Masculinity In Pat Barker's Regeneration

300 Words1 Page

The patients at Craiglockhart Hospital experience several different instances of doubting their masculinity in Pat Barker’s Regeneration. The men experience a variety of forms of emasculation as the plot progresses. Barker writes “The war that had promised so much in the way of ‘manly’ activity had actually delivered ‘feminine’ passivity, and on a scale that their mothers and sisters had scarcely known. No wonder they broke down” (Barker 107 - 108), which accentuates the theme of emasculation. Signing up to fight in the war was a way for men to become heroes, thus was recognized as masculine. Doctor Rivers’ mission throughout the novel is to help the men at Craiglockhart recover from their experiences during World War I and send them back

Show More
Related

  • Shotgun Lovesongs Analysis

    2003 Words  | 5 Pages

    Both Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler and Population: 485 by Michael Perry explore ideas of masculinity and manhood, but I think Butler shares a more diverse representation of masculinity through his different characters. What it means to be a man The concept of masculinity is considered as the qualities and characteristics of a man, typical of what is appropriate to a man. In this article, A Community Psychology of Men and Masculinity: Historical and Conceptual Review, the authors Eric S. Mankowski and Kenneth I. Maton, analyze four main themes: "Men as gendered beings, the privilege and damage of being a masculine man, men as a privileged group, and men’s power and subjective powerlessness. " The second and fourth themes are described as paradoxes that have created difficulty in efforts to analyze and understand men’s gender and masculinity." However, the point of view of masculinity that Perry raises in population 485 has a different aspect.

    Read More

  • Masculinity in Deliverance by James Dickey

    1278 Words  | 3 Pages

    The novel Deliverance by James Dickey portrays the essence of middle-aged men experiencing the mid-life crisis through which they must prove to themselves and more importantly every one else that they still possess the strength, bravery, intelligence, and charm believed to be society's ideal of "masculinity." Dickey's four main characters undertake a risky adventure to satisfy their egotistical complexes and prove to the world that they are still the strong young men their wives married. Each character represents a different stereotype of the middle-aged man, and therefore experiences a different type of psychological and physical journey than their peers.

    Read More

  • Essay On The Relationship Between Shame And Courage In The Things They Carried

    1455 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although the soldiers were united and served for the same goal, each of the men had a different motivation. For O’Brien, his motivation to join the war was the shame of running away. Almost all of the characters were afraid of being ashamed, and that served as a drive for them to do acts of heroism and similarly acts of stupidity. For example, in the story “On the Rainy River”, shame drove O’Brien to do an act of heroism as a fear of being ashamed. O’Brien wrote “For more than twenty years I 've had to live with it, feeling the shame, trying to

    Read More

  • Masculinity In The Novel 'Raw By' Scott Monk

    447 Words  | 1 Pages

    Good afternoon, today I will be discussing the perceptions of masculinity and the need to take responsibility for one’s own actions.

    Read More

  • Realization in Welty’s A Piece of News

    2362 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...s often a perfect mirror of the feminine persona’s place within society, an image of the enclosure and of its victims, and thus the transformed hero who has survived this layer of her unconscious is unlikely to be able to reintegrate herself fully into “normal” society. (142)

    Read More

  • Hegemonic Masculinity in American Society

    1499 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mosse, L George. The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity. New York: Macmillan publishers, 1996.

    Read More

  • Effects Of Madness In The Yellow Wallpaper

    2221 Words  | 5 Pages

    An additional factor that further proves the rest cure as a misogynistic medical practice is Mitchell’s prescription for male neurasthenic patients. While women were being forced into confinement and denied intellectual exercises, men were prescribed to go West and have an invigorating experience that refreshed both their mental and physical health. Though men were diagnosed with nervousness, it was regarded as a result of his superior intellect and an overtaxing of his highly evolved brain. Unlike women, men were meant to enter the professions and therefore needed to be invigorated both mentally and physically so that they could refresh the nervous system and return to work. Because Mitchell believed that under nervous stress “the strong man becomes like the average woman” he prescribed that his patients find

    Read More

  • The Ethics of Electric Shock Therapy in "Regeneration"

    591 Words  | 2 Pages

    Doctor Rivers, the protagonist in the novel, has been in a psychiatric ward for a number of years now. He is much older than his patients, who are mostly young men brought to him from the war. Craiglockhart, located in England, is a place where soldiers victimized by World War One were sent when they couldn't function as soldiers anymore. Whether it be from shell- shock, or something else. Rivers talks to his patients. This is a very new technic used at this time. Rivers is unsure of his therapy and if it works. He deals with this inner conflict throughout the whole story. Rivers helps his patients deal with their in dilemmas, in hopes that they will understand why they feel the way they do, and how to control their emotions, and how to cope with their problems and experiences.

