In "The Soldier's Home," Ernest Hemingway uses a small-town setting to give his readers an insight into the troubled young mind of Harold Krebs . Harold Krebs struggles to adjust to life in Hemingway's lifeless Oklahoma town shortly after his belated return from combat in World War I. Hemingway's social environment in "Soldier's Home" contributes to a familiar, yet boring, atmosphere that Krebs must attempt to deal with. Hemingway uses many aspects of setting, constructively matching place and time, along with the social environment present in "Soldier's Home", to develop a monotonous atmosphere that parallels Krebs' sentiment. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayHemmingway creates a place for the reader: an Oklahoma town during the boom of the 1920s where Harold Krebs returns after serving his country in World War I, only to find that almost everything is the same, with only few changes to the setting. Krebs finds Hemingway's world too complicated underneath, for its simplicity on the surface; Krebs particularly notes the town's young girls, especially from the comfort of their front porch: Nothing had changed in the town, except that the girls had grown up. But they lived in such a complicated world of established alliances and shifting feuds that Krebs didn't feel the energy or courage to break into it. He liked watching them though. There were so many beautiful girls. Most of them had their hair cut short. When he left only little girls wore their hair like that, or fast girls. They all wore sweaters and shirts with round Dutch collars. It was a pattern. He enjoyed watching them from the porch as they strolled across the street. (171) Upon returning, Krebs finds that Hemmingway's town has remained unchanged; the girls grow up with their own problems, too many for Krebs to care about anyone in particular. Observing the beautiful girls from the shelter of his porch becomes a pastime; they dress indistinguishably and still wear short hair. The unchanged girls grow up in Hemingway's setting, bringing Krebs' youthful memories to life, long after Krebs experienced them. Short hair and Dutch collars have become common for girls. Krebs sees girls wearing collars as he himself has become accustomed to wearing them with his fraternity brothers: "There's a picture that shows him among his fraternity brothers, all of them wearing exactly the same height and same style of collar" (170). Time doesn't change anything. Hemingway's character spends much of his time at home as well as in the billiard hall: "...to spend the hottest hours of the day in the cool darkness of the billiard hall. He loved to play billiards" (171). The billiard room, a second home for Krebs, is cool and dark, just like the feelings that reside in Krebs. Just as Hemingway's flat, uniform Oklahoma prairie setting parallels Krebs's unchanging present existence, the pool hall creates a candid atmosphere applicable to a homogenous civilized setting. The details of Hemingway's social environment and the atmosphere they create have a negative effect on the protagonist, causing him many difficulties in readjusting to his surroundings. Krebs resides uncomfortably in Hemmingway's town, whose residents open their ears only to dramatized tales of the war, prompting Krebs to tell half-truths and whole lies in an ineffective attempt to please his audience, as in the pool hall, a place beloved by young. man:His lies were lies of, 2005. 170-175.