English Literature

The Gettysburg Address is President Lincolns summary of Americas feelings towards their
government.  It is not Lincoln speaking of his own personal thoughts. He represented the people
to the world and its passion for freedom.  In his address in Pennsylvania, in November 1863, he
summoned America to the great courage four scores and seven years ago of the men and
women that blueprinted democracy into their government. He did not come to tribute the great
leaders and politicians of his time, to extol laudable leadership.  Instead, he defined the present
as a gift of those who died to insure that a government of the people, by the people and for the
people, flows in every American in the world, for them to be proud of.

It is a great speech because Lincoln did not seek to present his feat to awe his listeners. He
invited his fellow citizens to hallow the ground where their heroes rested, to implant into their
hearts their history that made them forebears of nobility. His voice reverberated not in intensity
but by the meaning that each of his word carries. His listeners were not bounded by the number
of people that heard him spoke. Gettysburg Address continued to be heard long after it had been
spoken.  Its inspiration has stirred Americas vein even after Lincoln had joined the soldiers that
he had dedicated his piece. He was not forgotten because he was able to let the world remember
the lives of every American  that died so freedom  rules his people. Lincoln has inspired
Americas presidents a new definition of leadership.  He had taught them that a leader can bow
down  not in surrender but in celebration of triumph brought by  those who bravely died.

It is an undeniable fact that the society where each person lives has its own rules and taboos that each individual must abide by. This fact is true in all civilized societies where the transactions and dealings of each and every individual is governed not by their own individual precepts and emotions but by the laws provided by society. The Awakening by Kate Chopin and Summer by Edith Wharton are two different novels that expose in a provocative approach the powerful ways in which women of society struggles to live a life that is absolutely in divergence with what society considers as acceptable and in accord with its tenets. The Awakening tells the story of Edna Pontellier and the changes that occur in her thinking and lifestyle as a result of a summer romance (www.sparknotes.com). Summer on the other hand, speaks of an account of a young woman named Charity Royall who is completely inexperienced when it comes to men and her discernment of her sexual desire ( HYPERLINK httpwww.bookrags.com www.bookrags.com). The central characters of these novels have come up with a resolution to challenge society, with its rules and taboos. Society, however, have proven to be austere which contributed to the unfortunate failure of these protagonists on their quest to attain autonomy.

Body
The Awakening begins in a setting where Edna Pontellier lives in a kind of semi-conscious state. Although she is contented with her marriage to her husband Lonce, she is oblivious of her own feelings and ambitions. Edna has always been passionate who fell in love with a cavalry officer during her youthful years, captivated with a visitor in nearby plantation in her teens, and crazed with a tragedian as an adolescent woman. But she saw her marriage to Lonce as the end of her life of passion and the beginning of a life of responsibility. Although she expected her dreams of romance to disappear along with her youth, her fantasies and yearnings only remain latent, re-emerging on Grand Isle in the form of her passion for Robert Lebrun. The people Edna meets and the experiences she has on Grand Isle awaken desires and urges for music, sexual satisfaction, art, and freedom that she can no longer bear to keep hidden. Just like a kid, the protagonist had started to have a new standpoint of the surroundings around her. Edna fails to comply with the conduct required by society of her as a wife and as a mother and does not take into account the harmful consequences of her unconventional manners. She begins to entertain the notion of having a traitorous relationship with Robert Lebrun and thinks of nothing but herself which was displayed when she escapes her responsibilities as a mother and abandoned her children in the custody of their grandmother without thinking twice about the matter. Robert, nevertheless, abandons Edna for, unlike Edna, he does not possess enough boldness to challenge the standards of society. Edna aspires for liberty but such aspiration more often than not reveals her self-centeredness(www.sparknotes.com).

