Regeneration And The Railwayman Analysis

A key aspect of humanity is the ability for people to form bonds between each other and create relationships, both intimately and in a broader sense. These bonds which people form are what define humanity. These bonds can both be positive and negative in nature, however every relationship can create a strain on people in that relationship. Sometimes even when it is a loving relationship strain can be in place, which highlights the complexity of human relationships. Pat Barker and Jonathon Teplitzky represent these ideas in in both Regeneration and The Railwayman.

In The Railwayman, Teplitzky represents the strenuous relationship between the prisoner and his captor. For Eric Lomax, his relationship with Nagase is one that is explored throughout …show more content…
Early on in the film the viewer is presented with the bleak colours of the veterans club but when Lomax recounts meeting Patti the flashback is bright and lively, these juxtaposing colour schemes help represent how his budding relationship with Patti creates hope and happiness in his life once more. However their relationship is not a simple one, it is continually being affected and tested by the scars of Lomax’s relationship with Nagase, “Please. Never, ever try to interfere with matters that don 't concern you”, while Patti attempts to help Lomax, he has built up walls to protect against the pain and suffering which in turn creates pain and suffering for Patti, “When Finally died, I was scared. I was scared that the same might happen to you”, Patti is afraid that the same pain will drive Lomax to end his life, however until Patti came along, Lomax was on the brink of death, his suffering was overwhelming him and might have driven him to suicide. This highlights the complexity of their relationship and how not all relationships are simple and straightforward, but are influenced by previous relationships. But the audience sees how their relationship is what saves Lomax in the end from hatred and suffering, it is their relationship which gives Lomax to find his honour and forgive the embodiment of his hatred and suffering in Nagase and thus heal their relationship and …show more content…
The first major relationship that appears which highlights the complexities is that of Sassoon and Rivers. Their relationship is a complex relationship in that while Rivers is attempting to help Sassoon get better and prevent him from doing something which he may regret, he always has this key goal of returning Sassoon to the war because that is his role as a war psychiatrist and this creates conflict in their relationship. Sassoon similarly creates a conflict in Rivers job as he places Rivers into a semi-father role, “but only now, faced with this second abandonment, did he realize how completely Rivers had come to take his father’s place”, this both makes Rivers job more easy but it puts strain on River’s relationship as it takes him back to his relationship with his father. Rivers relationship with his father was a complex one, River’s father was a speech therapist and a priest, however this only made his relationship with his father more strained as River’s himself rejected the unscientific basis of the book of Genesis, and his stutter which his father tried to remove created this conflicting relationship. This echoes the relationship that Sassoon and Rivers share and thus Barker’s use of providing the flashback of River’s childhood helps reinforce to the reader the complexity of their relationship, as