Prose Commentary, Pat Barker Essay

The title of the control from which this excerpt is taken, Regeneration, highlights what I chance on as the of import theme in this thought provoking prose trance. This piece of prose raises images for me of the moist dampness, humid soil, death and the prospect of life arising from the continuation of the cycle of life and death. These Images are shown in phrases such(prenominal) as the final sentence, which says, Now they could dissolve into the headth as they were meant to. This sentence is the one which stuck let discover most to me in the whole excerpt I found it actu completelyy powerful in that it brings issue the theme of innovation to the reader and it is a sentence which sticks in your mind.I can see this as an overall whole picture, where burn, who I view as a returning soldier, possibly from the Gulf struggle given the date, experiences, and successfully faces one of his terrible fears, picked up from the war, of bloody, unwrap of work corpses, and through this finds the prospect of soul love-in-idleness before him. I also see that nature and the cycle of life as a elephantine theme in this excerpt as it shows up in nearly e actually line. Words such as, pelting, mud, trees and wind support this. The narrative structure of this excerpt is also important, beca lend oneself it is as if the story of fire is beingness told by someone else and so it is likely not subject to the bias of the actual persons account.In the start-off three paragraphs, rain and the wetness of the land is a large die of describing, setting the diorama and the tone of the rest of the excerpt. The occasion creates a feeling about Burns, that he is somewhat stranded, for the create verbally states, He didnt know what to do and so long since hed been anywhere alone. As well as creating a lost feeling this sentence suffers the thoughts, though not directly, that Burns is a returning soldier. The use of the haggling, Raindrops dripped with the repeated d fa il, creates the patter of large raindrops. Persistent and monotonous link up with each other to remind the reader of the continuity of the wetness.When Burns reaches a fence, he sees that, A tuft of grey wool had caught on one of the barbs. Perhaps an animal had once quite recently struggled to innocent itself from this discontinuity in nature as Burns does when he too gets caught on a barb notwithstanding like an animal. The repetition of the b sound in Burns blinked, carries on the theme of the persistence of the rain. end-to-end the whole of the third paragraph there is another repetition of the b sound, this time though it is apply to bring out the sound of the thud and plodding of Burns in his mud encumbered boots. thither is also a repetition of the s sound in words such as move and stumbling for exactly that, to create the sound of someone slipping in the wet mud. The writer also uses words such as cold, khaki and tight cloth to create a chilling skew-whiff sound to keep the reader feel the cold that Burns is experiencing.In the next two paragraphs, the precedent makes the wind and its severity, an impacting factor on Burns progress toward the safety that he seeks. The wetness of the setting which surrounds Burns is also over again a major influence in his quest. The tone of these two paragraphs is much much severe than the first three. The author says that the wind tries to scrape Burns off its side. suggesting that the situation has become more intense. That line is very effective literally because the word scrape is an onomatopoeic word and when joined together with side it creates an alliterating s sound. The fact that he has to keep his head bent and the Rain beat onto his head both confirm the increased severity of the weather. When the weather is so bad that the distance vanishes in a veil of rain, the alliterating v sound bringing out the hum of the constant rain, Burns survival instinct kicks in and he decides to take shelter, runni ng clumsily toward a clump of trees.But again he is slowed to a travel because of the dragging mud. The words mud dragged are effective here, for even to say them together takes effort and your culture is slowed by them, amplifying their effect. The sucking of your reading is again shown in the words mud-clogged boots, the d, g and b sounds all together make the reader have to pronounce each syllable in a drawn out way. Where the author dialogue about, the whine of shells he is referring to the sound that you hear when you put a shell to your ear and compares it to the noise of the wind through the trees. In paragraph five the author shows the exhausted Burns so tired he cannot even be bothered to wipe away the rain drenching his face.In the next three paragraphs, the tone of the extract becomes quieter there is neither mention of the intense rain nor the sound of it. The tone of the setting becomes almost sinister amongst the trees. Burns now in what he remembers is the safety of the trees continues to flub and the writer again uses the repeated b sounds in the words, began, stumbling, blindly and between to show us that Burns has still not quite got his bearings right yet. The author uses the repeated c sounds in the words ancestral, clumps and bracken to the same effect. Because he is stumbling blindly, something brushed Burns cheek and when he tried to push it away, his legislate touched what he first thought to be slime. On turning to see what it was, Burns find that there was a dead mole, suspended, apparently, in air.The use of commas in those few words are effective because they make the reader pause and thus put emphasis on a very important part of the extract, it begins the change in plot of the whole extract. Its small pink hands folded on its chest. suggests the authors feeling that the mole was innocent, but was still killed. The author provokingly compares the dead animals Burns sees to a harvest-time tree bearing, what the author makes you think are heavy fruit by using the word stretch. Heavy fruit because they are generally more likely to smell of decay, which is what the dead animals are, decaying. The author quite interestingly uses animals from each part of the earth the magpies from the sky the fox from the ground and the moles from under the ground, this I see as a continuation of the regeneration theme carried on throughout the whole excerpt.I think that the fox scared Burns so much because it reminded of something that he saw in the war. Again in paragraph eight the trees are against Burns. The author uses the alliteration of the words twigs tore through the t sound to remind the reader of the snapping sound of twigs and the force that Burns was putting into getting away was passable to snap the twigs on his skin. It brings out how frightened he really was. The writers reference to dead leaves also fits in with the theme of Regeneration for dead leaves must dissolve into the earth to create nutrients f or the trees from which they wing and thus continue the circle of life.In the short paragraph nine, the setting changes briefly once more because Burns goes out into the field once more. He splashes effectively through the alliterated flooded furrows, the f make the sound of the swishing water. Burns then hears a voice, plausibly the voice of a fellow soldier from the war. It is give tongue to to be the voice of a person named Rivers. I did find it quite ironic that the author of the sacred scripture from which this excerpt is taken, would use the name Rivers for the voice which Burns hears because in Scotland a small river is called a burn.This brings out to me that the author is making the aspect of water very important to this particular scenario. I feel that the use of water here is important to the overall theme of regeneration because water is a key part in the cycle of life, it is the source of all life and so I think that this is why the author emphasises this point. Th e voice that Burns hears tells him that, If you run now, youll never stop. basically telling him to face his fear. This may be because perhaps Burns ran away from something before and did not face his fear.The last two paragraphs of the excerpt talk of Burns facing his fear, finding a peace amongst his dead companions and his finding a control which he did not have at the beginning of the excerpt. Burns turns back therefore facing his fears. The fact that the author talks about what the real Rivers might have said confirms that Rivers is a real person and he is probably still alive.When Burns lets down the dead animals he is allowing for the natural cycle of Regeneration to be complete. This seems to make him feel better for he sits down inside the circle of his companions who he no longer views as scary and is happy because, Now they could dissolve into the earth as they were meant to do. By facing his fear, Burns was regenerated in himself, this also made him content. The last lin e is the most important in the whole text it sums up and puts into context the entire idea of Regeneration.In conclusion I would say that there is one main theme in this excerpt it being the ongoing recurrence of the idea of Regeneration through the pith of nature, water, the cycle of life and death and the facing of fear. It is also important to say that in order for regeneration to happen, something has to die.