    Read More

  • Masculinity Chapter 8

    1248 Words  | 3 Pages

    Learning and analyzing chapter 5-8 disparagingly examines roughly theoretical perspectives that attempt to explain how men become men and their masculine forms. These theories include sociobiological, psychoanalytical, cultural, anthropological, and many others. A person’s ethnic or cultural background can form a man’s definition of masculinity. I believe that the author summarized each theory where he points out the strengths and weaknesses of each. One particular quotes that stood out to me can be found on pg.114 in the text “A man defined his identity not just in the workplace but through modes of enjoyment and self-fulfillment outside the workplace outside of it” (Kilmartin). This quote is powerful to me because men is always stereotyped

    Read More

  • Femininity In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    2037 Words  | 5 Pages

    He makes it clear that the main theme is extreme feminism, so that readers can get a better understanding about how the men feel about the women. The author appears to support the customary parts of men and women. For instance, he suggests that “femininity” should incorporate passivity, subordination and nurturing, while masculinity incorporates strength, aggression and predominance. However, he has strategically flipped the gender roles in order for the readers to view the men as “victims”. As the female figures in this novel depict `masculine characteristics` Ken Kesey makes it appear as though they are threatening and that they shouldn't be expected to show such things. In this essay I will be talking about nurse Ratched’s behavior and justifying it. Secondly, I will be criticizing the patient’s mothers and the manner in which Ken Kesey portrays them and their relationships with their sons. Thirdly, I will be discussing the general portrayal of women in the story in contrast to

    Read More

  • Women In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    1376 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...nd bloodshed. Women gave a reason to go to war, a reason to come back from the war, and oddly, a reason to want to return to the war. The men were in a fraternity of life, and with no women around for so long they began to rely on themselves, and no longer had the needs that were provided them by women. They wanted to play in the jungle with their friends, only this time with no guns. They missed the life that they spent together eating rations and swapping stories. When they went home they were veterans, like the old men of the World Wars. If they stayed, they were still heroes, warriors, and victims. They still loved deeply the women at home, because they had no reason to fight or bicker, or possibly realize that the women they assumed would be waiting for them had changed in that time. The men were torn between love of women, and the love of brotherhood.

    Read More

  • Fight Club

    1000 Words  | 2 Pages

    We are hinted to this symbolic theme when the story starts initiating with Jack in a men's support group for men who have testicular cancer. The castration and feminization of the male character is exposed through the testicular cancer support group. The men in this group have lost the very fundamental nature of their manhood, their testicles. The penis itself is a symbol for all men, so these men are not only having genital problems but also characteristic problems. We see one man standing up, talking about how his wife left him while the rest of the men nodding with compassion. They then chanted about how they are still men to encourage themselves that they are and break up into pairs, hug each other, and weep. (needs to rephrase to make it clear.)Society's pessimistic model of men dictates than men who infrequently find support for such private matters as testicular cancer. The society shows a low image of what society considers a real man to appear ...

    Read More

  • Mental Illness In Regeneration

    1335 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Great War, as World War I is often referred to, as promising a chance for young men to become, heroes. However, the reality of conflict harshly ruined this vision. Men were sent into muddy trenches where they anticipated death for weeks and months at a time. With the endless shelling saw even the most enduring soldiers worn down to insanity. The soldiers in Regeneration are characterized as being no different to the women with in the patriarchal society as men where reliant on orders from their leaders, soldiers therefore came to personify the submissive role that women had long been forced to oppress in patriarchal societies like that of early 20th century England. In Regeneration, Dr. Rivers connects war neuroses to the hysteria that often disturbed the women during this time; trenches diminished the men to be powerless, while strictly forbidden social roles have had the same effect on women. In both cases, these prolonged positions of involuntary obligation play a large role in triggering

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper Essay

    1904 Words  | 4 Pages

    This toxic combination prevented women from voicing their individual needs and assessing their means of treatment (Poirier 16). Physicians during this time were considered moral authoritative figures over their patients and assumed a duty to control every aspect of their patient’s lives. This duty was extreme in female patient’s cases. Weir Mitchell, one of the most well-respected psychiatrists at the time, was intelligent, but not exempt from being susceptible to societal beliefs. Mitchell whole-heartedly understood that a woman’s life revolved around her womb, and that a woman’s greatest achievement and responsibility in life would be the bearing and raising of a child (Poirier 19). Mitchell so firmly believed that God created women and their physiology for the sole purpose of reproducing to such a degree that he could not understand why some women did not experience success with his treatment (Poirier 22-23). This strong belief system prevented Dr. Mitchell from possessing an in-depth understanding of post-partum depression. If he did not understand and have a fondness for women, why would he agree to treat them? One influence that motivated Mitchell to treat patients, regardless of gender, was his own bouts with nervousness. Many aspects of his treatment came from his personal experience (Poirier 18). Perhaps this is why his treatment proved to successfully treat more men than women. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is successful in proving the unhealthy relationship between women and medical language (Suess

    Read More

  • The Bloody Chamber Analysis

    1336 Words  | 3 Pages

    How does carter represent gender and explore gender issues to create meaning in The Bloody Chamber?

    Read More

More about Masculinity In Pat Barker's Regeneration

Open Document