SOURCE: Hannah, James. “Part 1. The Short Fiction: ‘Soldier's Joy.’” In Tobias Wolff: A Study of the Short Fiction, pp. 66-71. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996.

In the following essay, Hannah discusses Tobias Wolff's representation of a veteran's reintegration into American society in “Soldier's Joy.”

“Soldier's Joy” is Tobias Wolff's fourth treatment of soldiers and his second short story about the reintroduction of the Vietnam War veteran into American society. It also provides the title of the collection in the phrase “back in the world,” the soldier's shorthand for civilian life. The phrase resides at the core of this story. Hooper, a veteran of Vietnam now serving stateside, reveals his cast of mind in a monologue of self-revelation that precipitates the murder of the soldier Porchoff: “Back in the world we were going to have it made. But ever since then it's been nothing but confusion” (Back [Back in the...