Death of a Hero by Term Paper

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In the heat of battle, George stands up and allows himself to be killed. He thus becomes a "hero" for his hypocritical "loved ones" at home to mourn.

The first major theme of Death of a Hero is the hypocritical attitudes and immorality of the Victorians. Much of the prologue and the first two parts of the novel are dedicated to a savage, bitter portrayal of Victorian middle class life in England, from the 19th century up to the First World War. The individuals in these sections are portrayed in such a severe fashion, that the inevitable conclusion drawn is that life in this society was so stifling and unbearable that it spurred a lot of idealistic young men such as George to go to war as a means of escaping it.

The third part of the novel takes place during the war itself, and allows Aldington to explore his other major theme - namely, the futility and pointless destructiveness of war. Aldington feels no compulsion to restrain his hatred of war and army life, depicting it in its grueling brutality. For Aldington, the death of George is endemic of the tragic wastefulness that war ultimately entails:

The death of a hero! What mockery, what bloody can't.

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.. George's death is a symbol to me of the whole sickening bloody waste of it, the damnable stupid waste and torture of it. (Aldington, 28)

The frankness and brutality with which Aldington deploys his narrative in the third part of the novel through the guise of bitter irony reflects the author's own participation in the First World War. Aldington was nearly killed on at least four occasions in battle in France, but was fortunate enough to have narrowly missed two of the worst, bloodiest battles of the First World War.

Death of a Hero, through its critique of middle-class life in England and the war that would indelibly scar an entire generation, suggests that war is the inevitable apotheosis of the oppressiveness of life in the 20th century. "Atonement," Aldington asks early on in the novel, "how can we atone?" (Aldington 28) for the survivors, Aldington's narrative infers, there is nothing left but the lifelong attempt to make sense of the senseless death and brutality that has been witnessed, an ongoing coming-to-terms with the massive loss of life that war entails. In this sense, there are no real "heroes" in war - just losers: those who lose their lives, and those who lose their loved.....

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