A Solders Duty in Guests of the Nation Essay examples -- European Lit

War evokes different emotions and feelings for many people. Some argon drafted and hale to serve, others volunteer their lives for a cause they believe in and some never even see a battle ground. Some live, some die, others are captured and last prisoners or hostages. But one thing is certain, for those who have actually seen war know first hand that it has the power to change and in most cases it does secure that. In Frank OConnors Guests of the Nation, two British soldiers are captured by the Irish Republic Army. Two young Irish soldiers are assigned to guard the captives. The British earn the trust and friendship of their young captors. Until one day the call of duty forces the Irish to carry out orders that forever change their perspective on the war and the duty that accompanies. In Guests of the Nation, OConnor uses six elements of fiction to illustrate the conflict associated with the responsibility of duty and ones personal morals in the circumstance of war.Although this is a taradiddle of war and there is obviously external conflict between the opposing countries, it is the internal conflict of the Irish soldiers Bonaparte and Noble that help the reader commiserate how the weight of duty ultimately defeats personal morals during war. It is Bonaparte and Nobles duty as an Irish soldiers in the IRA (Irish Republic Army) to guard the two captured British soldiers. Bonaparte feels the two men do not even need guarding, that they would not flee given the chance. He and Noble both have croak bored with docile cottage life and would rather be out in the action fighting. Bonaparte soon finds out that he and Noble are going to be relived of there guarding duties but not how either of them had anticipated. It was the... ... of something like this happening. Now he begins to feel a dilemma between what his duty mogul be to his country and how that duty will ultimately win out over any moral dilemma he might have to the men. completely five characters in this story are faced with dilemma be true to ones self or ones country. Although war is defiantly a divider it in like manner has the power to bring together under moral and personal circumstances. War is what brought these men together and it is what ultimately lead the physical death of Hawkins and Belcher, but it as well as lead to a little piece of Noble and Bonaparte dying too. This war forever changed the lives of four men because the duty of war was held in to a higher place morals and friendships.Works CitedOConnor, Frank. Guests of the Nation. Literature for Composition. 4th ed. Sylvan Barnet, et. al. New York Harper Collins, 2008. 590-598.