At the beginning of Pat Barker’s Regeneration, she introduces readers to the war hero Siegfried Sassoon, who refused to fight on the grounds that the war had already been completed. Sassoon is declared mentally ill and is sent to the Craiglockhart War Memorial Hospital. At the hospital, Sassoon meets with Dr. W. H. R. Rivers. Dr. Rivers has the job of getting soldiers back to a state of good mental condition, which will enable them to return to the service. From the beginning of the novel to the closing, Dr. Rivers makes you wonder what he will do. Will he fight for the soldiers that are mentally struggling with the war or will he favor what the government wants him to do? Throughout Pat Barker’s Regeneration, she how much Dr. Rivers has
James Duncan’s book entitled, The River Why, focuses around the main character, Gus, and how he changes throughout the book. In this book Gus is discovering what life really is and that the whole world does not revolve around fishing. After moving out of his erratic house he spends all of his time fishing at his remote cabin, but this leaves him unhappy and a little insane. He embarks on a search for him self and for his own beliefs. Duncan changes Gus throughout the book, making Gus realize that there are more important things to life than fishing, and these things can lead to a happy fulfilled life, which in turn will help Gus enjoy life and fishing more. Duncan introduces a character, Eddy, who significantly changes Gus’s views on what he needs in his life and she gives Gus a sense of motivation or inspiration. Eddy changes Gus by their first encounter with each other, when Eddy instills in Gus a need to fulfill his life and when they meet up again, completing his need. Fishing is Gus’s first passion but he loses it after he puts all of himself into it, and when Eddy comes into his picture Gus feels a need to have more in his life, like love. Through finding love he re-finds his passion for fishing and learns more about himself. When Eddy and Gus finally get together, he sees this “equilibrium” between his old passion, fishing, and his new one, Eddy. Duncan’s use of Eddy gives Gus a new found sense of purpose and to have a more fulfilled life is a critical step in Gus’s development as a character. This is why Eddy is the most important character to this book, because she gives Gus inspiration to find himself.
The powerful poem ‘Weapons Training’ showcases a sergeant, through malicious words, guiding his troops. However it is through ‘Homecoming’, where Dawe exposes the brutal hopelessness brought forth by the futility of war. Therefore it can be seen that war has an emotional toll on both families and the soldiers. Both poems have a recurring message that all war does is bring loss, death and mourning, showcasing Dawes strong opinions about a futile
Norman Bawker’s experience in the war in Vietnam is one that renders him completely helpless afterward. During his campaign, he was a good, quiet soldier, who won seven medals, but he would never forgive himself for the one he didn’t win, the Silver Star...
The Rivers family lives in the projects, which are known as Henry Horner Homes. This is a public housing development for individuals who cannot afford other housing. The area around the housing development is taken over by gangs, where murders and shootings happen almost every day. Friends of the Rivers family ended up getting murdered on the streets because of drugs and gangs. LaJoe, their mother, raises the children with the occasional help of their father Paul. Their father is sometimes absent in the children’s life’s due to his drug addiction. Throughout the book, LaJoe was afraid that she would lose her sons from gangs that surround their neighborhood. Lafayette is forced to help his mother around the house and work a side job - washing cars near a stadium to help his mother save money. But Lafayette sometimes hangs out with the wrong crowd. For example, when Lafayette was with his friends at a video store, he got convinced to steal a tape, but ended up getting caught by the store manager. LaJoe was terrified that Lafayette was going to turn out like his older brother Terrence, who got incarcerated for armed robbery. Toward the end of the book, Lafayette was arrested for allegedly breaking into a truck and had to go to court and was found guilty. As for Pharaoh, he was always the child who impressed LaJoe when it came to school. He loved the spelling bee and
Sheriff chose to use a play set in the trenches so that he could confine the audience to the theatre like men in the trenches. It was a way of mimicking the claustrophobia the soldiers would have felt. Using a play set in one place over a short period of time, he is able to show the long waits and boredom soldiers faced. The “sounds of the war” that are faintly present also add to the verisimilitude and help the audience understand what the men faced daily. Although sheriff effectively dispels common misconceptions of the trenches, his use of a play doesn’t allow us to understand how his characters are feeling. By Barker’s choice to write “Regeneration” as a novel she is able to give us an insight to how men who had fought and...
After semi recovering from the effects of disease and starvation, Simon volunteered in a war
The novel River God by Wilbur Smith is set in Ancient Egypt, during a time when the kingdoms were beginning to collapse and the Upper and Lower Egypt were separated between two rulers. The story is in the view-point of Taita, a highly multi-talented eunuch slave. At the beginning of the story, Taita belongs to Lord Intef and helps manage his estate along with caring for his beautiful daughter, Lostris. She is in love with Tanus, a fine solider and also Taita’s friend. Unfortunately, Lord Intef despises Tanus’s father, Lord Harrab, and Intef was actually the one who the cause of the fall of Harrab’s estate, unknowingly to Lostris and Tanus. Taita’s goal is to bring back Egypt to its former glory, but with so many bandits and invaders it would be a difficult task.