Summer, on the other hand, concentrates on the sexual awakening of a young lady named Charity Royall. The central character of this novel is born in a mountain environment in Berkshire and spends her growing-up years in the neighboring rural community of North Dormer where there exists further civilization. Charity aspires to break loose from the oppressive pressures of her life consisting of a puzzling mountain clan she is not familiar with but who cast an omnimous shadow over her and the custodian who accompanied her down from the mount who desires to have her as his wife. She works as a part-time employee in a grimy local library where guests scarcely appears and she regards such a job as something like a dead-end, a prisonuntil an attractive young architect, Lucious Harney walks through its doors(www,curtainup.com). Harney is the first man Charity feels an interest in, and as she spends time with him, her feelings change and develop. But disparate from the other women of the social order, the central character of this novel does not dream of a cozy cottage or domestic life of a wife and mother. Her desire is for sexual fulfillment( HYPERLINK httpwww.bookrags.com www.bookrags.com). Charity and Harney engages in a sexual romance. A promise of marriage is given by Harney to Charity, but he deserts the place and goes with another woman named Annabel Balch, a young woman who stands as the ideal type of womanhood to which Charity aspires ( HYPERLINK httpwww.bookrags.com www.bookrags.com). Charity then decides to disregard her feelings for Harney for she is aware that two persons from different classes of society can never achieve togetherness in love. Harney is a gentleman of the upper class whereas Charity is a lady belonging to the lower class. In connection with this painful realization, Charity bewails and is appropriately manifested in these words by the author which states, If ever she looked ahead, she felt instinctively that the gulf between them was too deep, and that the bridge their passion had flung across it was as insubstantial as a rainbow.(Wharton 71). Charity then marries Mr. Royall for she bears the child of Harney and she yearns to grant a bright future for her child.

Conclusion
Autonomy or self-government is characterized by the capacity of a person to attain bliss or happiness and contentment within the confines of the world within her and society at large.This bliss and contentment cannot be said to be achieved if the members of the world within a person such as herself and her family, suffers the consequences of her unconventional acts. Edna Pontellier on no account accomplish this self-government for she made herself and her kinfolk bear a detrimental pain. Correspondingly, Charity Royall never achieved autonomy for by reason of her clamorous and ecstatic affirmation of the joy of sexual love no matter what it costs, she ended up being depressed and desolate(books.simonandschuster.com).

Bonaparte is the narrator of the story and as such, not much is mentioned of his physical appearance except that he is five foot ten. He is an Irishman but isnt portrayed as having much of an accent. In fact, he even makes fun of Donovans accent saying that he himself was from the town. He also has a habit of being rather overly formal in speech, rustic and proper at the same time. As the narrator, he doesnt mention any of his own mannerisms, although he does take careful note of those of the people around him.

Noble is often referred to as young Noble throughout the text, and once as the poor boy, suggesting that he is younger than the narrator Bonaparte. Other than this though, and that he wears gaiters, nothing else is said of his appearance. He says rather little except for when he is hotly arguing with Awkins. He seems quite morose for most of that story, but considering the events thats not too surprising. He does defend his beliefs with rigor though, although not too eloquently nor persuasively.

Awkins can be seen as a rather small man as the little Englishman is how Bonaparte first refers to him Though this might just be relative to Bonaparte and the big Belcher, or he might just be scrawny as he is described as having lean legs. He and Belcher are British soldiers and are described as wearing khaki tunics and overcoats with civilian pants and bright farmers boots. He is quite a passionately talkative character, with a rather thick cockney accent. He can be rather unpleasant in the way he talks, and he swears a lot, but there doesnt seem to be much real malice behind his words.

Belcher, the big Englishman, is definitely much larger than Bonapartes 5 foot ten. He has a mustache, wears the same clothes as Awkins, and is said to have a queer smile and a very rare and queerer laugh. He only says a few words and uses words like chum, but his accent doesnt seem as thick as his comrades. He sits by the fire most of the time as he is said to have his toes in the ashes, and he loves to play cards, which he is rather good at. Hes also very much the image of a gentle giant when he helps the old lady around the house and when he acts so calmly and good-naturedly in the end.

The narrator doesnt give a name to the old woman the four men live with. She is described as old and crabby, with a little crabs mouth. She is said to scold much and is crotchety, although no real examples are shown in the text. In the one time she answered Awkins though, her answers were not so much cranky as downright strange, almost nonsensical. Shes just an old, hardworking, Catholic Irishwoman and Belcher and even Awkins had endeared themselves to her.

Jeremiah Donovan is a small, shy, Irishman with a broad accent. He is described as wearing a small cloth hat, with big gaiters over his long pants, with hands always in his pants pockets. In most of the conversations in the text he is always rather unsure of himself, almost insecure. He does, however, have a determined and somewhat blind sense of duty as an Irishman and he disliked the two Englishmen.

