Analysis of Short Fiction

Subject and Section Professor’s Name Date The Invisible Scars of War: PTSD and Its Implications to Society Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental illness that torments many veterans post-war secondary to their combat experiences involving periods of prolonged exposure to extreme conditions. This mental illness is often disregarded, especially among veterans who have returned after serving their purpose. The lack of information about this matter to the public urged some writers to create stories that would reflect the reality among veterans. One of them is Ernest Hemingway, who wrote "Soldier's Home." This story narrates the experiences of Harold Krebs as he embodies the silent struggle of countless veterans who live fighting the horrors and the aftermath of war, and this was aggravated by the way Krebs was welcomed in the community, where he felt indifference, disconnection, and societal exclusion. This essay claims that the community's indifference to the mental health issues of the veterans who have served in the military escalates their discomfort while they remain in the loop of silent pain. It calls for a radical reorientation from our conventional stance, in which comprehensive attention, sympathy, and concrete assistance to the affected veterans must be done. The DSM-V criteria for diagnosing PTSD can be used to determine if a veteran is suffering from it. The criteria include intrusion symptoms manifested by intermittent presence of unwanted and distressing memories, poor mood and alterations in cognition, significantly heightened arousal, and avoidance of trauma-related stimuli, among others (Center for Substance Abuse Treatment). Harold Krebs’ experiences in "Soldier's Home" are strikingly similar to PTSD, as described...