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.