Into an Irishman’s Thoughts on War

For many years authors have dedicated themselves to express how they feel about the many things that trouble our world. Even if many of them happen to be referring to the same situation, each can approach it from a very singular point of view. For example, most of the literary works about wars have portrayed it from the barbarous side of it, never really getting into how personal life can be affected by it at the time. Yet, there is always someone who truly has the ability to embody such a situation. It was through his world renowned short story, “Guests of the Nation”, that Mr. Frank O’Connor, as he is known in literature, was able to develop the most amazing and fitting theme for what wars truly are and how do they affect those involved in it. What is considered to be one of the most impressive parts of this short story was the author’s ability to manipulate the elements and techniques of writing necessary to elaborate its theme: “Wars can negatively affect the different aspects of a person’s life forever”.

When O’Connor chose to illustrate “the inhuman side of war” (McKeon) he was very careful with the setting in which he’d be working on. Instead of choosing a dangerously active site such as a battlefield, where all sorts of massacres could happen, he set us far away from such a scene and into a farmhouse in Ireland in which our characters could develop the friendly and warm atmosphere to which we are exposed throughout the beginning of the short story. Ironically enough the settings, at the beginning, are only providing us with all the necessary knowledge to ignore the possibilities of any kind of turmoil. Even so, O’Connor’s development of the setting went far beyond the geographical location; it went into the social conditions the characters were facing in this place. The characters clearly went through a given group of daily activities such as dancing, playing cards and friendly quarrelling that would’ve been very unlikely to happen in real life during war time but led them to become what they called “chums”.

The most comprehensive of the elements O’Connor worked on to achieve his masterpiece of a theme was the plot. O’Connor used a rather remarkable technique to emphasize the plot, which was dividing the story into four sections that would correspond to each of the elements of a plot. To begin the first section, which we can identify as the introduction, he peculiarly led us to meet the characters and where and how they interacted with each other. He was astoundingly detailed at eliminating the all so common thought of a rough relationship between the hostages and their captors by emphasizing a friendly connection between the characters despite the positions that were held by some of them. While one would expect things to keep flowing smoothly it is in the second section that O’Connor cunningly reaches the point of rising action and makes the reader face the truth in which it’s reminded that these Englishmen are not to be seen as friends of the Irishmen but as their hostages. This conflict was very well approached and it is because of this that the readers automatically prepare for the worst of coming events because of the possible situations these hostages could face. It is quite clear that during the third section or climax O’Connor makes us the most anxious, so much that we could even crave for a crazy turn of events, as if for us, as readers, not to have to give into the harsh reality that would come crashing on us through the fourth section or resolution. Still, O’Connor clearly wanted this story to be as life-like as possible and it is so until the very end in which duty came over friendship.

The most intriguing and detailed part of O’Connor’s work in this particular short story was the development of its characters and their conflicts. O’Connor truly mesmerizes the booklovers by using the stream of consciousness as the point of view from which the story is narrated. It was most likely for him to do so because it would help them identify themselves with how the character is feeling for they can at all times read about his emotions and reactions to what is happening around him. Most of all this particular point of view helps present a stronger perspective of the conflicts that the character was facing and how realistic were his responses to them. First Bonaparte is exposed to the fact that at any given point he may have to kill these hostages that had become his friends consequently leading to a conflict