Comparison with Mother Savage
Guests of the Nation at first glance has quite a lot in common with Mother Savage, for starters, they are both set in a remote village during wartime. The former though, is set in Ireland during a war between the English and the Irish, while the latter is set in Virelogne during the French-Prussian War. The basic organizations of the main characters are even extremely similar, four men living with an old lady due to the war. The four men in Mother Savage though, were forced upon her by the invading troops while in Guests, two of the men were prisoners and the other two served as their guards. Belcher even helps the old lady around the house just the way the four Prussian men did for Mother Savage. In Mother Savage though, the story was mainly focused on her, and her four charges were given neither names nor individual personalities, they were mainly a single entity for the duration of the story. Also, Guests is narrated by a major character so his thoughts and feelings are open to the reader as the story progresses. In Mother Savage, while it is still told in the first-person, the narrator is far-removed from the main story what Mother Savage is thinking and feeling, the reader can only guess at. Lastly, both stories end the same way, with the guest soldiers deaths, but the reaction of the main characters of one story is the total opposite of that of the other. In Mother Savage, she is triumphant, proud of killing the four soldiers though she did this rather sneakily and the men suffered before their ends. In Guests of the Nation, it is not the old lady that kills them, but another character and the other two guests of the house had a reluctant hand in it. The deaths of the soldiers were not treated as a triumph, but a tragedy.

The turn of the nineteenth century brought about remarkable changes in the lives of African-Americans and a pioneer who reflected those revolutionary changes in his work of art is Charles W. Chesnutt. The two stories The Wife of His Youth and The Passing of Grandison delve into the legacies of slavery and reconstruction and explore the racial identity through the African-American speech and folklore. This paper throws light on Chesnutts dramatization of the complex relationship between the African-Americans and the Whites apart from the way the Blacks positioned themselves in the society which witnessed a revolution at the turn of the century. Referring to the emancipation of the Blacks, Bay states that During the nineteenth century and beyond, a defense of black humanity reverberates throughout African-American culture, crossing class and regional lines and shaping the racial thought of the educated, the ignorant and the in-between (117)

The Wife of His Youth depicts life along the color line where a light skinned man, trying to forget his black past confronts with the reality of his past at his door step until when he keeps focusing on his whiteness. In this short story Mr. Ryder, the mulatto is searching for an identity and lives between the tensions of interracial and intraracial living. He is in a moral dilemma whether to marry the young and attractive woman belonging to his class or to accept the aging but devoted wife bonded through his legally invalid marriage.

Mr. Ryder, the dean of the Blue Veins is pushed to test his personal integrity who tries to identify himself with the Whites and this tumultuous period of transition is vividly depicted by Chesnutt. Ryder justifies his policy of social climbing through social Darwinism-Self-preservation is the first law of nature  Ryder is intensely involved with the goal of Blue Vein, in order to be absorbed by the White race. Hence he strongly believed that marrying a girl from his class will further move him towards absorption for which he has been longing all along his life.

Chesnutt without any melodrama or an internal argument with Ryder concludes the short story through the action of the protagonist. Ryder introduces his wife to the gathering as such and thereby reaffirms his bond with his past life. By accepting his Black wife Ryder is not trying to renounce the ideology of Blue Vein related to upward mobility and absorption into the White race. Also he has not moved backward by such a bold step, but instead has come forward and has proved his worth through his behavior and not with his skin color. Andrews while discussing the conclusion of story, states that Ryder rises when he sacrifices a narrow notion of public success for a more private moral responsibility (115) Though the conflict within the mind of Ryder is not depicted by Chesnutt, the thoughts and actions of Ryder speak more than words and the final speech mirrors the psychology of the rising middle-class Black intellectuals.

Chesnutt uses humor and satire in The Passing of Grandison in order to interpret the thoughts and attitude of the Southern Whites towards their Black Slaves. Grandison is wearing the perfect mask of an innocent uneducated obedient slave who is loyal to his White master. The final twist comes as a surprise to both the readers and the White master as Grandison outwits his Master and flees the plantation with his entire family. With such an anti-climax, Chesnutt urges the White readers to re-examine the way they viewed the Black Slaves. Whites, controlling the Blacks physically considered themselves to be superior and Grandison outsmarts his white maser and has proven the words of  Tom Windham talking about the subhuman treatment of the Blacks stated that I think we should have our liberty cause us aint hogs or horses-us is human flesh

Chesnutt states that there is no such thing as Negro dialect. It is just to express with a certain degree of phonetic correctness in order to suggest the sound of English words as pronounced by an uneducated old Southern Black slave. Even in The Passing of Grandison, Chesnutt sparingly uses the Negro dialect in order to present reality without exaggeration or melodrama.

