'In memory, war seems like a dream' (Samual Hynes, The Soldiers Tale, 1997) Compare the significance of remembering in two other texts you have studied. Remember to include in your answers reference to how meanings are shaped in the texts you are comparin

‘In memory war seems like a dream’ for an audience in the modern day the reality of war, although we possess more knowledge, it is impossible for us to imagine. Remembrance can be disturbing but also comforting, it can give us a sense of belonging and remind us our childhoods that formed who we are today. Remembrance in both ‘My Boy Jack’ by David Haig and ‘Strange Meeting’ by Susan Hill produce emotional and physical effects when remembering either for closure or when haunted from memories of war that the constructs cannot forget. Both Hill and Haig present combatants remembering the horrors of war. Hilliard and Bowe both suffer from a form of PTSD which was very common in the early 20^th Century for combatants who had experience of the inhumane nature of war. If the combatants weren’t suffering in war they were suffering at home. From the beginning of the novel Hill presents Hilliard’s unsettled mind through making him ‘afraid to go to sleep’. The ‘sleep’ connotes peace, harmony, rest, calmness, it is a natural process. By disturbing and removing Hilliard’s ability to sleep Hill perhaps wants to show that inhumane conditions produce inhumane effects. Bowe is presented by Haig to possess a more severe form of PTSD through his monologue, ‘Buzzin’ an’ racin’ past the ear’. The metaphor of bullets as bees presents the scale of the violence and the common nature of them in their ‘natural’ environment of the trenches. It may also suggest that humans are naturally supposed to be surrounded by nature but in the trenches there were no bees or plants. Both Hilliard and Bowe suffer from PTSD and this is caused by haunted memories. The significance of remembrance is that it shows to have destructive effects on a human’s mental health if the memories are horrific.