Litertature, Fiction Analysis Paper of Frank O'Connor's Guest of the Essay - 1

Litertature, Fiction Analysis Paper of Frank O'Connor's Guest of the Nation - Essay Example nsibility in â€Å"Guests of the Nation†, it is Stanley Renner’s belief that the protagonist Bonaparte is driven by an external destiny to carryout his actions. In a sense, he is not responsible for these actions because inadvertently these actions are not his own. I argue in opposition to this idea; I feel Bonaparte as well as the others a fully responsible in their decision to execute the British soldiers. To credit their actions to the sociology of the time, or a divine hidden power, is to make the killers out to be victims. Though this a very insightful irony, it does an injustice and devalues the British soldiers as characters. Renner’s argument is not without its valid points. He argues that the characters are driven by fate, and that the entire story itself is a critique of the relation between man’s own free will and cosmic intervention. He best supports this point with his interpretation of the character Bonaparte. When he and the other Irish soldiers are given orders to execute the British captives, who have been treated more like friendly guest, Renner points out that Bonaparte becomes indecisive and doubtful. To argue that Bonaparte is a character that relies on destiny to dictates his actions, Renner states, he merely drifts along as if helpless to defy the fates, ‘hoping that something would happen,’ that the Englishmen would ‘run for it’ or that ‘Noble would take over the responsibility from me,’ but doing nothing himself (25). Renner’s main argument revolves around Bonaparte’s willingness to adhere to divine dictation. It is Renn er’s view that if Bonaparte allows the forces driving his circumstances to drive him as well, and he practices no free will, then he is not responsible for his actions. Renner believes the feeling of jadedness Bonaparte endures is the result of his happy-go-lucky take on life. This is most likely in reference to the moment in the story right after Bonaparte has finished the execution, while