Alliteration In Suicide In The Trenches

Siegfried Sassoon shows the progression of a soldiers life in the trenches and the depression that follows, leading to his death through the text ‘’Suicide in the Trenches’’. Sassoon who is an ex-soldier presents his own views and knowledge as he retells the story of a naïve boy who through the futility and horror of war leads him to take his own life. The composer uses a contrasting and development of stanzas to show the change of character the soldier experiences. Sassoon creates an image of war as negative and scarring through the use of metaphors, tone, alliteration and juxtaposition.

Within the first stanzas an image of a happy, young and perhaps naïve boy who ‘’grinned at life in empty joy…whistled with early lark’’ is presented, this …show more content…
The depression begins to seep through using the line ‘’crumps and lice and lack of rum’’. The word crumps is describing the destruction that is falling around him while he is merely sitting cowed and glum on his own, the outbreak of explosions surrounding him. Rum was commonly given to soldiers during the war to take the edge off before going to the front, this lack of could be a representation of how even after drowning his sorrows, there is still no ridding of anxiety and his depression, he truly couldn’t escape. The use of seasons between the stanzas becomes a direct link to the boy’s personality and change, ‘’winter trenches’’ in the second is a contrast to the first as ‘’lark’’ is a spring bird. Spring is commonly described as bright, fresh and the end of hibernation, while winter is represented as dark, dull and gloomy. This becomes a direct link to the soldier’s mental health as time goes on. It becomes dark and melancholic. In the line ‘’Put a bullet through his brain’’ the alliteration of the letter b here creates a bitter and harsh sound that adds to the depressing tone of the story told of suicide. The juxtaposition between the first two stanzas adds to the effect intended upon the reader by Siegfried Sassoon. He wants us to feel the harsh …show more content…
As the composer states ‘’the hell, where the youth and laughter go’’ this use of the noun ‘’hell’’ as a metaphor, settles a disturbing atmosphere within the reader of the futility of war and how this effects the soldier who go. Hell is commonly described as a place where those who have sinned and live out their punishments after death. Sassoon uses this as a connotation to the experiences of war to convey the ideals that war is a realm full of suffering and endless fire. The quote ‘’where youth and laughter go’’ is used to transmit that the men at the front feel as if they have lost their youth, happiness and have become deprived of everything, as if they were like corpses. Sassoon uses this to convey the true destruction that is war, not only on the ground beneath them but the soldier’s mental