She compares him to Charley Simmons which already has a job and is getting married. It is clear that she expects him to be like all other young men. Krebs turns her down expectations and to further complicate matters, he says he does not love her. He tried to resolve the issue by saying that he simply does not love anybody, but it didn’t help.
Now in the 21st century we know that Krebs was suffering from PTSD, but back in the early 1900’s nobody knew of that condition. Hemingway is giving us multiple examples of the hardships that soldiers in that time period underwent. Both those examples illustrate that Krebs had become desensitized. The lack of emotion and almost monotone voice within the story all amplify his desensitization.
By use of these conflicts it becomes apparent of Krebs’ complications, which in return, shows the story’s theme. All the conflicts that Hemingway used throughout the story depicted how the war affected Krebs. The expectations his mother had for him of having a family and finding a steady job was, at the time, unreachable. Similar to Krebs, Hemingway had also served in WWI. It can be agreeable that through Krebs, Hemingway was able to display what veterans suffered from. Through the use of both these internal and external conflicts, it becomes evident of a soldier’s