"Soldier's Home" (fiction & film): short writing assignment

Hemingway's "Soldier's Home" and Robert M. Young's film adaptation
Short Writing Assignment
to bring to class on Wednesday, 25 August

You will have noticed a number of differences between the film adaptation and the fiction inspiration for it. Let's use the occasion of writing (a special kind of struggle) to try to arrive at clarity in some depth about something that can initially be only partially clear. Doing this will put us on a better footing for small-group and whole-class discussion when we get together on Wednesday.

Working on the assumption that both works might be moving and insightful each in its own right,

try to formulate what you see as at least two of the differences in the overall meaning and experience of each work

that result from

one of the major differences in the basic explicit facts of the two pieces that struck you.

That way of putting the task sets the aim and then directs you to the foundation. It may be easier to think of it the other way around:

(1) Settle on some potentially interesting basic difference in the factual details between the two works.

(2) Try to describe this explicit difference in as specific and concrete a way as you can.

(3) Think through as thoroughly as time permits the various effects the difference you have described has on differences in the overall experience and meaning you discover between the two works. These other differences will be implicit, not explicit, so you'll have to infer them.

(4) Try to explain how at least two of these overall differences between the two works arise from the factual difference you've described. How do we get from the more obvious differences you've described to these other differences that they contribute to? (Here you may find yourself mentioning in passing, and more briefly, other factual differences between the two cases.)

Here are some of the differences in basic facts that you might take as your starting point:

the invention, in the film, of the character Bill Kenner
the invention, in the film, of the character Rose Simpson (Charlie Simpson's little sister)
Krebs' behavior, in the film, in connection with various townspeople he meets on his trip downtown 2 weeks after his return
the presence, in the story but not the film, of the scene at the breakfast table between Krebs and his kid sister
the motif, in the film, of Krebs' smoking
Krebs' at the pool room in the two works
the role of "lying" in the two works
[Feel free to pick something else that struck you that's not on this list!]

Shoot for at least a healthy paragraph. (But don't be upset if you're inspired to go on longer!)

Try to be as specific and concrete as possible in your reference to particular details of the two works. And explain your inferences about their implications. (Take a stab, too, at exploring the possible further implications of the implications that come easiest to mind.) Expect to spend at least a half an hour on brainstorming, organizing, and reformulating.

Don't beat yourself to death or tie yourself in knots over this, but try to arrive at an insight that you didn't have when you sat down to write. Do the best you can, but let's all be aware that perfection isn't possible -- especially in a half-an-hour on such a complicated bundle of issues.

Bring your final draft with you to class. It should be typed or printed out.

Expect to show it to 2 or 3 other students in your section, as the basis for small-group discussions that will then be the basis for whole-class discussion at the end of the hour.