Regeneration by Pat Barker Essay -- Regeneration Pat Barker Essays

Regeneration by Pat Barker The war in 'Regeneration' is explored 'back home'. Rather than portraying the war in terms of fighting on the frontline in the battlefields of France, Barker demonstrates the effects on the soldiers 'back home', both physically and mentally. The soldiers are those who have been injured, shell-shocked, or had a breakdown and are being treated with the intention of sending those who are able, back to France or at least resuming some kind of war duties. The war is explored, essentially in terms of the psychological effects of those who fought it. The physical traumas and horrific injuries suffered are widely known. However the mental traumas are probably less known and not fully understand. It is from this perspective Barker writes. The book poses as an alternative to the novels written from the perspective and experiences of the soldier who is fighting on the frontline. I Regeneration we learn of these experiences from those who were there but learn them in such a way that we are allowed to understand the real and devastating effects they can have on individuals. Barker manages to provoke the vivid and agonising pain of the First World War through her characters and portrayals of how their lives and they themselves have come to change as people as a result of their involvement in the war. This is seen most clearly in patients such as Sassoon, Burns and Prior as well as Dr. Rivers. Through these characters she challenges the assumptions about the relationship between doctors and their patients - some patients describe Rivers as a father figure, between men and women - Prior finds comfort in a woman who learns nothing about his devastating experiences, and yet there are sub... ...become a rickety sack of skin and bones. There is an episode in Regeneration of his suicide attempt and we learn more about Burns trough his actions rather than his words and emotions. Burns was almost certainly never going to be able to overcome his condition and suffered badly from terrifying nightmares. Burns portrays then men who came back but already had lost their lives. Burns would never be able to return even slightly to the man he once was because his ordeal was too overwhelming and incredibly hard for him to forget and overcome. He is compelled with his thoughts and reminded of his experience in every nightmare and every time he eats. He would rather die and this is what Barker tries to communicate with us - that there were some whose experiences were so devastating that they will never get over them and therefore have already lost their lives.