An Analysis of Guests of the Nation :: Poetry Frank OConnor

The basic situation of the short story "Guests of the Nation" by Frank O'Connor is a story of friendship and war between two opposing sides, the Irish and British during war time. The two Englishmen, Belcher and Hawkins whom are prisoners of war and the Irishmen who are holding them captured engage in frequent card games, joke telling and arguing altogether while the war seems worlds away. The conflict with in the short story is an internal conflict. The Irishmen are forced to forget about all humanity when dealing with the enemy during combat. This was extremely hard for the guards because all but Donovan had befriended the prisoners. It was stated that if any Irish prisoner was killed by the English, then Hawkins and Belcher would be executed. This was hard for both the guards and the prisoners because although they knew that Hawkins and Belcher would have nothing to do with executions elsewhere, they would be the target of punishment. As enemies, not by choice, the Irish must enforce this because they are on the lower chain of command. So in a way they are absolved from their feelings of guilt because they "have a duty to do so." I believe the crisis occurs when Donovan shot Hawkins. The crisis is the turning point of the action in the plot of the story. At this point, they all "stood very still watching him settle out in the last agony." The first shot did not work so the narrator, Bonaparte was to shoot him again. After this, Belcher began to laugh for the first time throughout the entire story and then began to talk excessively. I view this as the falling action immediately following the climax. It was as if he could not contain his emotions of what he had just witnessed. Theme plays a very important part in this short story. Theme is the idea of a literary work abstracted from its details of language, character and action. The great example of theme that is evident throughout the entire short story is the duty to perform certain acts. We can see here that the Irishman Donovan is very big on obeying his duty to carry out orders that have been authorized to him.