Pat Barker's Regeneration Sassoon

The novel Regeneration is about the psychological effects of World War I, and the story of a Siegfried Sassoon a decorated English officer and a writer sent to a military hospital after publicly declaring he will no longer fight because the country refuses to reveal its motives. He feels the war started as defense, and has now become a war of aggression and conquest. This novel combines real-life characters and events with fictional ones. Siegfried Sassoon's open letter, written in July 1917, protests the actions taking place in the war. With the help and guidance of Sassoon’s friend Robert Graves, the Military Medical Board agrees to send Sassoon to Craiglockhart War Hospital which is a mental facility in Scotland, rather than sending him to a military prison. At …show more content…
I agree when the author of the review questions Barkers choice to end the book in an odd and almost abrupt way, it ends by Dr. Rivers writing his final medical note about Sassoon. The New York Times questions “Why there, when the rest of the historical story is so dramatic and moving? Why not follow Sassoon to the front, where he fought again until he was wounded by one of his own men and was evacuated to England?” (The New York Times). I think the author chose to so this because the story isn’t just about Sassoon it’s about the mental complications of war and the hospitals main purpose of “regeneration”. The New York Times also wrote a film review on My Boy Jack. This is a rather negative review and they describe the movie as “a well-made hospital bed, all four corners too tightly tucked” (The New York Times). I strongly disagree with their view. I thought this movie was a very accurate representation of the stresses a young man in that time might have gone through and accurately depicts the trials family can put you through. This movie effortlessly engages you and leaves you in tears by the