Regeneration Pat Barker: Themes

Regeneration Pat Barker: Themes

1. Realities of War

   • "Everybody who survives feels guilty"
   • " horror at the extent of the slaughter"
   • "He was free but the word free rung hollow"
   • Butterfly metaphor "emblem of the soul"
   • "Anderson huddles in the foetal position"
   • "I believe the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it."
     • "Cut a chrysalis open, and you will find a rotting caterpillar...the process of transformation consists almost entirely of decay.”
   • "crouching in a dugout, waiting to be killed."
   • "A society that devours its own young"
   • "Nothing justifies this. Nothing nothing nothing."

2. Man's inhumanity to man

   • "You must talk before you leave me"
   • "he came in blubbing, I give him a backhander
   • "he was more corruptible than that"
   • "an application of electricity to the spine"
   • "They were still expected to do their duty and return to war"

3. Role of women and the homefront

   • "gathered together and sung hymns"
   • "just flesh against flesh"
   • "I got the impression they didn't believe in shell shock"
   • "[women] seemed to have changed"
   • He both envied and despised her"
   • "They owed him something"

4. Physical/Mental/Spiritual Consequences

   • "NO MORE WORDS"
   • "he was forever coming in crying"
   • "his eyelids were raw from the lack of sleep"
   • "he cupped his genitals... they didn't seem to belong to the rest of him"
   • "this lack of faith"
   • "most distressing feature...occasional glimpse...the man he once was"
   • "Prior had lost weight... sharp his cheekbones had become"
   • "you're walking around with a mask on, and you desperately want to take it off "
   • “It's the hardest thing in the world to go on being aware of someone else's pain.”
   • "men...had shrunk"

5. Politics

   • "In theory the war should stop tomorrow but it won't. It'll go on till there isn't a cat or dog to enlist"
   • "It helps if you've been to the right school. It helps if you hunt. It helps if your shirt is the right colour"
   • "when you put the uniform on, in effect you sign a contract"

6. Patriotism

   • "The pride of the British army requires that absolute dominanve must be maintained"
   • "He's a bar-room socialist"