Heritage and Identity in Pat Barkers Regeneration Essay -- Pat Barker

The presence of Jews in England has been a source of controversy for many an(prenominal) reasons. On page 35 of Pat Barkers historical novel Regeneration, Siegfried Sassoon reveals the constitution of his relationship with his father, who left home when he was five, and gives an account of his Judaic memorial. though he hadnt been raised Jewish and apparently had no association with his Jewish relatives, Sassoon was subjected to the discrimination that was often seen in England before and during WWI. Through Sassoons Jewish heritage and the other characters relation to the aside, Barker exposes the need of mankind to identify with the past in order to come to terms with the present.There is much history concerning the Jewish people and their presence in England as an organized community, kickoff in 1066 when Jewish merchants were encouraged to move to England. Professor Daniel J. Elazer, in summarizing an clause by Aubrey Newman, states that from 1066 to 1290 the Jews suffered persecution in the form of blood libels, mass riots, and discriminatory enactment (4), followed by expulsion from England until 1655 when a Sephardi Rabbi was commensurate to convince Oliver Cromwell to allow the Jews readmission. intimately of the Jews coming into England were Sephardi Jews, well educated and successful businessmen from Spain and Amsterdam, until later in the seventeenth century when Jewish immigrants from Northern Europe began to arrive. These Jews were known as Ashkenazi Jews and were of a lower social class than the Sephardi (5).Anti-Jewish sentiment in England arsehole be attributed to more than religious persecution. It includes religious, race, and social issues and is researched in depth in Anti-Semitism in British Society, 1876-1939, by Professor Colin Hol... ...ows both Rivers and front to embrace the present. By denying the past, many of the characters in Barkers novel struggle with the present. legion(predicate) are unable to deal with the horror s of war witnessed and experienced in their young past. Others, such as Rivers and Prior, struggle with issues from their childhood as well. Regeneration shows that by making a connection with the past and accepting it for what it is, the characters are able to continue their lives with some sense of order and purpose.Works CitedBarker, Pat. Regeneration. New York Plume, 1993.Elazer, Daniel. British Jewry. Jerusalem Center For Public Affairs. 14 April 2004. <http//www.jcpa.org/dje/articles3/british.htmHolmes, Colin. Anti-Semitism in British Society, 1879-1939. London Edward Arnold Ltd., 1979.Westman, Karin E. Pat Barkers Regeneration. New York Continuum, 2001.