How does Barker create a sense of tension and disgust with Yealland’s treatment in Chapter 21? Barker presents Yealland’s treatment, although successful as inhumane and disgusting. She has manipulated the setting to create an aura of darkness and torture. This is them amplified by the use of River’s reaction and thoughts while watching the treatment and the descriptive imagery used during the treatment.
First of all, Barker sets an atmosphere of fear by the use of descriptive language. She writes “he began pulling down the blinds. The blinds were the thick, efficient blinds for wartime”. This action normally means that the person could be doing something that shouldn’t be seen. The phrase “efficient blinds for wartime” clearly tells the reader that during war, when a soldier is about to be tortured, those kind of blinds would be used to prevent anyone seeing. Moving on, Barker has used Yealland’s action to increase tension within the reader. We see this in the way she introduces Yealland into the scene. She writes “Yealland, who’d been emptying his bladder in preparation for a long session, came in, rubbing his hands”. She tells the reader that he “prepares for a long session”, this could connote to the reader Yealland knows how much suffering he is about to go through. This also gives the reader a hint of how bad his treatment is going to be.
Secondly, Barker has made this text inhumane by using descriptive language, Imagery, and patient reaction. On page 231, Barker then references Callan and Yealland to the soldiers and the authority. We see this in how Callan cannot speak due to the horror he is going through. This can be likened to the soldiers of the war of how they cannot talk out of their own power against the authorities forcing them into the war. We see this at the bottom of page 230 when Yealland applied the electrode to Callan. We see that Callan is struggling to speak so therefore, he can’t say he dislikes Yealland treatment. We then see an actual attempt to escape by Callan in the second paragraph in page 231. Furthermore in the next paragraph, the author gives the reader a sense of Callan vs. Yealland by what Yealland says. Yealland says “You cannot leave the room…. You will leave me when you are cured…I have no doubt you are tired and discouraged... the reason is that you do not understand your condition as I do”. These sentences within that paragraph have included personal pronouns. This simply means that Yealland is a very authoritative doctor that doesn’t regard his patient’s views or thoughts. This point is then amplified in the fourth paragraph on page 231 when Yealland says “you must speak, but I shall not listen to anything you have to say”. This is also an imperative that proves my previous point.
Lastly, the reader sees a great act of ignorance in at the bottom of the page from Yealland. Yealland says “You are now ready for the next stage of treatment, which consists of the administration of strong shocks to the outside of the neck. These will be transmitted to your voice box and you will soon be able to say anything you like in a whisper”. This quote by Yealland gives a descriptive image to the reader of how much pain Callan goes through. Barker has worded this quote so the reader understands Yealland’s character to be an ignorant and authoritative character. Finally, on page 232 we see Yealland getting frustrated and patronising Callan into taking the treatment after he attempts to ran away again. He says “You will leave this room when you are speaking normally…you are a noble fellow and these ideas which come into your mind and make you want to leave me do not represent your true self… you must make every effort to think in the manner characteristic of your true self: a hero of Mons” . These sentences are a repeat of the ‘Callan vs. Yealland’ episode that recently happened. However, these sentences mainly express how patronising Yealland can be sometimes by saying “of your true self: a hero of Mons”, forgetting that Mons actually lost their battle and were wounded and left behind. This is also the ignorance of Yealland taking place again.
Finally, we see that Barker has represented Yealland’s treatment through many ways in chapter 21 as a barbaric practise that should never be used on another human being again.