Regeneration

by

Pat Barker

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Regeneration makes teaching easy.

Sarah Lumb Character Analysis

Sarah is Billy Prior’s girlfriend, whom he meets in a café in Edinburgh. Although Sarah is not native to the city, she moves there during the war to work in a munitions factory, which pays her five times what she’s made anywhere else and allows her to live independently. Sarah embodies the confidence and new sense of agency women find in World War I, and although her mother wants her to move back home, get married, and stay in her place, Sarah rejects that future for herself, seeing it as far too narrow. Sarah also helps Prior to feel grounded and connected to the civilian world, especially since his traumatic experiences in war leave him feeling alienated and separate. By accepting him as he is and not holding any expectations that Prior will act in a necessarily masculine fashion, Sarah becomes a “safe haven” for Prior where he will hopefully someday be able to share and explore his grief.

Sarah Lumb Quotes in Regeneration

The Regeneration quotes below are all either spoken by Sarah Lumb or refer to Sarah Lumb. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Masculinity, Expectations, and Psychological Health Theme Icon
).
Chapter 8 Quotes

[Prior] didn’t know what to make of [Sarah], but then he was out of touch with women. They seemed to have changed so much during the war, to have expanded in all kinds of ways, whereas men over the same period had shrunk into a smaller and smaller space.

Related Characters: Billy Prior, Sarah Lumb
Page Number: 90
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

In his khaki, Prior moved among them like a ghost. Only Sarah connected him to the jostling crowd, and he put his hand around her, clasping her tightly, though at that moment he felt no stirring of desire.

Related Characters: Billy Prior, Sarah Lumb
Page Number: 128
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

“You’re never gunna get engaged till you learn to keep your knees together. Yeh, you can laugh, but men don’t value what’s dished out for free. Mebbe they shouldn’t be like that, mebbe should all be different. But they are like that and your not gunna change them.”

Related Characters: Ada Lumb (speaker), Billy Prior, Sarah Lumb
Page Number: 193
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Regeneration LitChart as a printable PDF.
Regeneration PDF

Sarah Lumb Quotes in Regeneration

The Regeneration quotes below are all either spoken by Sarah Lumb or refer to Sarah Lumb. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Masculinity, Expectations, and Psychological Health Theme Icon
).
Chapter 8 Quotes

[Prior] didn’t know what to make of [Sarah], but then he was out of touch with women. They seemed to have changed so much during the war, to have expanded in all kinds of ways, whereas men over the same period had shrunk into a smaller and smaller space.

Related Characters: Billy Prior, Sarah Lumb
Page Number: 90
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

In his khaki, Prior moved among them like a ghost. Only Sarah connected him to the jostling crowd, and he put his hand around her, clasping her tightly, though at that moment he felt no stirring of desire.

Related Characters: Billy Prior, Sarah Lumb
Page Number: 128
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 17 Quotes

“You’re never gunna get engaged till you learn to keep your knees together. Yeh, you can laugh, but men don’t value what’s dished out for free. Mebbe they shouldn’t be like that, mebbe should all be different. But they are like that and your not gunna change them.”

Related Characters: Ada Lumb (speaker), Billy Prior, Sarah Lumb
Page Number: 193
Explanation and Analysis: