- 上一篇：性别因素导致安娜卡列尼娜的悲惨命运
- 下一篇：《小妇人》中的家庭教育
Due to his experience in the army, O’Connor finally produced such a great work, “Guests of the Nation”. It is a short story which can be regarded as O’ Connor’s crowning irony work opening with two Englishmen, Hawkins and Belcher as hostages by a small group of Irish freedom fighters or we say rebels during the Irish War for Independence. They may share different point of view on politics, capitalists and religion from time to time, however, they play cards together, share the same feelings and emotion with each other and become good friends somehow. When the day of execution comes, Jeremiah, the Irishman, shows no mercy; Noble and Bonaparte have no choice but shoot them down. The old woman can do nothing but pray. It’s an ironic story about men’s religious faith in the war.
1.2 Literature Review
So far, many researches have been done on “Guests of the Nation”. Some scholars focus on the narrative writing style; some analyze personalities of characters in the story; still others try to concentrate on binary opposition between war and human nature, etc.
Briden E. F. (1976) describes “Guests of the Nation” as a final Irony. Undoubtedly, this short story can be regarded as a realistic fiction full of irony. Meanwhile, Gao jie (2010) holds her opinion that "He (O’Connor) insists on a traditional realistic exploration of Irish life and has the biggest impact on literature with his short stories".(Gao, 2010) In the story, Frank O'Connor records his observations objectively and tactfully presents a kind of life in war through the mouth of a poorly educated soldier named Bonaparte rather than mentioning any detail in the battlefield. However, readers still can sense the cruelty of war and cold reality from the plain dialogues or even simple motions.