Dec 24, 2009

Guests of the Nation | Guests of the Nation

At a glance:

Author: Frank O'Connor
First Published: 1931
Type of Plot: Social realism
Time of Work: The first third of the twentieth century
Setting: Ireland
Principal Characters: Bonaparte, Noble, Jeremiah Donovan, Hawkins, Belcher, An Irish woman
Genres: Social realism, Short fiction
Subjects: Sin or Original sin, Revenge, Ethics, Kidnapping, Soldiers, Armies, Philanthropy or philanthropists
Locales: Ireland

The Story

In the first of the four numbered sections of “Guests of the Nation,” the main characters are introduced. Though Ireland and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) are not named explicitly, through mention of names such as Claregalway, reference to the British as foreigners, and dialectal expressions such as “divil” (devil), the implicit premise is established that two ordinary British soldiers have been abducted by the IRA and have been held on a rural farm for a period of several days or weeks. Just as the British soldiers got on well with their prior IRA captors...

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Guests of the Nation | Guests of the Nation

At a glance:

The Story

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