Imagination in Pat Barkers Regeneration :: Pat Barker Regeneration Essays

Imagination in Pat Barker's Regeneration It is through the imagination that we have the power to create and destroy. This theme holds true throughout Pat Barker's Regeneration and for the many characters in this novel who experience both the awful and inspired effects of the imagination. Pat Barker draws on many resources to support this claim, including the Book of Genesis, from which she cites the quotation "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth," spoken by the character David Burns on page 183 of this novel. Through this quotation and many other developments, the theme of the power of the imagination, both good and evil, perpetuates itself throughout Pat Barker's novel. The word "imagination" is one that has evolved throughout its many years in Biblical history. Its first and original meaning to the ancient Hebrews was that of "plotting or devising evil" rather than what we think of as imagination today: "the power of freely forming mental images" (Denton 685). The Hebrews thought of the power of the mind, for the most part, in the context of preparation for action rather than simply as a creative power (Denton 685). Although "imagination" in the biblical quote "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth" does mean the power to form mental images, it also has a sense of forming these images in preparation for evil action. Through this dual role of the imagination, that of plotting evil and creating images, we see the imagination as a double-edged sword that can be either destructive or constructive, depending on its use. In order to determine further the meaning of this quote, one must go to the Book of Genesis from the King James Version of the Bible, to Genesis 8:21, which reads as follows: "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth" ("God's" 547). The speaker here is God after He has destroyed the earth with a flood. When the first part of this quote is added to the second part found in Regeneration, one learns that God is resigning himself to the realization that men will always have an evil imagination, or evil tendencies, and that even destroying the earth could not correct these inclinations for evil in the heart and imagination of man ("God's" 548). Because the imagination has roots in the preparation and use for evil, it is easy to see how one could use the imagination for these same purposes in warfare.

Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall Essay

In this film, based upon a screenplay by Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall from a novel from Waterhouse (which written in 1959 influenced by the prevailing theme of the 1950s – the protest of the angry young men), director John Schlesinger creates the fantasized world of Billy Fisher (Tom Courtenay), a young man working at the Shadrack and Duxbury funeral parlor who dreams of becoming a great writer. Julie Christie provides some romance for the awkward clerk. Denys Coop’s cinematography effectively captures the drab life and imaginative world of Billy’s existence, lending further relevance to the film in real life. Billy is an original character whose fantasy life is funny throughout. Known to his officemates as Billy Liar because he is a compulsive liar, Fisher escapes his dour existence by creating a fantasy life as the military leader of the fictional, semi-fascist state of Ambrosia. This fantasy supplies the power and control lacking in his daily life where he feels trapped in his job at the funeral parlor. Though chronic lying is not admirable and his coldness towards his family and his fiancees is dislikable trait, still, overall, Billy is an attractive character, and we can pity him as his rather pathetic pretenses are exposed, while still seeing the justness of the exposure. Waterhouse has managed to mirror the basic nature of people: being dissatisfied with what we have and therefore devising all means to be what we dream to be. Billy Liar remains a pleasing counterpoint to the depressive movies Room at the Top (1958) and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960). According to Gale (1996), this film that was originally a novel led some commentators to place Waterhouse in the Angry Young Men School. It is in some ways a study of provincial dissatisfaction. Our lives are very similar to Billy in many ways, the reality and fantasy of who we are sharply at odds. Most of us live with a family which is the quintessence of ordinariness; so we compensate by a rich fantasy life and, unfortunately, by dishonesty, much like Billy in the film. Reminiscent of Fisher’s character, we lie our way through life, not out of malice or even out of any conscious desire to cause mischief or to cause hurt to those around us, but purely because we cannot live with, or face up to the demands of, our real lives. The overall mood in the film is, however, disquieting – Fisher’s dreams include killing people, such as his parents, who place obstacles in his way. The film shows that the only real obstacle confronting Fisher is a lack of courage combined with no obvious talent. Much like in real life, we all have a secret vision of doing the unthinkable, murderous or otherwise, to people we extremely dislike. Our judgment is often clouded by anger for other people, which lead to ineffective use of our God-given talents, which in turn hinders the progress that we otherwise could have achieved easily. Despite its very British setting, the film has a universal dimension which is even more poignant in today’s Internet age. In a sense, Billy Liar is an adroit satire about a society caught between socio-economic classes. Billy Fisher’s character is therefore struggling against the limitations of his class, family and urban environment for a better opportunity to display his ability. This theme is relevant even today, as we all strive daily to move up the social and economic ladder of society, as a response to our natural trait to be forever dissatisfied. One cannot help but be fond of and relate to Billy Liar, a unique character that deeply depicts in what boils down to a humorous yet solemn and incontrovertibly influential movie. It is apparent that this film appealed and is still appealing to audiences precisely because Billy’s lack of courage, commitment and his flights of fancy are not so far removed from those of ourselves. Many of us live in dreams where we do spectacular things but given the chance we would not have the courage to accomplish them. Likewise, the film affirms that, ultimately, we must live with, rather than in opposition tom the real world, no matter how painful and uncertain the experience of that invariably will be. While on one level this film could be dismissed as a whimsical fantasy, there is a Billy Liar that exists in all of us. WORK CITED Gale, S. (1996). Encyclopedia of British Humorists: Geoffrey Chaucer to John Cleese. Philadelphia: Taylor and Francis.

The Reality Of Being During The Military - 2691 Words

The Reality of Being in the Military. â€Å"The soldier is the Army. No Army is better than its soldiers. The soldier is also a citizen. In fact, the highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one’s country† by George S. Patton Jr. There are some people who are brave enough to put their lives on the line for their family and also their country. What happens after the battle that needed to be fought is over though? Do they just go back to their family and live happily ever after? From the outside looking in, one may only see just a man in uniform who fights for our country. They do not see the amount of time these soldiers spend away from their loved ones. They do not see the effects war has on not only them but†¦show more content†¦My first set of questions for Tim are about his deployments and how it affected him and his family. QUESTION #1- â€Å"How many times were you deployed? Where were you deployed and for how long?† ANSWER- â€Å"Three major deployments and one short term deployment. My first was Operation Desert Storm. It started off in Kuwait and then we moved to Iraq. I was gone about eight months and that was in 1990-1991. My second one was my short term deployment to Africa and we were gone about forty-five days. We were there to support a local population because their water was contaminated. The third deployment which was my second major deployment was in 2005-2006 to Iraq. I was there just under a year. I was supposed to be there a year but I had an injury and they sent me home a month and a half early. Then the last one before I retired was to Afghanistan and that was for thirteen months. I left December 2007 and I came home in January 2009.† QUESTION #2- â€Å"How was the transition from you being deployed to being home? Did you ever feel like after being gone for so long to being back home added stressors on your family?† ANSWER: â€Å"When you first come home everything is perfect. Everyone is so happy. After a while I started feeling out of place because my family had been taking care of themselves for so long and created a new life for themselves. Everything I was once doing before I left, they started doing on their own. It added stress