Barker uses Rivers and Prior in particular and their inner conflicts to present a patriarchal society.
Rivers works within and for a patriarchal society. He himself is a patriarch, meaning a father figur for his patients and the head of the institution.
Rivers may also be representative for the majority of the population living within a patriarchal system.
He struggles to obey the rules this kind of society sets on him, but ends up following them anyways.
He questions if their views on masculinity is justified, since he has witnessed all the problems this rigid view caused on his patients, and is also unsure if he should support the war by sending the healed patients back to fight.
This illustrates how most people must have felt. They were surely questioning some views set by society, but ended up following these rules, since that was what society expected them to do.
Prior, unlike Rivers, rebels against the system. He illustrates the negative aspects of the society.
He suffered under the prejudice attached to each class, since he belongs to neither.
His father could not accept that Prior was 'different' to what society expects a man to be, meaning tough and physically strong.
His father's and the society's rigid views and expectations made him suffer a lot and caused him a struggle within him
This only shows that the patriarchal system did cause a lot of harm to individuals and was not tolerant.
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