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‘WAR BRINGS OUT THE BEST AND THE WORST IN HUMANITY’

Michael Herr’s ‘Dispatches’ and Pat Barker’s ‘Regeneration’ both have different styles which are effective in challenging contemporary readers perspective on war. When comparing both books it is clear that both books have contrasting styles from the beginning. ‘Regeneration’ is in novel form and ‘Dispatches’ follows a new journalistic approach which re-counts events as if it was a diary. This enables Michael Herr and Pat Barker into indulging readers into exploring the traumatic effects of war from the outset. Both authors attempt to lure readers away from an objective point of view, and try to draw them into real-life events which took place in the war.

In both books imagery is heavily present, and is shown through the dream Anderson has in Regeneration. It is described that Anderson is ‘naked’ in the dream which he is having. The word naked is a sign of Anderson’s vulnerability which he’s trying to hide; in addition, we can depict people in war as vulnerable as well due to this dream Anderson has. The dream signifies his vulnerability; he is scared of the interpretations other people may have of him for instance, close ones like his wife. Barker is trying to address events as if it where her own. As her father was part of the soldiers who bravely fought in the First World War, nearing the end of his life he started to have traumatising flashbacks of his war experiences, which Barker is trying to relive in this book through this dream. Due to this dream Regeneration follows a similar format to Dispatches by Michael Herr. The reason for this is due to the way Pat Barker presents events through the dream Anderson has which are similar to way Dispatches is structured, with a series of events telling a story about the war.