Three Conflicts In Regeneration

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The Three Conflicts Humans constantly encounter conflict in their lives and in the world, During war, conflict reaches a fever pitch and escalates to astonishing heights in regards to its viciousness and intensity. In Regeneration, by Pat Barker, the conflicts during World War I rise to the surface of society and men who expose themselves to the brunt of the maelstrom, or the War, and they all suffer from their encounter. Within the halls of Craiglockhart, the three types of conflicts arise. Man constantly fights with himself and his thoughts, feelings, and memories wage war against one’s psyche, such as the case with Captain Burns. After a horrific event, Burns’ mind fights to forget his trauma, but, in his sleep,…show more content…
Burns, after being through into the air by an artillery shell, lands on a bloated, decaying German soldier’s corpse. The corpse bursts and Burns inhales the smell of rotten flesh. He talks about how his mind represses his memories of the event in order to recover from his mental wounds, “I can't make myself think about it” (Barker 42). Burns cannot come to terms with his experience in World War I. Instead of recalling his memories and attempting to heal, he fights with himself to resist River’s treatment. He conflicts with his psyche, which shows the conflict between man and himself. Furthermore, Captain Burns deals with hallucinations of trees with dead animals hanging from them, “Now that he was calmer, he remembered that he’d seen trees like this before” (76). The fact Burns remembers seeing trees covered with dead animals means that he hallucinates death. The idea someone follows Bruns around and attaches dead animals to trees is ridiculous. Throughout the novel, Burns suffers from severe nightmares, a symptom of repressing one’s memories, and degrades his mental health, “...Burns tried to thrust memories of the war behind him, the nightmares followed” (294). Even though Burns attempts to move past his trauma, his nightmares transport him back to the fields of France and the corpse. His conflict involves Burn’s psyche attempting to

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