For my research paper I decided to revise and expand a research paper I wrote for my ENG 102 class last semester. The course was based on masculinity so I had to write a paper about whether Kreb who is a character from “Soldier’s Home” by Ernest Hemingway is a masculine man or not. Basically the story is about a soldier named Kreb who came back from World War I and he appears not to be able to move on with his life and when he tries to talk about what he experienced his family does not listen to him. I used three sources to better understand the character. To summarize my three sources I would say that a man goes to war to relearn what it meant to be masculine. We are talking about around nineteenth century here so that’s the time when women started doing almost as much as men so they thought men were forgetting their manly traits. Furthermore a uniform is a sign of bravery, honesty and heroism therefore when war veterans come back home people perceive them differently. The best part or at least my favorite part of my paper is when I talk about how Kreb perhaps can’t get over the war and what he experienced and that may be the reason why he isolates himself and is a stranger in his own home. I found it interesting because according to my research men go to war to become masculine but war sometimes may affect them in many awful ways and sometimes it’s really hard for them to get over what they experienced and move on.
For my research paper I’m going to concentrate on why men go to war and how war has an effect on them and I will not just concentrate on WWI. I will definitely delete all about Kreb even though I truly like the story because I think it may be hard for me to keep comparing the sources I find with the story therefore I am going to end up having an entirely different paper. I have a few ideas on where my research needs to go. I recently read about many war veterans that return home with a disorder and some symptoms that they usually experience are nightmares, flashbacks, depression, fear and anger. Some even want to commit suicide. Families must suffer as well if they have a family member with this disorder therefore I hope I stumble on information about how war affects the whole family also. I look forward to writing an interesting paper and hopefully everyone gets something out of it.
