The setting for Ernest Hemingway's short story "Soldier's Home" is a town of medium size in Oklahoma. The time is the summer of 1919. Much of the story takes place in the home of the young protagonist named Harold Krebs, who has only recently returned from France and Germany, where he was fighting in important battles in World War I. His mother is a housewife. His father is in the real estate business and deals mostly in farm property. Krebs spends much of his time in the house. Occasionally he walks downtown to the public library. He is doing a lot of reading. Sometimes he goes to the pool room and spends hours playing pool. He is leading a very quiet existence in this town where very little ever happens. It is typical of hundreds of other American towns. Krebs doesn't want any excitement in his life; he had too much excitement in the war and is trying to recover from all the violent emotions he experienced. One passage is especially significant:
He did not want any consequences, He did not want any consequences ever again. He wanted to live along without consequences.