Memoirs of an Infantry Officer.

Memoirs of an Infantry Officer.
Siegfried Sassoon’s emotive overtones in ‘Memoirs of an Infantry Officer’ reflect the futileness of the War. Sassoon in this abstract, sagely writes in his autobiographical memoir how he was taught and instructed to fight with a bayonet. At the time he was a well renowned poet who after the Edwardian era subsequently endorsed into retrospective writings. War provided the poets and writers with a new kind of material which they utilised when through the passage of time a radical change had taken place in the literary form. Unlike Yeats who deliberately kept the War out of his poetry except for some single versions which would have gone by unpublished, Sassoon wrote prose with a touch of satire and humour, in order to put forward the less glorious aspects and breakdown the reinforced and exaggerated long-standing faith in the infallibility of the British military the public were brainwashed with. Sassoon hints the differentiation in officers and general ranks by mentioning the regimental badges, pointing out the theme of human significance, self-esteem and respect. Sassoon relates about the method of death they were forewarned about. Sassoon recognizes the viability of human significance and how easily could a perfectly healthy lad end up crippled, bed- bound or dead.
The lecture regards a sudden threat arising from a single opponent, a hand to hand fight where one’s understanding of the tactical situation is vital. Correct use of a bayonet could either save or take away your life. To wander why so much importance is placed in the significant bayonet is to equilibrate   ones’ life to that object, hence priceless. Thematically the preparation of War and armament dominates the scene, overpowering the humanitarian theme of life’s value and an individual regard of oneself. ‘’I improved my knowledge of regimental badges, which seemed somehow to affect the personality of the wearer’’ Anyone with a knowledgeable and informative background...