Does Every War Story Villainize The Enemy?

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)

Janine's Perspective in WorldMart (First Person Shooter)

*I have named the narrator Anthony for story convenience* 

While working my late-night shift at WorldMart, me and my somewhat-attractive co-worker, Anthony, are drawn to the sound of stuff crashing to the floor. Not a lot happens at this hour, so I was looking forward to actually doing something instead of watching the luminescent lights on the ceiling. "Sounds like Toiletries," he says, so we both rush toward aisle ninety-seven. I crouch down at Mascara and hear a shuffling noise with Antony following my lead. I start to crawl and he tries to grab my ankle (for whatever reason), but all he grabs is my shoe. I take a look back and catch him staring at my behind, but I don't think much of it. I see something stumbling toward the beef jerky station and, from what I saw, it looked nothing like any human I've ever seen. I shriek at the top of my lungs and run as fast as I can around the corner out of fear because I had no idea what that was. I was stopped short by the sight of some hideous creature staring back at me with dead eyes. It looks like a... zombie? It seems like something out of a movie, maybe this is the start of the zombie apocalypse. I run, run, run away from that creature as fast as I can, but Anthony didn't follow me, he just stood in front of... it.

After running for what seemed like a mile (this place is HUGE), I stop at the Greeting Cards and slump over. What... the.. hell. Was that actually a zombie? Why did I sign up for this stupid shift? What's Burt doing right now? So many questions race through my mind as I try to comprehend the situation. I have never been good under stress and this was pushing my limits as far as they could go. I take a deep breath and think about everything I saw. The zombie looked somewhat like a human but had many deformities over its grayish body. That was gross so I get that image out of my head as quickly as possible. 

I slow my mind down and think about what my next course of action should be. Stay here and risk being found and having my brains eaten? Try to escape the store where there might be even more zombies outside? Find Burt so I don't die alone? None of those seem any good, especially the Burt one knowing how much a douche-bag he is. I take a look up and see a sign which says "Guns sold here." This could be it, this is how I protect myself. I get up and walk my way over to the Firearms section and take a look around. 9 millimeter, pump-action, so many words with no meaning attached in my mind. I had never shot a gun before, I had no idea what I was doing. But, something is better than nothing, right? So, I reach into my pocket and grab the keys to the display. I try them in the lock. It doesn't work. Huh, I say and try another. It doesn't work. I only got one more key. It doesn't work. I start to panic. I've failed. I'm going to get my brains eaten. I bang on the glass with all my force, but it doesn't break. Of course, this was out of frustration, my skinny arms couldn't break it. I look around, trying to find anything I could use to break the glass but all I find is a comm speaker. In one last attempt, I try to slide the door open in my last hope for survival. There is some resistance to start, but it eventually slides all the way open. It was never unlocked the whole time. Typical WorldMart, workers leaving the displays unlocked all the time. 

I look at all the guns in the case. Shotguns, hand cannons, rifles, so many to choose from. I started to think about all the survival-zombie TV shows I've watched and what the best weapon to choose would be. I remember shotguns being good because they shoot out a lot of pellets, so I try to pick one up. I lift it enough to get it off the rack but it falls straight to the floor. I guess that's not an option. I see a hand cannon, which looked a lot lighter, so I pick it up. Success. It still feels heavy, but at least I can carry it. I grab the shells from behind the counter and try to load them, fumbling as I try to do so. Eventually, the revolving chamber pops out and I load it. As I get ready to go, I realize that I left Anthony with the zombie. I rush to the comm speaker and yell, "I'm in Firearms, stay low."

As I start to drift away to help him, I hear Anthony's voice over the speaker say, "She's not going to hurt us." She?? It has a gender and how has it not eaten out Anthony's brains by now? 

"What are you talking about. She's going to eat us. She's going to eat our brains." 

"No, I don't think so. That's not what she's doing here." 

"Then what is she doing here?" He says, "Umm, I think she's getting ready for a date... Huh?" 

"What?"

"Gotta go."

Hearing the sudden worry in his voice, I ask, "What's happening?"

"Our friend just discovered House of the Dead Two"

I hang up and rush over to Anthony hoping that he's OK. I have the upper hand now that I have a gun, I can shoot it right in the face. I get to the aisle and march up, holding my hand cannon with both hands. It's kind of wobbly, but I believe I won't miss. However, the zombie just looked me straight in the eyes, unblinking, no emotion. It looked like it wanted me to kill it. I hesitated, not knowing what to do. It obviously didn't want to eat my brains. Anthony puts his hand on the gun and forces me to lower it away from the zombie. I look at the video game demo that's playing, zombie heads exploding and violence everywhere. I took another look at the zombie, dressed in nice clothes, looking like she really was trying to go out on a date. "She," it looked like an actual woman now. It clicked. Maybe she isn't a mindless drone, and after seeing the demo where zombies heads are blown off he own self-worth is put into question. Maybe my fear was irrational, it was only based on appearance. I immediately thought of an over-used cliche that said, "Don't judge a book by its cover," which I obviously did. Maybe there was an actual "person" under the guise of a zombie and I just personally hurt its feelings by trying to shoot her with a gun. I neglected to truly see what she was, and she was the worse off for it. I totally ruined her night. 

I took a look at Anthony and, with a newfound resolve, finally "saw" him for what he was. He was caring, even for so-called zombies, and was always nice to me during our nights at WorldMart. It was worth a chance, maybe hanging out with him a little more. He was kinda-handsome too, potentially we could date. Then he asks me, "Would you like to go see a movie on Thursday?" You know what happens next.