Helen is demonstrative and loving toward Krebs, and he is accepting of her adoration. The love they share is pure; Helen is not yet at an age when the psycho-social separation from family begins to manifest. She approaches him with no ulterior motives. Krebs needs for relationships to be simple. He has come back from war feeling unstable, and Helen offers stability because all she wants in return from him is the same simple devotion she offers him.
Krebs's mother has expectations of him, and Krebs understands that the girls in town would also have expectations of him. He doesn't have the emotional energy to engage in the dynamics of that kind of relationship. With Helen, he doesn't have to work at the relationship. All she asks of him is that he come and watch her play baseball. And in his current psychological state, it is one of the few interactions he can have without putting himself at risk of further psychological discomfort.
After returning from World War I, where he served in the Marines during some of the most decisive battles of the conflict, Harold Krebs comments that he just wanted his life to run smooth without "consequences." He had already seen enough consequences of people's actions in the war. His relationship with his young sister Helen is without consequences so it fits well into his plans. With his father and mother and with any potential girlfriends, things would be more complicated. Harold is suffering from what we might now term post-traumatic stress disorder but was then simply called shell shock. For most returning World War I troops it went undiagnosed and untreated. His parents want him to get on with his life, to work and marry, and carry on a normal existence. Instead, he falls into a life of lethargy, sleeping late, playing pool or reading books about the war.
Helen is safe and innocent. She obviously very much looks up to Harold and in one scene asks him if he would be her "beau." Since there are no consequences involved in this relationship, he is perfectly willing to go along with her. Hemingway even suggests that she may be the only person Harold really loves:
Krebs looked at her. He liked her. She was his best sister.
Helen invites Harold to her indoor baseball game and says that he doesn't love her if he doesn't show up. She says,
"Aw Hare, you don't love me. If you loved me, you'd want to come over and watch me play indoor."
In the final lines of the story, after telling his mother he doesn't love her, shunning prayer, and totally avoiding his father, Harold thinks that he will go and see Helen play baseball:
He would not go down to his father's office. He would miss that one. He wanted his life to go smoothly. It had just gotten going that way. Well, that was all over now, anyway. He would go over to the schoolyard and watch Helen...
See This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this answer and thousands more. Enjoy eNotes ad-free and cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
play indoor baseball.
It is for Harold a first step back into society and the realization of consequences. By loving Helen he reenters a world of complications. He could not love his mother or father, but Helen is innocent and she may provide him with the inspiration to begin living his life again.
In "Soldier's Home," what does Harold Krebs's relationship with his sister show about him? How does he change in the story?
The narrator tells us that Helen is his “best sister.” While eating breakfast, she presents herself as assertive, possibly challenging his masculinity, which is already feeling very weak after his experience in the war. She tells him that she “can pitch better than lots of the boys,” and that he is her “beau.” Although he assures her “you’re my girl now,” his tone is noncommittal, and he only says “maybe” when she asks him to watch her play. The implication is that they once had a close relationship, but he has become as indifferent to her as he is to everyone and everything else since his experience in the war. From the beginning of the story until his last conversation with his mother, Krebs remains passive and unable to feel or do much at all. When his mother confronts him about this, she also infantilizes him, saying “I held you next to my heart when you were a tiny baby.” Although this makes Krebs “sick and nauseated,” he still wants to please his mother. Although he cannot pray, he allows her to pray for him. He resents her for all of this, and especially for making him lie. He will do what she wants, get a job and become “a productive citizen,” but in doing this he feels he is being false to himself for he came home from the war finding all of these routine activities no longer had meaning.