Frank OConnors Guests of the Nation - 1426 Words

In Frank O’Connor’s â€Å"Guests of the Nation,† the narrator, called Bonaparte by his fellow rebels, recounts his reluctant role in the execution of two English soldiers in retaliation for the slaughter of four Irish rebels. OConnor develops this conflict between revolutionary attitudes in the strained relationship between the narrator and Jeremiah Donovan, the experienced rebel, who has the responsibility for fulfilling the Second Battalion’s order to shoot the prisoners. The young revolutionary Bonaparte discovers, in his imprudent acceptance of group values, evil within himself. Against his ideal of actions appropriate to him as an individual, Bonaparte and his fellow-revolutionary Noble, at the insistence of their superior officer who†¦show more content†¦He is driven by his obligations to the military instructions that have been given to him by Feeney. He chooses to follow these orders and blame â€Å"the deliberate inhumanity† of the killings on his duty to the Irish cause (Mowery). Donovan and Feeney place devotion to the cause above humanity (Renner). Despite serious reservations, Bonaparte and Noble go along with the plan for the execution. What prevails their moral objection is the pressure exerted by their peers (Donovan and Feeney, the local intelligence officer) and by the social situation. According to Michael Neary, the two men are disillusioned by the orders to execute their good-natured and thoroughly harmless English prisoners. Still, they refuse to assume responsibility for their own and their prisoners’ destiny. Ironically named after Napoleon Bonaparte, a military leader in every aspect, OConnors Bonaparte is the most reluctant and inexperienced of soldiers. Although he believes he wants to engage in combat, by the end of the story, as Noble feels ignoble, Bonaparte feels disgusted with the militarism his name suggests (Evans). The young Bonaparte struggles with the tormenting conflict between loyalty to his group and loyalty to his own developing sense of right and wrong. As the moment of execution nears, the older narrator further indicates his changing values by condemning Donovan’s explanations as â€Å"the usual rigmarole† and by contrasting Donovan’s â€Å"cold and excited voice† with Belcher’sShow MoreRelatedGuests of the Nation896 Words   |  4 PagesGuests of the Nation From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Guests of the Nation is a short story written by Frank OConnor, first published in 1931, portraying the execution of two Englishmen held captive by the Irish Republican Army during the War for Independence. The story is split into four sections, each section taking a different tone. The first reveals a real sense of camaraderie between the English prisoners, with the two Englishmen being killed, and the final lines of the story describeRead MoreGuests of the Nation756 Words   |  4 PagesNatural Empathy: Duty and Responsibility in Guests of the Nation Frank OConnor uses character surnames in his story Guests of the Nation to help develop the characters of the English and Irish soldiers. The characters engage in a struggle between hidden powers of empathy and duty, and OConnor displays their first-person point of view about the irony of war similar to Thomas Hardys poem, The Man He Killed: Yes; quaint and curious war is! You shoot a fellow down Youd treat if metRead MoreDuty and Responsibility in Guests Of The Nation Essay741 Words   |  3 PagesNatural Empathy: Duty and Responsibility in Guests of the Nation Frank OConnor uses character surnames in his story Guests of the Nation to help develop the characters of the English and Irish soldiers. The characters engage in a struggle between hidden powers of empathy and duty, and OConnor displays their first-person point of view about the irony of war similar to Thomas Hardys poem, The Man He Killed: Yes; quaint and curious war is! You shoot a fellow down Youd treat if metRead MoreHistory of the Development of the Short Story.3660 Words   |  15 Pagesmagazine’s history to that time. Other frequent contributors during the last 1940s included John Cheever, John Steinbeck, Jean Stafford and Eudora Welty. J. D. Salingers â€Å"Nine Stories† (1953) experimented with point of view and voice, while Flannery O’Connors â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find† (1955) reinvigorated the Southern Gothic style. When Life magazine published Ernest Hemingways long short story (or novella) The Old Man and the Sea in 1952, the issue containing this story sold 5,300,000 copies in