My Public Diaries: Similar Much ?

"You fear what you don’t know, Samar" a friend once told me. Among the many things that I am afraid of are unknown things. Two weeks ago, Ernest Hemingway was unknown to me , and what better way to know someone other than to read his biography? If only I had the enthusiasm to do so. When we read Hills Like White Elephants, I was baffled by his style. Then we were assigned another Hemingway work; “gibberish again?!” I said to myself. It was a repetitive, monotonous story about a traumatized returnee from WWI entitled Soldier’s Home.“To what extent could this writing be his autobiography?”, suggested Ms. FaddaAnd with that I was given an incentive to get over my fear of Hemingway.

Did you know that in 1917 and at the age of 18 Hemingway tried to enlist in the army, but was rejected due to poor sight? Did you know that when he returned home life seemed so boring compared to the atrocities he had seen? Did you know that his parents urged him to find a job and make a living? Did you know that he often exaggerated when he was asked about the war? Did you know that before he left to war he used to write at the Kansas City Star?All those were seen in Krebs’ story. Krebs willingly enlisted in the marines in 1917 the same year Hemingway tried to do so. This may signify that Hemingway was conveying his shattered dream through Krebs. “It’s not worth it” Krebs kept repeating and he exaggerated when asked about the war. His mother urgeg him to find an aim and a job, and to settle down just like Hemingway’s parents tried to do. The final coincidence that caught my attention was that Krebs read the same news paper Hemingway wrote in.

I think it was Hemingway’s indirect way of expressing some kept in” frustration and shame upon returning home to a town and to parents who still had a romantic notion of war and who didn't understand the psychological impact the war had had on their son.”