Duty First
Duty first: Analysis of Character in Frank O’Connors “Guests of the Nation”
Paper #2
(Character)
Page 1 In the story “Guests of the Nation” the author Frank O’Connor paints the reader a picture of the brutality of war and the unbelievable battle of every man for himself.
The protagnaist of the story, “ Bonaparte” is identified as round and dynamic. The uncharacteristic behavior of Bonaparte is that he does not behave in the manner expected by readers, which instigates character irony. For example, the character Bonaparte remarks, “I couldn’t at the time see the point of me and Noble guarding Belcher and Hawkins at all, for it was my belief that you could have planted that pair down anywhere from this to Claregalway and they’d have taken root there like a native weed... So whatever privileges Belcher and Hawkins had with the Second they just naturally took with us, and after the first day or two we gave up all pretense of keeping a close eye on them.” (O'Connor 915). This type of dialogue illustrates characters who are at ease with one another. It does not describe characters in fear of one another or the outcome of their time together. A key characteristic of Bonapatre is that he obeys commands without thinking about them, for example Bonaparte says when just about to finish Hawkins off, “I knelt and fired. By this time I didn’t seem to know what I was doing.” (O’Conner 921) He acts in this way because he has been brainwashed to obey without question by the military. One of the supportive characters . “Nobel” is idententified as round and dynamic. Just as Bonaparte, Noble desires the excitement of the battlefield and to help defeat the british in their political rule over Ireland. The last place they wanted to be was guarding two prisoners of war that seem to want to be their friends more than their enemys. A key characteristic that makes Nobel such a unique character is that he gives in to his
Paper #2
(Character)
Page 1 In the story “Guests of the Nation” the author Frank O’Connor paints the reader a picture of the brutality of war and the unbelievable battle of every man for himself.
The protagnaist of the story, “ Bonaparte” is identified as round and dynamic. The uncharacteristic behavior of Bonaparte is that he does not behave in the manner expected by readers, which instigates character irony. For example, the character Bonaparte remarks, “I couldn’t at the time see the point of me and Noble guarding Belcher and Hawkins at all, for it was my belief that you could have planted that pair down anywhere from this to Claregalway and they’d have taken root there like a native weed... So whatever privileges Belcher and Hawkins had with the Second they just naturally took with us, and after the first day or two we gave up all pretense of keeping a close eye on them.” (O'Connor 915). This type of dialogue illustrates characters who are at ease with one another. It does not describe characters in fear of one another or the outcome of their time together. A key characteristic of Bonapatre is that he obeys commands without thinking about them, for example Bonaparte says when just about to finish Hawkins off, “I knelt and fired. By this time I didn’t seem to know what I was doing.” (O’Conner 921) He acts in this way because he has been brainwashed to obey without question by the military. One of the supportive characters . “Nobel” is idententified as round and dynamic. Just as Bonaparte, Noble desires the excitement of the battlefield and to help defeat the british in their political rule over Ireland. The last place they wanted to be was guarding two prisoners of war that seem to want to be their friends more than their enemys. A key characteristic that makes Nobel such a unique character is that he gives in to his