IB English Lit A HL - Ms Basel

This extract reveals the social status of homosexuals in the World War II era. Compared to modern day, the times set in Regeneration prove to have been very conservative, especially towards homosexuality. Graves represents the majority of society, which views romance between men as “abominable” and “disgusting”, even fearing it to some extent, especially during war. “After all, in war, you’ve got this enormous emphasis on love between men—comradeship—and everybody approves. But at the same time there’s always this little niggle of anxiety.” War had the effect of heightening paranoia and worry about sexual relationships between men—especially when entire countries were depending on these men to fight in the war. Rivers encourages Sassoon to express his beliefs “in private”, worried that Sassoon’s Declaration will mean nothing if people discover that Sassoon is homosexual. A powerful Politian spread news that 47,000 peoples’ “private lives made their loyalty to their country suspect. This point demonstrates how distrustful society was of homosexuality, if this alone could make people disregard such a powerful declaration such as Sassoon’s, or feel suspicion for their countrymen. Graves’ homosexual friend was to be “cured”. The word choice here suggests that homosexuality is a disease, or biological deficiency that could be corrected with proper treatment. From the extract, it seems that society regarded homosexually as a sign of defect, disloyalty, and weakness.