Literary notes about barrack (AI summary)
In literature, "barrack" is employed as a powerful symbol for austere, utilitarian lodgings that often mirror the discipline and hardships of military life while simultaneously invoking broader social commentary. In many narratives it designates the stark quarters occupied by soldiers or laborers ([1], [2], [3]), yet it can also extend to refer to repurposed or impersonal communal spaces—ranging from makeshift hospital quarters ([4]) to urban environments marked by neglect ([5], [6]). Some authors even use the term metaphorically to evoke the monotony and regimented order of institutional life ([7], [8]), while others hint at a bittersweet nostalgia or quietly subversive critique embedded within these confinements ([9], [10]). This varied deployment of "barrack" enriches its literary resonance, enabling writers to tap into both the physical realities and symbolic depths of communal living.
- On another was an unfinished two-story adobe building, occupied as a barrack by Bracken's company.
— from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. Sherman - He was discharged with 1 s. per day of pension, and served for a long time as barrack labourer in Fort George.
— from The Waterloo Roll Call by Charles Dalton - The bugle has sounded, the barrack gates are closed, and I have no leave.
— from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy - On November 13, the barrack to be used as a hospital was completed, and thither the sick were immediately removed.
— from Vitus Bering: the Discoverer of Bering Strait by Peter Lauridsen - A barrack down town where he has to live because he is poor brings in a third more rent than a decent flat house in Harlem.
— from How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York by Jacob A. Riis - It was a towering barrack in the Tenth Ward, sheltering more than twenty families.
— from How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York by Jacob A. Riis - Afterwards I heard of his barrack-room success as a lieutenant, and of the fast life he was leading.
— from Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - They turned into the barrack gate, greeted by a sharp word of command and the rattle of arms from the assembled battalions.
— from The Invasion by William Le Queux - It reminded him of the drummer-boys and the barrack-sweepers at Umballa in the terrible time of his first schooling.
— from Kim by Rudyard Kipling - 'There's your Company's station,' said the Swede, pointing to three wooden barrack-like structures on the rocky slope.
— from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad