Compare How Sherriff and Barker’s Characters Cope with Their Experiences in Journey’s End and Regeneration. to What Extent Do These Characters’ Experiences Reveal an Opposition to War?

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Sherriff and Barker both use characters’ experiences to show how men were affected by war, both positively and negatively. These experiences help to underline the reactions and attitudes towards the war in both 1918 and today, and whether or not information was inaccurately perceived by the media and the government. Although both texts were written in different time periods, both authors give an honest and realistic depiction of trench life and the home front. Journey’s End and Regeneration can both be considered as anti-war literature, as this can be identified in both texts by the horrific details of what the characters went through, but there are other messages and intentions that both authors are trying to give about World War I, such as social comment, however this message is not so prominent. Firstly, in Journey’s End, Sherriff uses the character of Stanhope as a device to portray how dependant men were on alcohol during wartime, as it helped take their mind off things. In Journey’s End, Stanhope is seen as a very hard-working and loyal officer, however Osborne warns Raleigh to not “expect to find him – quite the same” which hints at the fact Stanhope has changed since his drinking problem. Sherriff has intentionally used alcohol as a motif; at home, Stanhope is a hero which is shown through Raleigh’s character who looks up to Stanhope. Stanhope is very flattered by this, and it is evident that he enjoys being an inspiration to others. However, as the play continues the audience begin to realise that Stanhope’s personality changes when he is drunk and Raleigh is left in disbelief. This allows the audience to see how the poor conditions affected the men, and how they learnt to cope with them. Raleigh’s character is also an instrument used to by Sherriff that shows the naivety and innocence of the men. A lot of the boys fighting had barely left school, and
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