Deceleration of a Soldier

Seigfried Sassoon published a letter stating his views on the war. This letter is called Deceleration of a soldier.

 His views on the war are very obviously negative. He describes the war as “evil and unjust”. ‘Evil’ has religious connotations and although Sassoon was a well known atheist he uses this to demonstrate that it is evil not only in human terms but also in religious terms.
 He uses repetition of the word ‘suffering’ in a short space of the text. This could be to emphasise the amount of people suffering and also to show that the suffering is repetitive and never ending. 
 He uses alliteration “as an act” which sounds imperative and give a very formal feel to his letter. He also uses alliteration when he says “callous complacency” this is much more aggressive with the ‘c’ sound and shows his negative views about not just the war but the people at home’s ignorance towards it. 
Sassoon uses lots of Emotive language as the purpose of this letter is to persuade the people to his views. He says “I am a soldier” this suggests that he has the right to these views as he has served and knows the conditions they are in. It also makes the soldiers seem like one group of people rather than individuals and he includes himself in this making him seem like one of the masses. He then says “I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops,” this evokes sympathy from the reader as it shows he has not only witnessed it but been subjected to it also.
 He is obviously unhappy about the war as he says it is ’unjust and evil’ which shows his strong feeling against it. But he is not against war on a whole as he says “am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed.” This shows he is protesting against this war in particular not war in general. Using the word “sacrificed” suggests that it is unneeded for the men to die as they are given up to the enemy and makes it seems as if they are certain to die.
 On a whole this letter shows Sassoon to have very negative views on the war although most of his points are base on opinion for example “believe that the War is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it.” This shows that it is what he believes and there is no solid proof and it is a conspiracy and for that reason it is unlikely people would have took his allegations seriously. However he has very strong negative opinions of the war as shown by this extract.