Regeneration

by

Pat Barker

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Regeneration: Chapter 23 Summary & Analysis

Summary
Analysis
Rivers meets with Head, who tries to convince him that all this self-accusation is insane; Rivers is the exact opposite of Yealland both in method and temperament, and Sassoon is making his own decision. Rivers can’t help feeling that Sassoon, by his return to combat, means to get himself killed.
Although Head tries to vindicate Rivers—and certainly Rivers is not so barbaric as Yealland—the novel never truly counters the idea that mending a soldier’s mind and sending him back to war is insane behavior itself, suggesting that the argument stands.
Themes
War, Duty, and Loyalty Theme Icon
Trauma and Mental Illness Theme Icon
When Head remarks that Rivers seems changed, Rivers agrees, and recounts how, after an anthropological trip to the Solomon Islands, he’d once realized how strange not only they were to him, but also how strange he was to them. It had given him a sense of elation to realize that all of society’s expectations were in a sense meaningless, he was free—Head asks if he means “sexual freedom,” and Rivers says in part, yes, but more than just that. “It was… the Great White God dethroned.” Yet England remained essentially the same. But Rivers suspects that his patients have continued that “healing” in him in some way.
Rivers’s remarks reveal the degree to which he himself feels trapped by society’s expectations of him as a man, while Head’s comment suggests that Rivers himself may be gay, or at least inclined that direction (Rivers is unmarried, which fits with this suggestion). Rivers’s description of the “Great White God” suggests that he sees all of these expectations as powerful, but ultimately arbitrary, since people all over the world hold radically different expectations of people and culture.
Themes
Masculinity, Expectations, and Psychological Health Theme Icon
Male Relationships Theme Icon
Rivers returns quietly to Craiglockhart for the board examinations. Anderson is up, but Rivers worries about him; his family still demands he return to medicine in spite of his fear of blood. Rivers visits Sassoon, who has finished writing a book, and mentions that Owen writes him “distinctly effusive letters” that make Sassoon suspect his affections run deeper than “hero-worship.” Sassoon hopes he “was kind enough.” Rivers reveals that he has an “informal assurance” that Sassoon will be sent back to combat.
Sassoon’s surprise that Owen’s feelings run deeper than friendship suggests that he was unaware, and that his relationship with Owen was merely a particularly intimate friendship. Even so, the constraints that their fear of showing even platonic affection toward each other placed on their relationship demonstrates the harmful effect of society’s expectations and aversion to intimate male relationships.
Themes
Masculinity, Expectations, and Psychological Health Theme Icon
War, Duty, and Loyalty Theme Icon
Male Relationships Theme Icon
Trauma and Mental Illness Theme Icon
During Sassoon’s board, Rivers worries that Bryce’s replacement may cause disruption, since he asks if Sassoon will try to spread rebellion and dissent within the ranks. Although Rivers tries to imply that while Sassoon once held anti-war views, he no longer does, Sassoon flatly states that he stands by every word of his anti-war declaration, but still wants to go and fight next to his comrades. After a time, the board agrees, they have no reason to keep Sassoon in Craiglockhart or to keep an obviously adept officer from active duty.
Sassoon’s ending in the narrative is both tragic and victorious. On the one hand, he puts his protest on hold, defeated by the military institution and his own guilt at being safe while others fight. On the other hand, Sassoon holds to his anti-war ideals and returns to combat, which he admitted is the only place he feels any sense of belonging.
Themes
War, Duty, and Loyalty Theme Icon
Alienation vs. Belonging Theme Icon
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Sassoon comes to say goodbye to Rivers, informing him that he’ll spend a few days in London to meet the other psychiatrist and try to explain his actions to the pacifists, whom he knows will be outraged. Rivers sincerely suggests Sassoon place the blame on him, but Sassoon does not want to tell the story that way. As Sassoon gives Rivers a satirical salute, Rivers has a flash of Callan, the electrode, and the horse’s bit. Sassoon leaves.
Sassoon suspects he will even be rejected by the pacifists for his decision, which condemns their own shallowness and indicates that Sassoon truly will only find his sense of belonging among his fellow soldiers on the front. Rivers’s flash of the bit suggests he is haunted by guilt and still experiencing symptoms of war neurosis and trauma.
Themes
War, Duty, and Loyalty Theme Icon
Male Relationships Theme Icon
Trauma and Mental Illness Theme Icon
Alienation vs. Belonging Theme Icon
Rivers sits at his desk and considers how strange that he, who changes minds for a living, should be changed by a patient, Sassoon, who was completely ignorant of the fact. Though Rivers has always been deeply conservative, “the sheer extent of mess” he’s seen challenges that notion, and he considers that any country which so eagerly “devours its own young deserves no automatic or unquestioning allegiance,” and perhaps it is the old men who should be protesting, rather than the young. Rivers thinks of Sassoon, how strange a mixture of poetry, pacifism, duty, and combat, all undergirded by a “very deep desire for death.” Taking out Sassoon’s medical file, Rivers writes, “Nov. 26, 1917. Discharged to duty.”
The novel ultimately condemns war, particularly war waged for unnecessary reasons, by arguing that the costs are too horrific and any country that willingly inflicts such suffering on its own people deserves nobody’s loyalty. At the same time, Sassoon’s desire for both death and belonging are both fulfilled, tragically suggesting that for someone such as Sassoon, who has seen so much suffering that he feels there is nothing left for him in the civilian world, combat and the company of other fighters may be the only place he will feel he belongs.
Themes
Masculinity, Expectations, and Psychological Health Theme Icon
War, Duty, and Loyalty Theme Icon
Male Relationships Theme Icon
Alienation vs. Belonging Theme Icon
Quotes