Soldier's Home

The emotional problems could derive from the mix of religion and war. He has maybe found that the laws on the battlefield are completely contradictory to the ones of Christianity, and despite that his family does not condemn him - they even award him by letting him drive the car. These extreme double standards must have been a severe blow to the Christian ideals with which he has been brought up and educated. As a result, his identity has been compromised, which could be one of the reasons for his problems.

In this text the author refers to a book called "An Intimate History of Killing" by Joanna Bourkes. The latter says that within the army the concept of moral is considered as something that is brought upon the individual by society, and basically it is created from repression of essential needs from the childhood. So moral is, in this conception, a negative thing that makes the soldiers lie sleepless at nights with guilt. However, the text seems to contradict itself at some points. For example, it is later said that the feeling of guilt, which derives from moral according to the text, was a helping factor in the process of killing. Moral would then be a good thing, since without moral the soldiers would feel no guilt.

Contradictory or not, the text is a good example of the complexity of the situation. As confusing as it is to read it must be even harder for Krebs who is forced to relate to questions like these. The contradiction may be the single most central thing in Krebs' state of mind as in war itself.

Ambivalent feelings and contradiction is also the subject in "A Rumour of War" by Philip Caputo. A thing that Caputo and Krebs have in common is that they are not satisfied with being home. Krebs did not want to leave Germany to come home, and Caputo misses Vietnam. But what is the reason for this strange kind of Stockholm Syndrome?

I believe that the reason why war has such grave impact on people's lives is the large degree and variety of emotions. Experiences that involve strong emotion are the ones that have the most influence on a human being. Since war involves very strong emotional experiences it will certainly have a big influence, but the fact that the emotional span is so wide makes it hard to tell exactly which influence it will have. Will it be positive? Negative? No one can tell, not even the participants like Krebs and Caputo themselves. They are equally disgusted and fascinated.

This controversy can yet again be seen in the two pictures, "The face of an American who fought at Hue" and "Captain Savage and His Battlefield Raiders". The latter depicts the fury of combat, wildly exaggerated. A real soldier would never engage in melee combat like Captain Savage does in the picture, but the feeling would probably be the same. The other picture shows a man who seems to be burdened by guilt. The hand that partly covers the mouth suggests some kind of held back feelings, like an act of self-control. The staring glance gives the impression that the soldier is thinking about something which is not positive. He could be feeling guilt or he could be thinking about some of his experiences. These two pictures are both from 1969 which is evidence that there are indeed two sides of war. The difference cannot be explained by a change of mentality or whatnot.

"Soldier's Home" is not a story about melancholy or nostalgia, nor honour or victory. It is a story about a man who changed, who returned from the war a stranger in his own country. A man was sent to war, and a soldier returned. The soldier's home is not his home country; it is the battlefield with all the dreads and horrors it may contain.

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