Another example would be in page 199, where the girls in the munition factory talked about sex and abortion. Once again, in this extract, the women were talking about taboo subjects among each other in an opened and free manner. Moreover, they were discussing about this in a public place as well. As we look into the conversations among the ladies about abortion, Barker also make the readers feel that women during WWI were more daring and were able to decide for themselves without men’s orders. It also shows that the women were getting more freedom as the men were out in the battlefield. However, to them, it is one of the best thing that has ever happened and they actually want the men to leave to war. They’re appreciating their freedom and making the most out of it as the men were at war, dying and getting hit by shells, the women were here, laughing and talking about sex. This shows that the women’s roles are changing and becoming clearer and clearer. We also noticed that the women were actually working in this extract. Before the war started, women were obligated to stay at home to do housework such as sewing, cleaning, cooking, and taking care of all their husband’s needs while the role of earning money was only applicable to men. In conclusion, the war gave women the opportunity to work and to earn have their own income without depending on men’s help - which is something they have never done before
In another case, Barker revealed the personality of Sassoon through the method of characterization when he talked about what he felt in the conversation between himself and Rivers in page 202 -“like a precipice on a country road”. It shows the way Sassoon expresses his thoughts and feelings through poetic words as he is a poet and also a writer. In this extract as well, the conversation between Sassoon and Rivers also tells the readers that homesexuality was a repulsive issue in the eye of the society. It was considered as an unlawful issue and the person who commits it are to be sent off to prison or a mental institution to be “cured”. Hence, exiled from the society.
In page 205, Sassoon was in a slight argument with Rivers about living up to his own opinions and no one else’s. Barker’s diction shows the readers that Sassoon is a very emotional man who speaks his mind and wasn’t afraid to do it. He said,”... if I can’t conform in one area of life, then I have to conform in the others. Not just the surface things, everything. Even against my own conscience. Well, I can’t live like that’. Barker made Sassoon’s character as a person who thinks he’s right in everything including deciding how people should or should not live their lives when he paused then added, “Nobody should live like that”. He constantly thinks that his opinions were the only ones that mattered all the time and that is the reason that got him in to Craiglockhart since the beginning of the novel. Besides that, the extract also shows that men are becoming more and more vulnerable to face issues through Sassoon’s character because men were supposed to be tough to endure difficulties even if it was against their principles. Men’s duty was to their country at that time during WWI and they were compelled to follow orders from the officers without questioning them. However, Sassoon did not want to conform to the war as he should be.
In the last paragraph, Rivers said “It’s time you grew up. Started living in the real world” to Sassoon, it makes the readers feel as if Sassoon was not matured in his decisions and actions all this while.
In conclusion, Barker’s presented the role of men and women were changing, and their attitudes towards sex and sexuality were transforming as well, through these extracts to make the readers understand that traditional social barriers have been expanded and eradicated as results of the war.
