Gains and Losses

Dear Professor

I decided to do a paper on "Guest of the Nations, because when I read it it caught my attention how people which countries dislike each other, somehow people found a way to get alone with each other in a very unique situation. Not that many times you read a story about how hostages or prisoners got alone with the capturers and vice versa to the point that in their mind they were friends.

This story had a very sad ending I decided to name my story or my essay The Gains and losses of Wars because due to the war they were able to coexist with each other which to me is a gain to know another person to learn from that person to be able to talk even to argue I believe is a gain, and a loss due to the ending of the story, to end somebody's life like that because that is what the situation is at that moment is kind of to the extreme and not only they lost a friend, but the same time they lost their morals.

My problems or issues writing this paper were to actually find the thesis and putting it in my own word to be able to explain my self.

The Gains and Loses of Wars

War tests the strength of the human spirit and in Frank O'Connor's "Guests of the Nation", war tests the strength of friendship between men. The effects of war can be remarkably tragic and destructive. Even though there was a great amount of diversity among the characters, everyone was able to coexist among one another. This peaceful life quickly faded as the power of hate grew stronger.

"Guests of the Nation" is a short story talks about Ireland's struggle to establish self-rule, the desire of Ireland become free from British domination. The main characters of this story are Belcher, Hawkins, which are two prisoners from England and their guardians are Noble and Bonaparte.

The story is about how close two prisoners and the guardian were to each other, even though their countries were enemies and their beliefs were different war brought them together, maybe it was because they spend all the time together, or maybe the conversations they had. Most of the time they play cards the pass the time, Noble and Hawkins always argue about politics, religion, and capitalists, they could argue for hours with out getting to a conclusion, Belcher a very quit Englishman liked to helped the owner of the small cottage, who in addition to tending the house engages the men in arguments. She is a religious woman and quick to scold the men if they displease her.

Donovan a third Irishman tells Bonaparte that the prisoners are hostages and most likely they will be executed in the next few days, Bonaparte didn't want to be part of that, even though Belcher and Hawkins was the enemy to Ireland he didn't think that executing them was the right thing to do. When Bonaparte saw Noble he communicated the