Mr Minford's model IOP- mine to follow shortly- the shame!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RztOPyosr-c

Homework

homework for today's class: Prep for IOP


lPrepare a 5-7 minute individual presentation on one of the following topics:
1.A comparison of Barker’s portrayal of both Rivers and Yealland (and their different approaches to treatment)
2.An analysis of the extent to which WWI expanded and/or tightened traditional social barriers and expectations
3.An exploration of one of the major characters, and how they are significant to the overall themes/viewpoints that Barker wishes to portray
4.An exploration of the presentation of trauma and/or regeneration
lIn your presentation, you should include:
lSome visual stimulus (PowerPoint, Poster, Handouts etc)
lPersonal opinion / interpretation of the novel and its aims


thank you
lClose analysis of at least one short passage (language, symbolism)

FYI -the real Rivers (please read): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Rivers

Class Discussion: Consequences of the War

Pages 180-183

Rivers thought to himself, "Nothing justifies this." It is as if Rivers is saying that the pain and mental illness the soldiers go through is not worth peace. What is peace, when all of the men who are returning home would be damaged, and unable to do anything, flinching at every raised hand, screaming in their sleeps.

On page 181, there is a description of Burns' room, "All these things must have ... young life it contained." This image contrasts with the shivering, trembling and scared Burns lying on the bed in the room. The room has so much youth and happiness within it, that the owner, after having gone through such traumatic experience as the war, no longer fits into this setting, like how he could never quite fit into his old life again. This comes to say that the war takes away a person's youth.

Key discussion

Key discussion

The whole book of regeneration is about patients that are silenced by the war. Rivers job at the hospital is to make the shell shocked patience talk and ironically he uses a method of silencing them so that he gives them time to think about the questions and hopefully it would make them talk about their experience. Most of the patients are being silenced during a conversation with Rivers. He sometimes interrogates them which make them speechless. One example of this is when Rivers talks to Prior after he was out too late with Sarah. I think Rivers uses this because he believes that it is a good method of persuading patient to share their experiences or to talk about their experience. I think back at that time it was an emasculating experience to share their emotions to others. This is because it was very unmanly for someone to share their fears as it was what a typical feminine would do. It was also a emasculating experience because they would have to show their weak side. I think Prior wasn’t willing to speak or share his experiences with Rivers because of his fears of being mentally emasculated. Because men were suppose to be strong, brave and shouldn’t have any fears.
Because this was happening at the beginning of the 20th century the lower had no right to speak up and were silenced by the higher class even though, they did all the work. Whereas the Higher class only gave orders and made sure that their lives weren’t at risk. This is why Sassoon hates the government, they deliberately extend the war just because they want to have revenge and know that they won’t be at risk but the lower class.

Close Analysis:Rivers and Prior pp. 95-97

In the Novel ‘Regeneration’ by Pat Barker, the idea of silence is used to symbolize a man’s cover to hide away his softer inside. Prior is an excellent example for this, when he entered the story for the first time, he was cast as a mute; unable to speak, refusing to communicate his pain and emotions. At the time, the excessive use of emotion and the display of fears were portrayed as a feminine action. Men were meant to be the brave and powerful image for the women to hide behind. If a patient shares his experience in the hospitals with the Doctors, they are out-casted and emotionally emasculated. This apparently happens to Prior, his mutism seems to vanish with time and he becomes more comfortable to share his experiences with Rivers.

Also, the idea of mutism can also be related to the class division in the army. Based on Rivers, mutism is a “commoner’s symptom”. This brings up the image of social injustice and a possible class division among the army. Also, in addition to this, Sassoon was sent to this mental hospital because he was protesting and the council wants to “mute” him away. In the army, lower ranking soldiers listen to their officers aimlessly; they have no say in the decision that was made by the officer, as if they were “muted” out by the officers and sent in randomly to die.

Key Discussion

I think the motif of silence in this novel plays a key part for the patients in Craiglockhart to avoid their feminine side by concealing their memories of the past that has affected them both physically and mentally. By being mute, patients such as Prior are, in some ways, getting more powerful because this allows them to hide their true emotions which makes them more manly as it is what a typical feminine do, this could also be because they might have shown their weak side in battles and want to hide it as the typical men are known to be brave and never give up or run. This also opposes Rivers’ method of revealing their emotions such as fear which gives them more strength as refusing help from Rivers by not speaking at all allows them not to get emasculated and more masculine. Sassoon is another character that has been silenced as he is locked up in a loony bin by soldiers of higher rank to stop him from expressing the war as the way he sees it, which is shown in his declaration. This time the silence makes Sassoon weaker because now that he has been sent to a mental hospital nobody will believe anything he says and therefore unable to show how the war is really going on in his eyes.
The motif of silence is related to the theme of class division as most of the patients in Craiglockhart are soldiers of low rank. Rivers says that it is more likely for the lower class to be silenced because they will have to face more consequences when they express their opinions and thoughts therefore having them ignored or disregarded as a patient unless there is a physical illness. Barker however opposes this concept by having Prior who is an officer of high rank being mute. Prior is a complicated character who is first introduced as a mute however slowly becomes more open as time passes. This may be because he, in a way, has a mind of a lower class although he is in a high rank, you can see this through the way he speaks and at times insults the higher class and this could be the reason for Prior being silenced.

