"We are Craiglockhart's success stories. Look at us. We don't remember, we don't feel, we don't think - at least beyond the confines of what's needed to do the job."
Prior like most soldiers in the war suffer from trauma, post-trauma, and mental illnesses due to their service in the war. PTSD as a disorder not yet in the medical discourse during World War I, the victims are left to suffer the mental anguish. The military hospital where Prior and others who are afflicted offer short term remedies to their illness despite not fully understanding it. Thus, in the quotation Prior affirms this dynamic in that they are left untreated because their affliction is not understood or just ignored.
“Murder is only killing in the wrong place.”
The statement alludes to the nature of warfare and how it normalizes killings in the name of serving a greater purpose. The soldiers have been desensitized by horrors of war that death becomes a common occurrence in their day to day activities. Henceforth becomes disillusioned and fosters a distorted perception of virtues and the world in general. Since killing is normalized on the battlefield, to the combatants the term murder only applies in a different context.
“Ghosts everywhere. Even the living were only ghosts in the making. You learned to ration your commitment to them. This moment in this tent already had the quality of remembered experience.”
The horrors of death are inevitable in war; subsequently, the soldiers become accustomed to this dynamic. As the quotation indicates the soldiers face their own mortality on a daily basis, hence live as if every moment is their last. Moreover, this harbors a feeling of not getting attached to fellow comrades so the pain of losing them is not felt as much. This notion alters the mindset of the combatants which only heightens their anxieties, mental traumas and disillusionment.
