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Theme Of Healing In Regeneration

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The novel Regeneration by Pat Barker is a historical fiction anti-war story based on the beliefs of masculinity and duty without going into the battlefield. Through characters like Siegfried Sassoon, Dr. W. H. R. Rivers, and Billy Prior, the author is able to explore complex themes about a World War that is usually told through the eyes of soldiers living in the trenches. Besides the politics that went along with such a large scale war, Barker is able to delve into the difficult boundaries of mental illness and the process of psychological healing during a time in which mental illness was largely put off as being cowardly. The overall theme of healing is apparent throughout the novel with patients successfully leaving Craiglockhart War Hospital and returning to the warfront while others were deemed unfit for further combat. …show more content…

Dr. Rivers and Dr. Lewis Yealland are both physicians that are put in the position to treat traumatized victims but take totally different perspectives on it. Dr. Rivers tries to build a relationship with his patients and wars with his responsibility to send his patients back to France whereas Yealland seems to revel in his patients discomfort and does not believe in shell shock. Within Regeneration, healing is developed as psychologically therapeutic through Dr. Rivers, while being militarily necessary through the eyes of Dr. Yealland who upheld the stereotypical definition of masculinity and yet, both are used as healing tools to continue the war

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