Close Analysis: Rivers and Prior pp. 95-97

In chapter 9 of the novel ‘Regeneration,’ Pat Barker paints Prior as an officer at the frontline who suffers great agony of the war and directly gets affected with mutism himself. Prior is one of the patients in Craiglockhart mental hospital and he refuses to speak, to open up with doctor’s treatments. That is where the motif of silence strikes in. Silence embraces the inability or, in the other words, refusal to speak of patients in the hospital ever since they all have the thoughts of fear, fear to rewind their frightening pasts on the battlefields, fear of revealing their true selves as mental, and as well, fear of emasculation. Prior first arrives at Craiglockhart refusing to speak or cooperate. Representing other patients at time, Prior symbolically serves as an element of a protest factor to the war. On the other hand, silence acts as the defensive line of the whole society of men who are muted from the war.

The motif of silence relates to the theme of class division because it is implied by Dr. Rivers that mutism is ‘by far the commonest symptom amongst the private soldiers,’ while ‘officers don’t suffer from mutism.’ He emphasizes that the reason why mutism is more commoner within the private soldier rank rather than the high class officer is because ‘the consequences that a private soldier would get of speaking his mind are always going to be far worse than they would be for an officer.’ That leads directly to the concept of ‘class division’, in which is an unsolvable problem in most societies. According to Barker, which ever classes you are put into, you are meant to be treated as how you are labeled. That stereotype/discrimination is even judgmental to illnesses, directly interfered with the matter of life and death, or in the other words, the lives’ prices. On page 97, Prior mentions ‘the desk,’ and how people on ‘the other side of the desk’ are treated. The desk here represents the gap between the ‘authority’ and the ‘powerless figures’. Therefore, Pat Barker has successfully challenged the notions of class divisions and the dreadful effects that those have on people living in war time.

Key Discussion pp. 95-97

The motif of silence in the novel plays a significant role in preventing patients from being emasculated because if they do not speak and avoid to participate in any unmanly acts such as discussing their fears and emotions, they are less likely to become emasculated. Prior is the one who is silenced, because it is as if he seems to disagree with Rivers methods of expressing feelings in order to be healed of an illness. In a way, Prior's mutism gives him power. By not speaking, he is disobeying Rivers who is the man in charge at Craiglockhart and is deliberately refusing to participate in the course, perhaps putting Rivers on the spot and making him vulnerable to be manipulated by Prior. Sassoon is another character who has been 'silenced'. Although he has no physical complications and he is far from being mute, by being sent to Craiglockhart, Sassoon has been silenced in a way that his thoughts and opinions about the war would never be heard by other people. By being 'locked away' at a mental hospital, his ideas about the war would merely be seen as ideas coming from a 'loony'. With him being in a mental hospital, Sassoon would be too far away to be able to influence the minds of any others.

According to Rivers, mutism is more common amongst private soldiers and others of lower ranking than amongst officers. He mentions that if a soldier was to say what they wanted to say, there could be serious consequences and thus by refusing to speak at all, they are able to avoid such consequences. Silence is related to the theme of class division because it is those of a lower ranking who are more likely to be silenced, due to the reality that a man of a lower ranking would face far worse consequences than an officer who was to speak his mind.  "the labouring classes illness has to be physical. They can't take their condition seriously unless there's a physical symptom." This quote mentions how little care there is for people of labouring classes. Unless they have a physical symptoms, their condition is simply disregarded or ignored. This shows the large amount of neglect there is of people of the lower ranks. Barker successfully challenges these notions of class division through the character of Prior. Mutism is very rare amongst officers and Prior is an officer with temporary mutism. He is of a labouring class which gives him vulnerability to obtain physical symptoms like other men of the labouring classes but unlike the rest, he was able to work his way up to becoming an officer. This could explain why Prior's mutism is only temporary because he is midway between being an officer and being a man of lower class so he technically has both chances of being and not being mute.

Key discussion on Rivers and Prior

I think that the motif of silence is the portrayal of the patients in the hospital not being able to talk about their horrid pasts and not able to show their true emotions. This is because they feel very emasculated by this as they think that sharing their thoughts and experiences show their weaknesses and in that time, men didn't really share out their ideas to other men. In my opinion, I think that it is the war that is silencing the soldiers, particularly Prior as the war had made him temporarily mute. By being mute, it lets Prior hide his true emotions from Rivers as he might feel emasculated when he tells Rivers his true emotions. The novel begins with Prior being mute but has we read through, Prior starts to talk and this may be a sign of him slowly opening up to Rivers and might eventually show his true emotions about his past. I also agree with Tu bao on how mutism is a defensive way to block out saying something you want to say but won't because by saying it might come with consequences.

