The primary theme in Ernest Hemingway's short story "Soldier's Home" is Krebs' inability to relate to his mother and to home life after his return to Oklahoma following World War I. After witnessing death and destruction while participating in some of the war's most bloody battles, Krebs returns home where his parents try to coax him to return to his old routine. But his view of the world has been altered permanently, and attending ball games and dating are no longer easy for him. He no longer feels love in his heart and cannot bring himself to "lie" and tell his mother he still loves her. When he is asked to pray with his mother, he is also unable to do so. In one of Hemingway's most famous lines, "Krebs looked at the bacon fat hardening on his plate." Like the bacon, his heart has been hardened by what he has seen in Europe, and he knows he must get far away from his parents in order to get his life in order.