Explanatory note on The Hero by Siegfried Sassoon

“The Hero” is a bold attempt by Siegfried Sassoon, one of the most famous war poets, to tear off the mask from the face of war. The poem expresses the hypocrisy hidden behind the glory of war. War is a game of bloodshed. Many innocent lives are lost in the bloody game. There is nothing glorious about it. Many youths are forced to join the warfare and thus, they are driven to untimely death against their wish. The painful death of a soldier is glorified as the death of a martyr. The people sitting back at ease in their homes think and speak highly of soldiers and their death in the battlefield. 

The poem “The Hero” gives us the real picture of how some cold-footed soldiers die being blown into countless pieces. In the poem, Jack lacks the bravery of a true soldier. Afraid of the cruelty of warfare, Jack makes a lame excuse to go back home from the trench. When he passes through the trench, a mine explodes and blows him into bits. Jack meets an unpleasant death which is glorified as a great achievement by senior officers. 

The Colonel sends an officer with a letter to Jack’s mother. The letter from the Colonel speaks of the dead Jack in glowing terms to console the poor old mother over the death of her only son. The mother is down with grief for having lost her son on the one hand and holds her head high with pride for the supposed glorious death of her son on the other hand. The kind-hearted Officer who comes to meet Jack’s mother hides the harsh reality about Jack’s death from her. He does not want the old lady to get hurt. He rightly thinks that her pride over the heroic death of her son in the trench is the only consolation for her.   

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Siegfried Sassoon’s attitude to war in the poem The Hero

The poem The Hero reflects Siegfried Sassoon’s satirical attitude to war. The poet is not critical of warfare but the hypocrisy that surrounds war. Some soldiers like Jack are not brave enough to fight and face death in war. They meet an untimely and unpleasant death. Their death is, then, glorified as a heroic one, and they are honored as martyrs. In the poem ‘The Hero’ itself, Brother Officer speaks highly of Jack on the one hand and thinks of him as a ‘cold-footed, useless swine’ on the other hand. Besides, mothers whose sons die painfully not courageously feel proud of their sons. The poet rightly bears a critical attitude to the practice of attributing martyrdom to coward soldiers.           

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Is Jack a brave soldier in ‘The Hero’ by Siegfried Sassoon?

Soldiers who fight in a war far from their homes and near ones are different from the common run of men.  The words ‘brave’ and ‘courageous’ are associated with the image of a soldier. But, Jack is not a true soldier in terms of bravery and fearlessness. He is an ordinary person of flesh and blood with fear of death. He makes a lame excuse to go back home and tries to cross the trench. Then a mine explodes and blows him into pieces. Evidently Jack is not a hero as he lacks the essential qualities of a true solider.   

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Relevance of the Title: The Hero by Siegfried Sassoon

By the word ‘Hero’, we think of a brave and courageous person. Jack the protagonist (principal character) is glorified as a hero in the poem. But the close reading of the poem reveals that Jack is a ‘cold-footed, useless swine’. From this perspective the title of the poem sounds irrelevant and illogical. However, the title ‘The Hero’ is reflective of the poet’s satirical attitude to war. By giving such an ironical title the poet Siegfried Sassoon has exposed the truth of a soldier’s unpleasant death and satirized the tradition of glorifying a coward solider as a hero. So the title of the poem ‘The Hero’ is substantial and relevant.     

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