Pat Barker’s novel ‘Regeneration’ deals with several themes, one of which is the class division during WW1. Social division seems to have played a big role in society during that time.
Pat Barker uses the characters Rivers, Sassoon and Prior and makes these men of different classes interact with each other through the use of dialogues, as they may not have in a different environment. Through language and symbolism she generates understanding and sympathy for both, the lower and the upper classes. Through the interactions between Prior and Rivers for example, the reader's ideas are challenged and empathy is developed for Prior and his situation.
By positioning the reader closer to certain characters, Barker makes sure that the reader gets exposed to certain points of view.
Barker makes use of Prior’s inbuilt critical view on the classes to introduce them to the reader.
Prior can be seen as being in between two classes, belonging neither to the upper class nor the lower class, since he holds the rank of an officer.
Prior seems to like neither one of the classes particularly, since he despises the ‘snobbery’ of the upper class men and ‘the bar-room [socialists]’, of the working classes. Barker makes use of Priors background to give the reader the advantages and disadvantages of both classes without preferring one of them.The reader is also often positioned close to Rivers, meaning that his thoughts and feelings are exposed to us. This allows the reader to look at the information and criticism given from a neutral point of view, since Rivers himself is not judgmental at all. We can see this by the way he tries to change topic, as soon as he realizes that Mr. Prior may have taken offence in what he said. Rivers wanted to ‘leap to Billy Priors defense’.
This implies that he is kind and has sympathized with many people, no matter what class they belong to.Because Rivers is open minded the reader can form his or her own opinion more or less without prejudice.
Barker uses language and characterization to show that the difference in class and the prejudice attached to it, is false and that the opposite can be true. She thus challenges the typical stereotypes people had at that time.Sassoon’s declaration and overall situation did not reflect how a man was expected to behave during WW1. It is thus rather ironic that Prior, who is part of the lower class, does in a certain way meet these expectations more than Sassoon does.
Sassoon willfully defies ‘military authority’ and has no problems talking about his thoughts and emotions. Prior however seems to be rather unemotional and gives the impression that he just wants to get better to go back and fight. With Prior being asthmatic, River wondered how he ‘got to France at all’, suggesting that Prior was brave and has a high pain resistance.The same is shown again as Prior says that headaches are ‘hardly a reason to stay out of the trenches’.
This behavior was expected from men during WW1, it is however ironic that a lower class man meets these expectations more than an upper class man does.This only shows that stereotypes are seldom true.
Barker also uses symbolism to imply that judgments towards lower class men were common, but not justified.Through out the novel we have sympathized with Rivers and have come to understand that he is a good man, who is not overly judgmental.We thus know that he did not correct Prior out of arrogance, but simply because he ‘[enjoys] teaching’. Prior however may have taken offence in Rivers telling him that there are ‘two l’s in ‘physically’’. By repeating this phrase through out the novel, Barker makes the reader aware of its importance and deeper meaning and the reader starts to realize that Prior tries to fight the prejudice that lower class men are uneducated, less intelligent and inferior to the upper class men. The fact that Prior takes offence in Rivers remark, shows how common prejudice was.
Other symbols used are poetry and literature.
Poetry and literature are seen as arts which again are mostly enjoyed by well educated people. The general view was and still is that lower class people, who did not get a good education and do physical work all day, do not know how to appreciate poetry or literature. Barker however challenges this stereotypical point of view, by having lower class characters with a passion for poetry and literature.
Prior is one of them, since even though his shirt was ‘nowhere near’ ‘the right colour’ and he had a ‘public school accent’, his ‘face [still] lit up as he quoted the poem’, meaning that even though he does not belong in the upper class, he still enjoys poetry.Barker suggests that the stereotypes are not met and that people should be viewed as individuals, since often their background and education will not truly show who they are.
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