Guests of the Nation - Thesis

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The Irish soldiers are uncomfortable with the news they now share with each other.

The day after that, they are playing cards when Donovan comes back and speaks with Bonaparte outside. He tells him that he has come to execute Hawkins and Belcher because the British have shot several Irish prisoners of war. Donovan warns them not to alarm the British but to tell them they are being transferred. Noble cannot stomach the thought and wants nothing to do with it, so Donovan sends him ahead to dig the graves.

The Englishmen don't really want to leave their friends, but are persuaded by Donovan and Bonaparte to go with them. As they are walking into a bog, Donovan tells the British what is about to happen. They are unbelieving that this could happen and argue, but to no avail. Bonaparte says that he is having a hard time with this and really doesn't want to have to kill them.

Hawkins is shot in the back of the head after trying to get Noble and Bonaparte to help him.

However, Hawkins does not die right away and Belcher asks that the Irish finish him off. Then Belcher takes his handkerchief and puts it around his own eyes, and Donovan shoots him. Bonaparte and Noble refuse to have anything to do with the killings, and are quite upset.

When the British soldiers go back to the house and the old lady, she asks but then figures out for herself what has happened and prays.

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Bonaparte says that he will never look at things the same again and that he feels a sense of loneliness.

Analysis

The human mind and heart operating in an unusual environment of a peaceful location in the middle of war. That is one of the themes that O'Connor studies in this story. The temporal quality of ideology is another. We see this at the end of O'Connor's piece when one of the British prisoners offers to become a traitor to save his life, forfeiting his life-long beliefs and loyalty in a moment of panic.

What I believe O'Connor does with this story as well is to display the difference between human emotion and that of duty, honor, country. Bonaparte, our narrator, becomes so friendly with the British captives that he thinks they wouldn't even try to escape the house where they are being held. He sees their humanity rather than just viewing them as captives

Yet in the end when it is his duty as a soldier to execute his close friends and prisoners, he says matter-of-factly that a few British soldiers had been executed and, "you are to be shot as a reprisal." As with the Nazis during WWII, he frees himself of any personal responsibility by talking about duty. In the end though, we see a sliver of humanity sneak through as the narrator tells us that neither Bonaparte nor Noble will pull the trigger on their "friends.".....

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