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.