Both Krebs and Walker’s narrator have experiences from the
trauma of war; however, they handle it in two different ways. Krebs appeared to
have a normal and social life before the war, which we can gather from the
photograph of him with his fraternity.
When he returns he withdraws from life and being engaged in the normal
activities of society. He lacks the
motivation to do anything productive, and it leaves him exposed to the haunting
memories of his experience in the war.
On the other hand, Walker’s narrator is misguided for a short time right
after he arrives home, but then gets sick of feeling sorry for himself and wants
to make a normal life for himself, and ends up becoming a skilled surgeon. Even though his search for a normal life is
plagues by his haunting memories, unlike Krebs, his productivity lead him to
resolving many of his tortures brought by those memories. Another way to look
at it could be that Krebs is still in the time period of which Walker’s
narrator experienced right after coming home, a time period of feeling sorrow
for himself and a lack of drive to make something of his life.
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