THE HERO

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THE HERO

• By Siegfried Sassoon

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The Hero Stanza 1

• 'Jack fell as he'd have wished,' the mother
  said,And folded up the letter that she'd
  read.'The Colonel writes so nicely.' Something
  brokeIn the tired voice that quivered to a
  choke.She half looked up. 'We mothers are so
  proudOf our dead soldiers.' Then her face was
  bowed.

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The Hero Stanza 2

• Quietly the Brother Officer went out.He'd told
  the poor old dear some gallant liesThat she
  would nourish all her days, no doubt
• For while he coughed and mumbled, her weak
  eyesHad shone with gentle triumph, brimmed with
  joy,Because he'd been so brave, her glorious
  boy.

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The Hero Stanza 3

• He thought how 'Jack', cold-footed, useless
  swine,
• Had panicked down the trench that night the
  mineWent up at Wicked Corner how he'd triedTo
  get sent home, and how, at last, he died,Blown
  to small bits. And no one seemed to careExcept
  that lonely woman with white hair.

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• This shows the mothers intense feeling.
• Jack fell as hed have wished shows that it
  was not how she wanted him to die. She wasnt
  there to be with him and that haunts her. Makes
  Jack look like a Hero.

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• Shows the falseness about the Colonels letter,
  which is very bland and generalised. Nicely is a
  bland word, it shows that he is not saying
  anything in particular and is all quite
  superficial, shows hypocrisy running through the
  whole army.

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• In this speech her words echo the blandness of
  the Colonels words. She makes her point generally
  rather then personally. By saying we mothers..
  Bowed shows she is generally saddened by the
  event. She is not showing her true emotions. Her
  words are superficial, there is no real detail or
  personal attachment.

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• Brother Officer shows that he is from the same
  regiment as her son. Its also a ironic contrast
  with the word brother. A brother would be
  either a close relative or a best friend and as
  you can see from the third Stanza later on this
  man has no feelings for her son, possibly even
  dislike.

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• The author tells us that the soldier lies to the
  mother but for a good reason, so she may
  nourish these words till she dies. Gallant
  lies is oxymoronic implying the ambiguity of
  whether what the man says is hypocritical or
  noble.

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• Glorious boy and Useless swine are a
  juxtaposition. The mother will remember her son
  as a glorious boy from what the officer has told
  her but in reality he will remember her son as a
  useless swine. The way these two words come at
  the end of the two lines creates a full-on effect
  on the harshness of the words.

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• In Stanza 3 the brutality of the officers
  thoughts comes out. In the first 2 Stanzas the
  officer holds in his thoughts and lies to the
  mother about her son. In Stanza 3 he makes Jack,
  her son, sound like a useless young child. Words
  like useless, panicked, tried and died
  are examples of this. Even the way he describes
  the sons death, is overly brutal, Blown to small
  bits.

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• In the first and third stanza the rhyme pattern
  is AABBCC, but in the second stanza it changes to
  ABABCC. This is because the second stanza
  emphasises the lies that the Brother Officer has
  told.

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Structure

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