Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Burns - Coggle Diagram
Burns
"various stages of decay, a ferret, a weasel..."
Explicit language which serves to demonstrate the inextricable link between the soldier and violence because of masculine expectations
Brutal imagery suggestive of the inhumane violence required to assimilate with masculine notions during the war
The stages of decay are evocative of the cyclical nature of suffering as a symptom of gendered conventions which are utterly inescapable,
Violence and suffering are shown to be the epitome of the soldier experience when guided by masculine ideals- Burns' desire to fulfill masculine expectations leads to this cycle of decay, inhibiting his regeneration.
Ritualistic connotations demonstrate how Burns has had his identity stripped, and is now defined by the death encompassing him.
-
His function
Burns serves as the epitome of trauma, coming to encapsulate all of the horrors of war. He serves as a moral awakening for Rivers, catalysing his regeneration by forcing him to confront the suffering to which he is complicit.
Barker harnesses his characterisation to generate pity for the victims of gendered conventions, revealing the incompatible nature of trench warfare with inherently masculine expectations. Men's identities are transformed into husks- inextricably linked to a sense of failed masculinity.
Highlight the failures of a British war time society in protecting their men. Instead, social institutions serve to exacerbate suffering.
Barker utilises him to deplore the savagery of war and question the conditions which create it, denouncing the perpetuation of a war which strips soldiers of not only their masculinity, but their very identity.
-
"His body felt like a stone. Rivers got hold of him and held him, coaxing, rocking...Nothing justifies this. Nothing nothing nothing."
A stone is physically heavy, depicting the emotional toll of Burns' trauma, he is physically weighed down by it and unable to regenerate. Further it could demonstrate the idea that he is held in a fixed place.
The modifying phrase 'got hold of him and held him' depicts this shift from the passive 'hold' to the active 'held', denoting how Burns' trauma is an ongoing experience which is not isolated and cannot be dealt with once. He requires the ongoing help of Rivers in order to cope with his trauma.
'coaxing' and 'rocking' depicts this maternal care. only now, provided with feminine nurturing which is void in war, is Burns able to experience some semblance of regeneration.
The intensity of Burns' suffering has awoken Rivers to the brutalisation in war. This is reflected by the storm, he can no longer place blind trust in the institutions of war once he has seen Burns' suffering. Barker thus harnesses Burns' to force her audience to experience a moral awakening to the corruption of war authorities.
The fact that they are at a different place on the coast, Burns trauma follows him wherever he goes.
-
"cupped his genitals in his hands" + "they looked incongruous,they didn't seem to belong with the rest of him"
'cupped' depicts his internal conflict between adhering to masculine expectations, or processing his trauma and in turn defying these conventions. Barker thus shows regeneration and masculinity to be mutually exclusive through the lens of a post war society, depicting masculinity as a barrier to regeneration.
Gentle connotations, a sense of care. Barker depicts Burn's attempts to hide is loss of traditional masculinity as a futile, feeble attempt. His masculine identity is coming into conflict with the logistics of trench warfare, highlighting the paralysing expectations of masculinity for soldiers, which ultimately cannot be upheld.
The lexical choice 'incongruous' depicts Burns' need to dissociate himself what fundamentally makes him masculine, as he feels he has been unable to fulfill his duty as a man. This reveals how emasculation served to entirely deconstruct the identity of soldiers, rendering them hollowed apparitions of their trauma and imposing an impenetrable barrier to their regeneration.
He is in this isolated, asocial space whereby he can experience his more subliminal emotions. Society does not allow for the space for men to regenerate so he must do it alone, away from the public sphere.
"Burns. Rivers had become adept at finding bearable aspects to unbearable experiences, but Burns defeated him."
The lexis 'adept' is suggestive of a certain level of skill, revealing the extent of the trauma which Rivers saw every day within his role. This re-emphasises Barker's message that the suffering in war is wholly expansive.
'adept' also suggests logic and reason, perhaps evocative of the entirely unjustifiable nature of Burns' suffering. He is suffering because of these fickle gendered conventions which he has internalised, thus cannot escape. Barker suggests that this is suffering without cause and reason, and is far beyond the scope of human intelligence of comprehension. It is this knowledge which spurs Rivers' moral regeneration, as he is awakened to the brutalisation of soldiers within warfare and the futility of his role as a healer- regeneration is only a transient state for these men due to the dual nature of Rivers' role.
The lexical choice 'defeated' implies conscious effort to the point of exhaustion, denoting how even Rivers' best efforts cannot find a solution to relieve Burns of his trauma. He forces Rivers' to confront the fact that soldiers cannot ever truly recover, they can only learn to live, if they are lucky.
"Rivers got up and went across to the window. He found a bumble bee, between the curtain and the window, batting itself against the glass, fetched a file from the desk and, using it as a barrier, guided the insect into the open air. He watched it fly away."
Craiglockhart almost serves as a temporal limbo for Burns, a microcosm of the wider consequences of societies compulsory masculinity coming into conflict with the logistics of trench warfare. He is stuck in place and has this almost nomadic existence.
A bumblebee is harmless, vulnerable. Perhaps evocative of the innocence and vulnerability of the soldiers sacrificed and brutalised in war.
The idea of Rivers guiding the insect is evocative of their relationship as Rivers attempts to help him escape his hollowed identity, in turn abandoning the deeply entrenched ideals of masculinity to which he adheres. Thus, Rivers opens him to vulnerability in the form of the 'open air'--> he deconstructs everything Burns knows and opens him to scrutiny from society.