Rites of Spring

After reading Rites of Spring and Soldier’s Home, you can begin to see connections between the two stories. In Rites of Spring, you see the more gruesome side of World War 1 and the things the soldiers went through in the trenches. In Soldier’s Home, you see how the war affected the soldiers when they returned home. By reading these two stories together, you are able to connect them together. Many people do not actually see the effects that war has on a soldier when they return home. Many times a soldier is not able to adapt back into society after experiencing the things he would experience during war. In Rites of Spring, Modris Eksteins shows you the gruesome acts of war not only between the people fighting one another but also the things that happened when there was no fighting. Even though the story talks about World War 1, there are still similar instances in our wars that occur today. In Soldier’s Home, you see how a soldier tries to get back into civilian life after returning home from World War 1. He struggles to connect with people including his own mother. The story talks about when he is telling some stories of things he experienced during the war to some of his acquaintances and how they were not entertained by them. This shows that the soldier had a hard time coming back home and connecting with people that were not in the war. It also talks about how the soldier did not want to find normal work. This shows that when a soldier returns home, sometimes it is difficult for them to do just any kind of job. Many need the sense of adrenaline that they received while they were fighting. These two stories connect with one another in a way that helps the reader understand what could be going through a soldier’s mind. Not many people actually experience going off to war and fighting for their life. So when those people return home, how do we expect them to act like everything is normal? War changes a person in many ways that the public cannot always physically see. It not only affects how the soldier reacts in public places surrounded by people, it also affects them in their own home when no one is around. Without giving these soldiers help, we are hurting their chances of returning to a semi-normal life once they are both back from a war or out of the military. By giving them help and allowing them to return to a routine, we can keep these soldiers from potentially harming themselves or others.