Irony in Guests of the Nation Essay -- Guests of the Nation Essays

Irony in Guests of the Nation      Ã‚   In the short story, "Guests of the Nation," Frank O'Connor uses irony to illustrate the conflict which men face when their roles as combatants force them to disregard the humanity of their enemies. In both life and literature, irony exists when there is a contrast between expectation and reality. Verbal irony is defined as "a figure of speech in which the actual intent is expressed in words which carry the opposite meaning" (Thrall 248). In dramatic irony there is a contrast between a character's perception of a situation and the actual facts. Often "some of the actors on the stage or some of the characters in a story are 'blind' to facts known to the spectator or reader" (155) . The short story "Guests of the Nation" by Frank O'Connor illustrates both types of irony.    The title of the story, "Guests of the Nation," is an example of verbal irony. In the story, the two Englishmen, Belcher and Hawkens, are not "guests," but rather prisoners of the Irish soldiers, Jeremiah Donovan, Noble, and the narrator, Bonaparte. The contrast between their "real" status as prisoners and their "apparent" role as guests is developed throughout the story. The narrator says that "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" (591). Thus it was obvious that the men had no intention of trying to escape; they were behaving like guests. Because of the contented, nonthreatening demeanor of the two men, Bonaparte says that "after the first day or two we gave up all pretense of keeping a close e... ... Belcher and Hawkins remain at ease, thinking themselves safe. In the end both Hawkins' futile appeal to the friendship of his "chums" and Belcher's resignation serve to emphasize the horror of the executions.    Thus, in "Guests of the Nation," Frank O'Connor uses irony to illustrate the conflict that soldiers feel when they recognize the humanity of their enemies and yet they are compelled to kill them. O'Connor suggests the soul destroying impact of the conflict in his final words: "And anything that happened to me afterwards, I never felt the same about again" (598).    Sources Cited: Thrall, William flint, Addison Hibbard, and Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. New York: Odyssey, 1960. O'Connor, Frank. "Guests of the Nation." Literature for Composition. 4th ed. Sylvan Barnet, et. al. New York: Harper Collins, 1996. 590-598.