# Krebs — Short Fiction character guide

> Krebs in Short Fiction by Ernest Hemingway.

**Role:** major

**First appearance:** 0016-soldier-s-home

## Snapshot

A Kansas soldier back from the war in France and Germany, home in a town where nothing has changed except the girls, and he has no energy left to lie.

## Who they are

Krebs sits on his front porch watching bobbed-haired girls walk under the trees, wanting one without wanting the courting, the intrigue, or the consequences. The war taught him that you don't need a girl unless you think about her, and that lies work both ways. His paralysis—his refusal to re-enter the complicated world of alliances and feuds—is the quiet crisis that makes 'Soldier's Home' one of Hemingway's sharpest portraits of return.

## In the story

### [In Our Time](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_15_se/chapters/in-our-time)

A soldier returning from war, struggling to reintegrate into civilian life.

### [Soldier's Home](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_15_se/chapters/soldier-s-home)

The protagonist, a returned soldier struggling with post-war alienation and the inability to reconnect with his hometown and family.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_15_se/characters/krebs
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_15_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_15_se/characters