Compare and contrast the techniques employed in portraying the horror of war in Regeneration and Journey's End.

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Compare and contrast the techniques employed in portraying the horror of war in Regeneration and Journey's End.

"I chose the First World War because it's come to stand in for other wars...

It's come to stand for the pain of all wars."

Pat Barker wrote "Regeneration" in the 1990's and R.C. Sherriff "Journey's End" in 1927, the quote is from Barker and illustrates the magnitude of the effect of the First World War, and expresses the appeal of the subject. Both works use different techniques in their portrayal of horror, and their effectiveness will be examined in turn.

The authors chose different formats with one being a novel the other a play, thus giving them contrasting ways of conveying soldiers' experiences of war.

In "Regeneration", Barker begins by exploring the character of Sassoon and through opening her novel with the declaration immediately demonstrates the adverse affect that war can have on rational young men. Karin Westman states

"When Sassoon asks the public to make use of their imagination, he is asking them to imagine the horrors of the war, to conceive monstrous images, in order to comprehend its destructive force."

Barker utilises the factual document to validate the anti-war stance of the novel. Sassoon has found that the horror of war has lead to the disintegration of his men and has morale shattering qualities stating, "I have seen and endured the suffering of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust." As a man, we later learn, who has won the Military cross, we come to realise that he is certainly no coward, and his reasons for his declaration are valid and just. His one-man-stand illustrates how strongly he feels the war should be ended, and how he is disgusted by its treatment of the men.

Both authors use techniques that introduce their main characters very carefully. Barker does this with Sassoon's declaration and Rivers and Bryce discussing him, in "Journey's End" the audience learns about Stanhope before he appears on stage through Hardy and Osborne discussing his drink problem and then the audience is given the contrasting aspect to his character with Raleigh eulogising him. Stanhope, a war hero, is driven to drink in a struggle to maintain the courage he needs to lead his troops. Sherriff shows the severe effect the war has had on Stanhope

"D'you ever get a sudden feeling that everything's going farther and farther away- till you're the only one in the world- and then the world begins to go away- until you're the only thing in- in the universe- and you struggle to get back- and you can't?"
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The use of a long sentence here is a method of conveying his confusion and trauma. War has isolated Stanhope, he has come to realise his own mortality, and alcohol is a comfort helping to dull the realities of it all. Much in the same way as being mute is to prior when he arrives at Craiglockhart. It is a defence mechanism, almost as if by not talking about his experiences it would mean they never took place. Prior exposes the reader to a different attitude to Rivers treatment by being stubborn and defensive showing how different people ...

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