The motif of silence relates to the theme of class division because in the hospital, there are plenty of soldiers and there is hardly any of high class people like the generals. It is mostly the lower class thats affected with the silence as they are the ones who are being sent out to fight and the generals just plan on what to do next. On page 96, we are told that "Officers (which are very high in social status) rarely catch mutism". In Craiglockhart, there are only 2 officers with the case of mutism, Prior and one other. This is the reason why I think that Pat Barker had successfully shown that it is linked to the social ranking of people as only soldiers have it more often.

Close anaysis: Rivers and Prior p.95-97

The motif of silence symbolises the incapability of the patients not able to speak their minds, let go of the horrific memories, and let themselves feel the emotions that would, in their minds, emasculate them. It is as if, unconsciously Prior had made himself mute, as a self defense mechanism to stop himself talking about his experiences. Prior was mute when the readers are first introduced to him, however as the novel progresses, his mutism seems to have disappeared. Rivers believes that the mutism occurs to the soldiers because they are stuck, "between waning to say something, and knowing that if [they] do say it the consequences will be disastrous."

The idea of silence is linked to the theme of class division because according to Rivers, mutism is a, "commoner symptom," among private soldiers, and, "officers don't suffer from mutism." This raises the idea of social injustice, how the your rank in the army would affect your own illness. I think Barker had successfully challenge these notions because the higher ranked you are, the less 'damage', you seem to have. Since generals are the one who are sitting back, and sending the private soldiers out onto the battlefield, it seems like a logical thing for the soldiers to be suffering far worse than the generals, because they had to risk their lives, while the generals are just sending them out to the war, without actually joining the war and experiencing the horrors of the war themselves.

Portrayal of women/ focus on class in Regeneration

As an adjunct to your homework- below is an article explaining the roles of the VADs during WW1. Read it and scan back over the first 184 pages.

How does Barker portray these VADs in Regeneration and how and why are the portrayals of Sarah Lumb and her friends different?
How do the VADs speak and what do they say? How do Sarah and her friends speak and what do they say?
Please make some notes in bullet points and be prepared to feedback in class on Monday 7th September. Of course, feel free to comment on the blog too!

DPO

In 1909 the British Red Cross Society was given the role of providing supplementary aid to the Territorial Forces Medical Service in the event of war. In order to provide trained personnel for this task, county branches of the British Red Cross Society organised units called Voluntary Aid Detachments. All Voluntary Aid Detachment members, who came to be known simply as "V.A.D.'s" were trained in First Aid and Nursing. Within twelve months they numbered well over 6000.
Following the outbreak of war in 1914 the number of Detachments increased dramatically. The British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John of Jerusalem, a body which was also empowered to raise detachments under the War Office Voluntary Aid Scheme, combined to form the Joint War Committee in order to administer their wartime relief work with the greatest possible efficiency and economy, under the protection of the Red Cross emblem and name.
V.A.D.'s, who initially were mostly middle-class women eager to "do their bit," performed a variety of duties. At home the organisation administered auxiliary hospitals and convalescent homes and much of the V.A.D. service consisted of general nursing duties and administering first aid. Qualified nurses were also employed to work in these establishments. In addition, clerical and kitchen duties were performed by V.A.D.'s, and as many men were engaged in military service, female V.A.D.'s took on roles such as ambulance drivers, civil defence workers and welfare officers.
V.A.D. Hospitals were mostly located in large houses which had been loaned for the purpose by their owners. For example, Howick Hall in Northumberland was loaned by Albert, 4th Earl Grey, and his daughter Sybil served there as a nurse. The 8th Durham V.A. hospital at Hartlepool was located in ‘Normanhurst’, a house which was donated by William Cresswell Gray, a great benefactor to the town.
Sybil Grey in V.A.D. uniform at Howick Hall(photograph courtesy of Mrs J Smillie)
Some of them were located in previously existing hospitals - for example Hebburn Hall, the former home of the Ellison family, which had been converted into an infirmary for the town in 1896. On Teesside the Ropner Convalescent Home at Middleton St. George, endowed in 1897 by Robert and Mary Anne Ropner (of the Stockton shipbuilding family), was pressed into service as the 24th Durham V.A. Hospital. The Richard Murray Hospital in Blackhill and Ashington Infirmary also fall into this category. In these instances it seems likely that the V.A.D. operation was in addition to the normal hospital facilities. Things did not always run smoothly; in 1916 a dispute arose between the War Office and the Matron of the Richard Murray Hospital in Blackhill. This resulted in the immediate closure of the hospital. It remained closed until 1919, much to the annoyance of the local population, who had seen it open in 1914 only to be immediately commandeered by the military.