale that is heavily influenced by the life of its writer. Whether it be because of a dominating mother that Hemingway must purge her from his existence metaphorically walking away from her in his own story; or because he has a need to purge his conscience for the lies that he told the public and allowed the public to believe upon his return from war, it is obvious that this story is heavily drawn from his own life. And, his personal circumstances at the time of writing the story had significant influence upon the tale.