Many war stories seek to show the point of view of the main character and his struggles with war, such as battle, relationships, home-sickness, moral decisions, and physical hardships in war. They focus on these struggles and depict the enemy as a cruel adversary that the narrator has to overcome. However, not all war stories are about an immoral enemy and some show the other side in a more humane way, depicting them as human beings that are struggling with war as well. A story that takes this narrative and uses it well is "Guest of the Nation," a short story about the Irish War of Independence and a group of Irish soldiers who have taken two English soldiers as hostages. The narrative is able to depict the English soldiers as not only humans but friends as well even in the times of war, showing that the enemy isn't just a bunch of killers.
From the very first sentence in the story, it is established that the English hostages and Irish soldiers are on good terms and it reads, "At dusk, the big Englishmen Belcher would shift his long legs out of the ashes and ask, 'Well, chums, what about it?' and Noble or me would say 'As you please, chum.'" Here, the Englishmen Belcher and the Irishmen Noble and the narrator seem to be on good terms because they refer to each other as chum, which is a British word for friend. Usually, during the Irish War of Independence, it would be normal for the Irish soldiers to have a deep hatred against the English as that is who they are fighting against for independence. This establishes their friendship really early on in the narrative, giving it a lot of importance in the overall plot.
One of the defining traits of the Englishmen and Irish friendship is their mutual love of playing cards. In the previous quote, Belcher's question was actually referring to if they want to play cards or not. This is where the other Englishmen, 'Awkins, comes in. He is the more talkative one of the two Englishmen and also seems to be good friends with the two Irishmen, playing cards with them every night. The act of playing cards is a strong indicator that the two opposing groups of people are indeed friends. An important part of their card-playing nights is that 'Awkins and Noble liked to debate about topics that they disagree on, such as religion. However, even though it is an argument, it is mostly, as the British would say, banter between friends. It is very lighthearted, as can be seen from one of his lines of banter which reads, "Well, listen to me, chum. If you're entitled to 'old to a silly belief like that, I'm entitled to 'old to my own silly belief." Even though he is in a way insulting Noble, he doesn't actually intend to get into a fight or ruin a friendship because of it.
Another small instance of Belcher showing his humanity is his treatment of the old lady in the house. From the first day that he was at the house, he was helping her to do things around the house, like breaking sticks for her. As the narrator says, "any little thing she wanted Belcher would have it ready for her." The fact that out of the goodness of his heart he helped the crabby old lady shows that he is not a menace that many Irishmen think English soldiers were. This makes the end of the story all the more traumatizing to the reader when the commanding officer of the two Irish soldiers orders Belcher and 'Awkins death. At that point in the story, it had been clearly established that Belcher and 'Awkins were not bad people and it seemed like Noble and the narrator clearly didn't want to take part in the shooting as they thought of themselves as Belcher and 'Awkins friends. As the narrator said on his way to the execution site, "I didn't want them to be bumped off." This final, sad, conclusion to the story was meant to show the reader that we should not always villainize the enemy as is so common in war stories and other media. They are also humans with feelings and kindness in them but are forced to fight on the battlefield. Or they are also under the influence that their enemy is a menace to them. In either case, the author was trying to point out that even people on opposing sides of a war could be friends, a subject most war stories avoid entirely.
(Prompt 1)
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