Chapter 6

• P-67 Prior's voice returns. "Thinner, more defensive. And, at the same time a lot tougher. A little, spitting, sharp-boned alley cat" - Now that prior has a voice - he is able to vocalise his ideology about masculinity. To defy Rivers. and his description suggests he isn't afraid to make his views known.
• p-68 "Not tonight Wilhelm i've got a headache" Prior is speaking satirically on war so that he doesn't express his true feelings and feel like less of a man doing so.
• p-69 "All the questions from you, all the answers from me. Why can't it be both ways?" - Prior is trying to switch the power dynamic. Clear to see that he struggles with being inferior and vulnerable.
• p-70 "I don't think talking helps. It just churns things up and make them seem more real" - Prior has traditional views of mental health.
• p-71 First glimpse at Prior sharing war experiences "Standing up to my waist in water in a dugout in the middle of No Man's Land being bombed to buggery" - Satirical description again.

  "Why?"

  "Good question. You should pack this up and join the general staff"

  Trying to cope with the pain.
• p-72 "Public school accent" "The pride of the British Army requires that absolute dominance must be maintained in No Mans Land at all times" - Prior mocks the incompetence of those conducting war.
• We learn that Prior was carried away on a stretcher after a mission to stand in No Mans Land for 50 hours. The horror is evident here. "Provide the German with another fourty-eight hours target practice" Futility of the human body.
• p-73 - Sassoon talks about a book by Edward Carpenter called the 'Intermediate sex" (1908) he swears the book "saved" his life. Sassoon heavily hints at his problems dealing with homosexuality in this scene.
• P-76 MR PRIOR - "A big, thick-set man with a ruddy complexion, dark hair sleeked back, and a luxuriant drooping redish-brown moustache" Antithesis of Prior's description.
• p-76 "What's supposed to be the matter?" Traditional views from Mr Prior - Only believes physical injury is worthy of treatment.
• P-77 "He was a clerk in a shipping office"

  Mr prior - "That's right, and getting nowhere" - Mr Prior is extremely harsh on Billy. Working class, traditional values that you must go and chase success and don't feel sorry for yourself along the way.
• p-77 "You've got to toughen e'm up, you know, in our neighbourhood" - Could be one of Billy's primary motives for volunteering for war, to fulfill what his dad always wanted him to do. Be independent, and fearless. yet even this initiative backfires for Billy, as his Dad isn't in favour of war and he is antyi-establishment working class. irony.
• p-78 "He's neither fish nor fowl" - Essentially, Billy doesn't fit anywhere. Mr prior isn't proud of Billy for being a clerk, or being a second lieutenant. Extremely harsh on him.
• Billy's sense of not fitting anywhere is reinforced by his role as second lieutenant. He was a "temporary gentleman" Only promoted for a short period of time. Only important for a short time, then back to regular Billy.
• p-78 "He'd get a damn sight more sympathy from me if he had a bullet up his arse. Anyway.." Doesn't empathise with Billy. Reinstates Rivers' theory at the end of chapter 4 that it is ingrained in men to yearn to be masculine.
• p-79 Mrs Prior - Working class women who doesn't yet have a voice and isn't part of the enhanced liberation of women like the munitionettes. "sitting nervously" "Playing with her wedding ring" "carefully genteel voice"
• p-78 R "You must be proud of him being an officer" MP "Must i? i'm not proud"

  Contrast to.. "You must be very proud of him" Mrs Prior "I am. Because i know how hard it's been"
• p-79-80 Mrs Prior reveals there was a hint of jealousy for the fact that Billy had an easier upbringing than Mr Prior. "because his mother sent him to work when he was ten"
• p-80 "You'll take care of him, won't you?" - Genuinity, care. Contrasts Mr Prior who cannot understand Billy's illness.
• p-82 "A Charlie Chaplin film was shown in the cinema on the first floor" The most revolutionary form of film, notable for its hilarious performance, shown in a mental institute? - Irony from Barker. Nothing - even the most comically entertaining film does not uplift the mood of those mentally ill.
• p-83 - Prior found vulnerable and wheezing under a huge window in the common room. "He couldn't ignore Prior's breathing, or the whiteness of the knuckles where his left hand gripped the chair" Mastfully constructed description from Barker to express the severity of Prior's pain.
• p-83 "Prior was bent forward to help the expansion of his lungs. Looking at him now, Rivers could see the straightness of the shoulders, the surprising breadth of chest in a delicately built man" Prior is a shell of who he once was. His youthful physicality lost.
• p-83-84 Prior "I've seen him use my mother as a football" - Mr Prior is a violent working class man that we are supposed to despise. Barker constructs him to showcase how outdated traditional masculinity is.
• P-84 "Only i dont want to be moved" - Change in Prior is already evident. "you can get used to anything can't you?" - Rivers has already had a huge effect on him.
• "p-85 "Only it helps you see. Having something to pull on" - To relieve pain.

  "What was it like in France? The asthma."

  "A shout of laughter from below. Charlie Chaplin was in full swing." Contrasts is deeply upsetting. Prior separated from the crowd once again. Still hasn't found his place.