Regeneration, by Pat Barker
(Plume/Penguin-Putnam, 1991)
Mass media is saturated with images of
war and protest these days, and publications targeting gay audiences are
no exception. There seem to be several debates woven together competing
for the general public’s attention, which becomes problematic given
the limited amount of time gay issues have in the media. Gay figures end
up spending more time defending whether or not they should advocate
their opinions under a gay guise and less about the issue itself. In
defending his group’s position in a recent Advocate article (March 18,
2003; p 26), W. Brandon Lacy Campos of the Lavender Greens stated,
“When we come together as gay individuals, we do not leave behind the
other aspects of our identities.” Indeed, this trend in the gay rights
movement to become more involved in general human rights issues mimics
an individual’s personal maturation as well. It is not enough to
simply be gay to belong to ‘‘the gay community’’—there is no
one such thing. Gay people are approaching the idea of war with Iraq
from many different and personal positions. The aforementioned debates
include gay people, seeking justice and equality, on opposite sides of
arguments like questioning the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy
during a time of war. Buried among the issues are gay military service
people and gay pacifists alike. Ironically, these men and women can come
together under the separate issue of whether or not the war with Iraq
should occur. It is with this in mind that I revisit Pat Barker’s
Regeneration.
The novel, which takes place during WWI,
does a fantastic job of blending historical facts and characters with
fictional dialogue and relationships. Its main character is Siegfried
Sassoon, a decorated war hero, an officer in the British military, and a
prominent poet. After serving bravely for several years, Sassoon has
come to the conclusion that the war is being unnecessarily prolonged for
reasons he no longer can support, an argument similar to that of our
modern debate. In a formal declaration of protest, Sassoon draws the
attention of high-ranking officials. Largely because of his record of
service and the fear of a potentially public martyrdom, Sassoon is
sanctioned to Craiglockhart War Hospital, a sanitarium, instead of being
court-martialed. Diagnosed as “mentally unsound,” Sassoon joined
hundreds of men suffering from varying degrees of shell-shock and other
war injuries.
Throughout the novel, the soldiers,
including Sassoon, attack pacifism. They separate their own fears and
protests from the word, as if even considering it would stain the medals
they have already earned. Yet the poetry Sassoon produced during that
time appeals to many pacifists because of its honest portrayal of war.
Sassoon’s poetry creates a powerful picture in the mind of the reader,
one more in-depth and accurate than any photograph or live video-feed.
He demonstrates a bitter sense of responsibility for the men he led in
war, a reluctant father role, and eloquently represents the terrifying
emotional effects of war on the soldiers. During his time at
Craiglockhart, where the bulk of the novel takes place, Sassoon is
forced to confront the complex dynamics of male relationships in war.
Barker’s underlying homosexual themes
bubble to the surface in very subtle ways. Her respect for the
relationships the men rely on is clear. In some ways,
‘‘homosexual’’ is as dirty a word as ‘‘pacifist,’’ but
the characters’ refusal to accept the label, fraught with stereotypes
seemingly contradictory to military standards, does not invalidate the
importance of the relationships the men formed.
Sassoon forms two key friendships while
at the sanitarium. One is with his psychiatrist, Dr. Rivers, who is
himself questioning his role as a regenerator of soldiers. He has
difficulty marrying his immediate role as a nurturer of the soldiers’
souls, a healer of their nightmares, stuttering, and psychological
paralysis with his ultimate job responsibility, to return soldiers to
the front lines, most likely to die. His treatment of Sassoon in the
novel is more of a mutual therapy; Sassoon is as much of a sounding
board for Rivers’s own insecurities as he is a patient, forming a more
egalitarian relationship than one would expect.
A second relationship Sassoon develops is
with young budding poet Wilfred Owen, also diagnosed with shell-shock.
With Owen, Sassoon takes on a more fatherly role, providing artistic
guidance and companionship that helped develop some of the most famous
anti-war poetry of the era. Although the novel ends here, history
continues. While Sassoon lived through the war, Owen did not; he was
killed in action a week before it ended. Sassoon collected his
friend’s work and published it posthumously. One of the most
well-known poems by Owen, “Dulce Et Decorum Est (It is sweet and meet
to die for one’s country)” ends:
If you could hear, at every jolt, the
blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Perhaps in our theoretical debates about
the appropriateness of the involvement of the gay activists in war
politics, it would be beneficial to recall the words of those who have
been there before. Of course, it is simple to argue that war was and is
the only solution, that it was the only way to achieve what WWI
accomplished—that we would, as one opponent in a heated debate stated,
all be speaking German if not for the heroic actions of various armies.
It is also easy to say that the gay rights movement has not come far
enough to divert its resources and energies from the main issues.
However, many gay people have come to understand that their sexuality is
just one element of life; in order to embrace that sexuality, that life
must continue, and we must be willing to live with the politics we
support, both directly and through our silence.
Rebecca
James lives in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where she is completing a degree
in English and Secondary Education in May 2003.
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