Duty at the Hands of Friends

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Recommended: Analysis of frank o'connor's guests of the nation

Frank O’Connor’s “Guests of the Nation” is a compelling short story portraying the execution of two Englishmen held captive by two Irish guards. The story is set during the War of Independence. It is split into four sections, each section with a different tone. The first reveals a strong sense of friendship between the English prisoners and the guards. The prisoners, Belcher and Hawkins, and the guards, Bonaparte and Noble, act as if they have known each other for years. However, in the second sections, the reader discovers that this is not the case. Donovan, the IRA leader, comes to the men with interesting news. The guards realize that Belcher and Hawkins are being held hostage, and they will be executed. The third section outlines Bonaparte and Noble’s feelings toward the execution. In the final section of the story, Belcher and Hawkins are executed and the reader sees Bonaparte and Noble’s reaction. By using opposing diction and tone, O’Connor shows a contrast in the way Donovan feels about the Irish prisoners and how the guards feel about them. Duty means something different to Donovan than what it means to the guards. To Donovan, his duty is to his country, and to Bonaparte and Noble, their duty is to their new friendship with the prisoners. Through Bonaparte and Noble’s reaction to their friends execution coupled with Donavan’s easy response to his duties, O’Connor explores the difficulty of navigating friendship and duty in a time of war.
O’Connor establishes a friendship between the guards and the prisoners early in the story. He writes, “seeing that they were such decent chaps” (52), which shows that Bonaparte and Noble know that Belcher and Hawkins are truly great men. The word “chum” begins to become a word of endearme...

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...urial, this would not have been an issue, but because Belcher and Hawkins were the guards’ friends, it was hard. When reflecting on the execution, Bonaparte says “I was somehow very small and very lost and lonely like a child astray in the snow. And anything that happened to me afterwards, I never felt the same about again” (59). If Bonaparte and Noble had been wanting to solely fulfill their duty to their country, they would have been satisfied with the results of the execution. They would have been happy that they had done their job and honored their country. Instead, they were devastated. All they felt was the numbness from not only losing friends, but executing them. In some cases, the duty of friendship may come before one’s duty for their country. Bonaparte wanted that to be the case, but in war, one cannot be true to both their country and their friendships.

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