Finally, Tim O’Brien conveys how society’s view on courage plays an important part in the creation of guilt for soldiers in the Vietnam War. At the start of “On the Rainy River”, Tim O’Brien is drafted to be in the Vietnam War against his will. O’Brien says, “I was drafted to fight a war I hated...the American War in Vietnam seemed to me wrong.,” (40). However, regardless if one was against the war, they were forced to anyway. In adhesion, society developed one stance on the war pertaining to courage, which is that the man needs to do the bravest thing, which was to go to war and fight. Although this also ties with the theme of masculinity with men being tough, it more importantly exemplifies courage in going to risk your life for the good of the country.
Starting with Colonel Shaw giving an inspirational speech and implementing his vision. This did not go over well at first, until Col. Show appealed to the values and emotions of his followers. This style of implementing a vision is described in an article written by Susan Heathfeild when she states, a fundamental necessity for a vision is to display and reflect the unique strengths of the followers such as culture, values, and beliefs (Heathfield, 2015). Immediately after his speech, Col Shaw began to instill common values and mentoring his junior officers when he reprimanded Maj Forbes for partaking in signs of fraternization with an enlisted soldier, ultimately instilling the knowledge and empowering others to act on his vision. Maj Forbes did not take to this reprimand very kindly, but in doing this Col. Shaw displayed traits of a transformational leader as Drew Hendricks explains in his article in Forbes, transformational leaders lead with vision (Hendricks, 2014). Col. Shaw handled the final key moment in a welcoming way when he ultimately led the 54th into certain death during the assault on Fort Wagner. Col. Shaw did not resisted the change the most of having a full collared regiment, but after the battle that he was injured in, he was reluctant not only to lead the 54th but also, to return to battle, suffering signs of what would now be PTSD. The white solders resisted this change tremendously
It was already the afternoon over on Ship-Trap Island, and Rainsford was sleeping soundly as the waves crashed against the rocks. Suddenly, he was awaken with a jolt. His eyes took a while to adjust to his surroundings
Although a significant number, these amputations were often necessary. Antibiotics had not yet been discovered and infection quickly set in on field wounds. Amputations were far more controlled and thought out than what is now in the public belief. After months at war, it was discovered that amputation within the first 24 hours of injury produced a far lower mortality rate than in the first 48 hours. Furthermore, amputations were only conducted by the most experienced and qualified surgeons. Only one in fifteen surgeons were qualified for amputation, and the procedure was often not taken with ease. William Child, a surgeon with Fifth Regiment of the New Hampshire volunteers, wrote to his wife about the atrocities of the war. He was horrified to see “the poor wounded and mutilated soldiers” and prayed that “God may stop this infernal work.” It is a common misconception that a surgeon would see a line of wounded patients, and with each, rudely amputate limbs. While a huge amount of amputations were performed by both armies, they were most often conducted in a controlled environment, and performed by the most skilled and qualified
The human mind seem to neglect the reality of war because it is much easier to envision war heroes than a soldier cursed with PTSD. The ideals of war among humans have a tendency to describe war as if it were a positive experience. It's not all fun and games when you are face to face with the enemy and death is breathing down your neck, showing you the literal meaning behind the figurative saying, “scared half to death”. Paul Baumer and Lt Hans von Witzland both entered a war in which their heroic and glorious ideals of war would be proven wrong. The horrific nature of war does not only impact a persons ideals of war. Paul Baumer and Lt. Hans von Witzland were both reduced to a more primitive being that acts instinctively rather than intuitively.
Regeneration revolves around Siegfried Sassoon and his bold, public declaration against the continuation of the war for political means. His main point was that the war had turned from a defensive front into an aggressive front, and that this change is what is keeping the war from ending. His first sentence states, “I am making this statement as an act of willful defiance of military authority”. Regardless of the validity of his declaration, this direct challenge to the military obviously couldn’t just be swept under the rug. Sassoon’s goal is to be court martialed to gain a sort of pseudo-martyr status to bring attention to his declaration. As Graves tells Dr. Rivers, this was a very real possibility before Sassoon was admitted to Cambridge. Afterwards though, his declaration is dismissed as the ravings of a mad man once it reaches Parliament. Rivers understands and even somewhat agrees with Sassoon’s point of view but disagrees with his methods.
The war scarred the soldiers permanently, if not physically then mentally. After the war the soldiers usually never recovered from the war. Two of the most common side affects of the war were shell shock and stir crazy. When suffering from shell shock a soldier’s brain doesn’t function properly and the man is a “vegetable”. This means the man is alive but he can’t do anything because he is in a state of shock because of the war. Stir crazy is a mental illness caused by the firing of so many bullets that when no bullets are heard by the victim he goes insane. Everyone was scared to go to war when it started. Young recruits were first sent because the veterans knew they were going to come back dead. "When we run out again, although I am very excited, I suddenly think: “where’s Himmelstoss?” Quickly I jump back into the dug-out and find him with a small scratch lying in a corner pretending to be wounded.” (P 131) Even the big men like Himmelstoss are scared to go fight. They too go through the mental illnesses like stir crazy and shell shock. “He is in a panic; he is new to it too.
in the trenches with so much time to just sit and think, it is only