As I continue reading the novel Life Class Pat Barker illustrates the life of Paul Tarrant, a young artist begins to see his life of studios, cafes and other young artists as insignificant to the war that is erupting. Paul leaves England to live with his mother in a small town up north. When Paul returns to meet Elinor in Cafe Royal (their usual place of meeting), he notices a change in the atmosphere, "There was an edginess about the place now: excitement and fear. Not fear of death--no the fear of being irrelevant"(147) The world of creativity and wonder had turned into a self-conscious corner of the world, throbbing for importance. Before Paul had been suffering to find himself as an artist amongst the great and famous faces of artists surrounding him, but now he felt this whole group was misplaced in a world of patriotism. Did he need to risk his life to find himself?
Paul has been a confused character throughout the novel and now in the midst of war, he goes to extremes to feel significant. The story moves quickly, as Paul signs up for war. He is rejected for being ill, which further pushes him to the depths of unimportance, but after pulling some strings, we see Paul working as a doctor on the front, picking up half-dead bodies to try to save as he's been trying to save himself his whole life. However, Paul finds significance and pride in what he's doing. When he is sent out to meet a new doctor, he notes the man, "he won't last five minutes. He looked gangly, all arms and legs. There was something about his expression--not just youth and inexperience, something else--that made Paul uneasy"(165). Paul has changed from the war, he's become aware of how small his attributions were before he joined the fight and in seeing this young man, he sees himself as he was before: unaware. Paul's questions of art have now altered to questions of medicine, his questions of life became answers of death. Paul has become dark and lonely as a result of his position in the war.
4 comments:
This seems like a really interesting book, and that Paul is so voluntary to the war. Most people would try to stay out of the war, fleeing from the draft. But Paul wanted to be at war, and even when he wasn't selected for the draft he volunteered to be a doctor anyways. Great post!
I think that this post does a great job of illustrating the devastating effects that a war can have on societie's social creativity as a whole. As you said, Paul is an avid artist who would go to "hip" places like that cafe that used to be flowing with ideas, but now, it seems void of life because of the political things going on in the outside world.
I agree with Emily and Campbell completely, but also I think the need to feel important or significant in ones life, everyone goes through and it depends on how extreme one wants go. In this case he volunteered to be in the war to feel important. This may be extreme but he is not only changing the lives of the people he is saving and there families but he is changing his own life because now he knows that many men are living today because of his services.
This man's insecurities actually resulted in a worse feeling than before. Is he impulsive or just trying to nurture something that's lacking in his life? OR is he sincerely trying to help others? He seems like a deep, interesting and actually somewhat strange character. Great post rose toes!
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