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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.
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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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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