Friday, August 20, 2010

What is the point of view in the poem ';The Hero,'; by Siegfried Sassoon?

im having trouble trying to figure out the point of view



'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 broke



In the tired voice that quivered to a choke.



She half looked up. 'We mothers are so proud



Of our dead soldiers.' Then her face was bowed.



Quietly the Brother Officer went out.



He'd told the poor old dear some gallant lies



That she would nourish all her days, no doubt



For while he coughed and mumbled, her weak eyes



Had shone with gentle triumph, brimmed with joy,



Because he'd been so brave, her glorious boy.



He thought how 'Jack', cold-footed, useless swine,



Had panicked down the trench that night the mine



Went up at Wicked Corner; how he'd tried



To get sent home, and how, at last, he died,



Blown to small bits. And no one seemed to care



Except that lonely woman with white hair.



What is the point of view in the poem ''The Hero,'' by Siegfried Sassoon?antivirus protection



Limited omniscient. The point of view has access to the inner thoughts of the Brother Officer, but not to the thoughts of Jack's mother.



The last sentence comes directly from Sassoon, I think, and not from the Brother Officer's thoughts. It's a summary estimation that (to me) doesn't seem likely to issue from the more-or-less established character of the Brother Officer. Officers who make judgments of the sort he makes--Jack was thoroughly judged, in accordance with 'the ethics of the trenches'--such officers do care, but not about the concerns Sassoon has.

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