Siegfried Sassoon utilizes understatement, irony and visual imagery to show the disparity between how poorly soldiers are treated and how the high ranking officials treat themselves in the military in his poem Base Details. It highlights the agitation and disgust the speaker (who may be a soldier based on the knowledge he or she has about the details of the military) has towards the superior authorities because the visual imagery used to describe them is quite mocking and a little invective.
Sassoon includes an understatement to show the lack of care the high ranked officials and Majors in the military have for the lives of the soldiers and what the soldiers endure in combat. An understatement is the presentation of something as being less important or not as bad as it actually is. In line 8, there is an understatement, as the battles of war in which many lives were lost is described as a "scrap." The word scrap is generally used as a description of a a small quarrel that is minor or unimportant. This shows how the superior officers in the military do not exalt the soldiers and the battles they face-making the soldiers dispensable and insignificant. Everyone knows war is a serious battle where thousands upon thousands of people die, so the fact that the war is considered a "scrap" illuminates the idea that the high ranked officers believe the soldiers lives do not matter.
The insensitivity of the high ranked officers in the military is also highlighted by the use of direct speech and verbal irony. Sassoon undermines the sensitivity of the officials (in a way it is another understatement) with the statement that he has known the father of the "poor young chap" well which implies that that is the reason he feels sorry for the soldier (line 6). This creates a sense of irony as the official is saying one thing but means another because it is clear that the officer does not really care about the soldier with such a sarcastic undertone. Also the use of the pronoun "we" in line 8 creates a sense of irony as well since it is evident that that the soldiers and high ranked officials live totally different lives, yet the word we suggests togetherness.
While the soldiers are living trivial lives and fighting in little quarrels, the higher ranked officers live in the lap of luxury, treating themselves to the best of the best. They get to over indulge on drinks at the "best hotel[s]" and go "safely home" at the end of every day (line 5, line 10). The contrast between the "glum heroes" going to their deaths and the officials destination to the "best hotels" is poignant and creates a stress on the misconduct in the military (line 3, line 5). Meanwhile, the soldiers are dying in battle. Clearly, the speaker is rather disgusted by the disparity between the lives of the soldiers and those of the officials because of the mocking, invective tone of the visual imagery used to describe the officials. They are described as "fierce" and "short of breath" which is just a way of calling them all cut throat, out of shape and over weight (line 1). Language like this alone denotes a negative image of these high ranked officials and a general dislike of them. The speaker is clearly aggravated by the officials for treating the soldiers so poorly and having a general disregard for the soldier's lives.
We both shared very similar observations when reading this poem. I like how you explain everything thoroughly as if to a lay audience. What I hadn't noticed was Sassoon's use of irony. When you spoke about it this post, however, it seemed very obvious. I don't know how I missed it! My one criticism for your post is that it got a little boring after a while. Try adding a little flare to it by adding perhaps a personal anecdote or allowing the audience to connect personally with what you're saying. Besides that, I thought that you did an excellent job of not only explaining your points, but supporting them with apt textual evidence without simply quoting the entire poem.
ReplyDeleteYou made a lot of great points that actually connected to my blog post as well. I loved the structure in the way you set up your response to the question, it gave myself a clear and concise understanding of the point you were trying to make. In my opinion, the best literary device you used was visual imagery because of the evidence you gave to back it up. It was pretty strange how older soldiers get finer treatments while younger soldiers like you explained, get treated like scrap and left to suffer because of the mistreatment. All in all, I don't have anything to say in terms of improvement. Excellent job!
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ReplyDeleteThe first thing that came to my mind after I read your first paragraph is that I forgot to mention the title of the poem. How could I forget? Aside from that, I like how you delve into different angles of the poems. I did not even thought about the use of understatement and irony until I read your post! Your attention to diction in the poem definitely enrich your analysis on understatement, which is something I need to work on still. Also, I love the sophisticated vocabulary in this post: quarrel, dispensable, insensitivity, denotes and the list can go on! After you influenced my approach on hook, I will be continue to be influenced by your vocabulary and your attention to diction in a work. Also, it was interesting that how we both notice the ironic use of “we” in the poem. On the other hand, your view on the invective tone was interesting as well since I would not even thought about it. If I ever thought about it, I might not be able to take a risky approach and elaborate on the invective tone. Overall, I hope I can continue to be influenced by your courage and writing style!
ReplyDeleteMiss Brinson, I commend you for this post! For some reason, I feel like I was left reading your post feeling as though I just left a lecture on the poem itself (not a boring one I might add). I honestly enjoyed your analysis of the poem because you pointed out things that I have not noticed before. I did notice the clear visual imagery that Sassoon used, but I certainly did not notice his use of understatement or irony. Although understatement is the harder poetic device to find, I felt kind of stupid after you pointed the irony because you explanation showcased how easy one could have pointed out irony. I want to thank you for teaching me something new (once again). And I cannot wait to see what you have in store for the next post!
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