For

Regeneration - Rivers ("male mothers") rivers emotionally tends to men

My boy Jack - "Feet!...Talcum Powder" "none of you have eaten" 

physically taking care of men like a mother 

 

Against

Regeneration - Priors dad "hed have damn sight more sympathy from me if he had a bullet up his 🤬"

My Boy Jack - Rudyard shame if he "outlived the finest moment of his life"

 

Against 

Toxic masculinity

Yellend - "I do not want to hurt you, but if necessary I must." - he prefers physical pain to emotional healing.

Rudyard - "thought men should "be shunned by his community"

 

For

The reverse is also true

Regeneration - Sarah "he hardly had to shorten his stride" equal and manly

My Boy Jack - Elsie "Listen to me!" exclamative imperative

 

Against 

 taught to repress emotions 

Regeneration - "theyd been trained to identify emotional repression as the essence of manliness"

My Boy Jack - "I didn’t want to humiliate him…he was crying" - seen as humilation to cry even when agony

Prior courting Sarah, Rivers reflecting on his relationship with his father “for the first time… forced his father to listen”, 

“a big, thick set man… looked him shrewdly up and down.” Chapter 6 Prior’s Father

Rudyard: “only our unity, our strength, and our courage can save us from destruction” – Speech Act 1, Scene 4 

Bowe, Doyle and McHugh argument – Jack settles it (debatably). Alternatively, it could be seen that Jack lacks authority in this scene; no awareness of the divisions amongst his men, obeyed due to fear of consequences. “you seem to have this situation under control. I’m sure there’ll be no panic” Act 1, Scene 7

Yealland: “you must speak but I shall not listen to anything you have to say”

Act 2, Scene 4 “I want to know everything relating to you and your doings – long letters please – or we shall abandon you to the Belgians, which would not be kind” Rudyard to Elsie

Act 1, Scene 5 Elsie: “Have you actually stopped to wonder why he’s so keen to get to France? ...Have you?” Possesses knowledge of Jack and makes Rudyard THINK. 

 Compare the significance of brutality in two texts you have studied. Remember to include in your answer reference to how meanings are shaped in the texts you are comparing.

 

You must use one drama text and one prose text in your response, at least one of which must be a text

My Boy Jack... 

My Boy Jack gives a very clear and quite graphic picture of the physical and emotional wounds (mental consequences) of war. Characters that have been profoundly affected by the war include: Bowe (his degradation of being a rather nervous soldier to an emotional wreck... exhibited by the use of excessive exclamative, ellipses, broken language, etc in the end of the play during his recollection of the brutality of war). 

 

Regeneration... 

Vivid descriptions of trench warfare, alluding to the different senses creates a brutal atmosphere. 

Sassoon opposes the brutality of war - “I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe maybe evil and unjust”.                          It can be argued that both Elsie (from MBJ) and Sassoon share similar maxims... they are the only two characters who explicitly express their disdain for battle. Sassoon: “Robert, you think exactly as I do about the war, and you do...nothing.” 

“One trench we held, it had skulls in the side, embedded, like mushrooms.” Simile exhibits trivial impression... brutality creates fragility.