Chapter 7

• p-86 Chapter 6 ends with Rivers wanting the VADs to awake him if Prior breaks down in the night. Chapter 7 starts with Sassoon waking up to the 'sound of screams and running footsteps' - Barker ties the chapters together to show how everyone at CL is connected somehow by their experiences on the front.
• p-86-87 'he knew he was shivering with fear more than cold. Though it was difficult to name the fear. The place, perhaps. The haunted face, the stammers, the stumbling walks, that indefinable look of being mental. Craiglockhart frightened him more than the front ever did' - Sassoon was able to conquer the front - nicknamed 'Mad Jack' for his daring charges - he knew the war was brutal and he was ready for it. But Cl is even more unpredictable, people breaking down at any moment, screaming in the night.
• p-87 'How quickly Prior pounced on any item of personal information' -Repeatedly trying to switch the power dynamic between him and Rivers. Sees himself as equal to Rivers.
• p-88 'i find myself wanting to impress you. Pathetic isn't it' - Prior is trying to convince himself he is worthy enough to impress higher class individuals. Re-establishes his sense of not fitting in.
• p-89 'Wouldn't you prefer something lighter? You are ill after all' Prior is trying to establish a connection with Rivers. intellectual facade that Prior tries to wear, in order to colloborate with Rivers better
• p-90 'It's made perfectly clear when you arrive that some people are welcome more than others. It helps if you've been to the right school. It helps if you hunt, it helps if your shirts are the right colour. Which is a deep shade of khaki, by the way' - Prior encounters class divide even in war - he cannot escape his sense of not fitting in.
• p-91 'For the first time i realized that somewhere at the back of their tiny tiny minds they really do believe the whole thing's going to end in one big cavalry charge. Stormed at with shot and shell/Boldly they rode and well/into the jaws of death/ into the mouth of hell.. And all that rubbish' - Alfred Lord Tennyson, Charge of the light brigade - Great AO5 reference. Prior no longer believes in the euphoria of fighting.
• p-91 'An officer saw three men smoking. he thought it was a bit too casual, so he confiscated their sabres and sent them into the charge unarmed. Two of them were killed.' Senselessness and incompetence of the officers. war doesn't make sense. Prior conveys his trauma through anecdotes - they are still intended to inform Rivers - but they also empower Prior as he can say he was a part of this honourable duty.
• p-92 'The men are pack animals' Class distinction remains on the front line. Not the usual camaraderie that many at home seem to think it is.
• p-92 'i can't force you to accept treatment. if you don't want it. you do remember the nightmares' - Rivers asserting dominance over Prior who is trying to misplace Rivers' authority.
• p-94 'Lieutenant Sassoon has been reported by the Medical board as not being responsible for his action, as he was suffering from a nervous breakdown' 'Extremely gallant officer who had done excellent work at the front' Sassoon's valour on the front means he is able to bypass the authority for his outburst. The articulation and 'sense' behind the declaration suggests otherwise.
• p-94 Sassoon will stay in CL before a trial after 11 weeks that will decide whether he is fit to go back or not.
• p-96 Rivers and Sassoon arrange their meetings together across the week and Rivers invites Sassoon to the Conservative club a prestigious private association - Gentleman's club.
• p-98 Rivers' report on Sassoon 'He recognises that his view of warfare is tinged by his feelings about the death of friends and of the men who were under his command in France' - Further disclosure of the reasoning behind Sassoon's motives.
• p-100 'He's a mentally and physically healthy man. its his duty to go back, and its my duty to see he does' - Rivers setting things straight.
• p-101 'Happy warrior one minute, bitter pacifist the next'