[Freud]

Does it Matter? - Siegfried Sassoon

• Very very sarcastic
• Cheerie language - shows bitterness towards boosterism and jingoism
• ridiculous sentences point out the ridiculous ideas at the time - 'Does it matter? Losing your legs?/ For people will always be kind'
• First stanza - shows how you will miss out while other people live out their lives 'hunting' and 'gobble their muffins and eggs'
• The sarcasm shows how people who have fought and gained such awful injuries, though praised for their action, will eventually be forgotten, pitied or life half a life because of this war
• Repitition of 'people' creates a divide between 'you'/the disabled and the fit
• Use of 'you' draws reader in, it is direct and causes them to think and consider themselves in this position
• Describes both physical and mental damage - Sassoon having experianced mental problems [shell shock/neurasthenia] himself
• Last stanza must be sassoon speaking from experiance. 'And people won't say you're mad'... Remind anyone of Regeneration and the scene where Sassoon asks Rivers 'you said you didn't think i was mad' [I can't remember the exact wording, please could anyone find the quote?]
• He sarcastically calls drink a solution to the problem. I need another word for sarcastic..
• use of 'they' again distances the reader and the narrator from people who never fought, a topic that Sassoon himself had strong feelings about. He had a hatrid for people who had never fought, especially women.
• "people won't say that you're mad;/ For they'll know you've fought for your country" - fighting for your country = madness?
• Finally the last line 'and no one will worry a bit' - you will receive no sympathy

I hope that helps somewhat. If I missed anything, just say so