In the hero by Siegfried Sassoon the title, “the hero” makes the reader assume the poem will be about a brave and courageous soldier that fights gallantly for his country but is instead on the propaganda told by the government by to the mourning friends and family of the soldiers.
Throughout the poem the reader can see how the military uses propaganda to cover up the true horrors of war for example in the first line, “Jack fell as he’d have wished” as the officer breaks the news to Jacks mother which suggests jack wanted to die for his country which juxtaposes how Jack is described later in the poem “he’d tried to get sent home, and how, at last, he died, blown to small bits.” This suggests that this isn’t how jack wanted to die at all “at last” gives the impression that Jack hated war so much he wanted to die. We can also see that some of the officers weren’t happy lying to the families “for a while he coughed and mumbled” this shows that the officer felt uncomfortable lying.
Sassoon strongly disagreed with propaganda and the government lying to the people and his view is clearly stated throughout the poem.
