Guests of the Nation | The Theme of Hidden Powers: Fate vs. Human Responsibility in Guests of the Nation
In the following essay, Renner explores the
conflict between duty and humanity in ‘‘Guests of
the Nation,’’ arguing that the underlying question
in the story is ‘‘whether one is driven along by an
irresistible destiny or can take a hand in the chances
of life. . . .’’
In Frank O’Connor’s ‘‘Guests of the Nation’’ the reader witnesses the cold-blooded execution of two English soldiers—a killing by the men who have been assigned to guard them and with whom they have become friends, done in reprisal for the soldiers’ shooting four members of the Irish revolutionary movement. The story employs a first-person participant point of view to dramatize an irony much like Thomas Hardy’s in ‘‘The Man He Killed’’:
Yes; quaint and curious war is! You shoot a fellow down You’d treat if met where any bar is, Or...
[The entire page is 3177 words long]
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