The time was World War I. America joined the War effort in 1916. Krebs would have been one of them. The amount of men deployed to War meant that the job industry in America was ripe for women in a depleted and growing industrial boom. Kreb's society must have been psychologically shocked at the prospect of this war because this was a completely new experience for American society.
Kreb's society, at the dawn of 19th century, still had a societal tendency to stick to the christian, traditional, Victorian-based values that permeated our habits such as marriage, family, church, and God.
Yet, all this became questioned at the onset of industralism, the boom in immigration, and the beginning of Kreb's "Great War". Enter the conflict. The early 20th century value system was challenged by a sophisticated new industrial and economic influx that made people more attached to materialistic and financial views of life.
When Krebs returned, this was the scenario that he found. He had just come from tasting a radically different culture at war, saw the technology and productivity of industralism, and as he came back, he could not understand how the novelty of this war had still not synched with the small town people he returned to.
Oklahoma proved to be one of those places that remained in suspended animation, and rid of change. Arguably, Krebs may have felt like he went back in time, and that his absence made no consequence in an inconsequencial town. Perhaps the post-war American town chose to stick to the values of the past century, and chose not to join in the social change that was taking place. For this reason, poor Krebs had no choice but to get away. It must have been a nerve-wrecking experience for him and any other soldier in the same situation.
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