For the Whites, the Blacks are hardly human and hence turn blind to their motives. It never strikes Dick that Grandison would never wish to secure freedom leaving his family back at the plantation, as he believes that family is his only asset. Even when Dick informs Grandison that he is now in Canada, a free man, not bound by the clutches of slavery, he wears the mask so perfectly that he does not show sign of interest. He, in fact says Lets go back ober de ribber, Mars Dick, Grandison replies. Is feared Ill lose you ovuh heah, an den I won hab no marster, an wont nebber be able to git back home no mo.

To conclude, Chesnutt has captured the tumultuous inner struggle and the perfect masking of the Blacks in the two short stories.  He has not only closely studied the attitude of the Whites towards their Black Slaves, but also the way Blacks viewed themselves and their relationship with the Whites.

I will first address recruiting additional engineering talent to supplement our current engineers.
While designing the recruiting strategy, for factors were considered, which were (i) make or buy employees (ii) methods used in the recruitment and selection process (iii) where to look for potential candidates and (iv) methods of approaching these candidates (Aswathappa, 2005). I believe the best way to recruit quality professionals is to adopt the buy strategy. This means that we will be able to attract recruits who are already very skilled, have past leadership experience and are used to the pressure found in the industry. These people will be able to start working immediately, with little training required. Also, they will not have any problems in blending in with the culture of our company, which strives for quality and leadership. Secondly, the methods of the recruitment and selection process will combine the use of technological and personal means. With the aid of computer technology, we will be able to reach a broad category of job seekers in the initial stages quickly and without incurring major costs. Furthermore, we will focus on both internal and external recruitment to look for potential employees. Finally, we will approach these candidates through various forms of advertisements including print and electronic mediums. The aim of this strategy is to find and attain the best talent available in the local labour market, so that our products can retain their position as being the standard in the pipe industry.

In order to be successful in this strategy, we will attract new engineers by
Branding  while recruiting new engineers, our emphasis will be on the promise of exciting, innovative and growing opportunities that we can offer as an employer. This will be supported by the credibility our company name carries, acquired from being the industry leader and through our continuous efforts to stay ahead of the competition. Nearly all employees, whether experiences or recent graduates look for certain factors such as career growth opportunities and innovative workplace while selecting employers to apply to (BNET, 2006). Thus, it is important to demonstrate our workplace to potential recruits as a gateway to acquire valuable experience and satisfaction of working at a cutting edge organization, offering the best resources available.

Equal Opportunities  In our recruiting process, we will ensure that we conduct ethical recruiting and selection practices. This means that we will not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, pay grade and disability (Foot  Hook, 1996). This will allow us to sustain our image as a socially responsible organization which genuinely cares about its employees. As a result of the integrity displayed by these good conducts, the employees we recruit will stay committed to the organization.  

We will use the following sources to look for engineers
Employee Referrals  This is a very effective method, especially when an organization already has a large number of employees, as is the case at our organization (Luthans, 2000). The first and foremost benefit of internal recruitments is that many people can be reached with very little cost incurred. Secondly, people presently employed at our company have a fairly good idea of what kind of candidates we are looking for and they are easily able to recommend people from close relations who will be able to fit in the category of engineers we are looking for.

Professional and Trade Associations  We will also seek recruits through the professional and trade associations we have memberships with. Many of these associations publish job advertisements in their journalsmagazines which are regularly viewed by professionals of the respective industries. In this way, we will be able to concentrate on engineers with the specific qualifications we are looking for.

Campus Recruitments  This type of recruitment is very popular with prestigious companies around the country. Since our aim is to make sure that we are the top recruiter in the pumps industry and stay ahead of our competitors, we must ensure that we get a hold of fresh talent. Recent graduates are always up to date on the latest trends and will bring in many new ideas as well.

After successful recruiting we will select engineers to join our company as follows
Selection Tests  Initial screening of candidates will be based on tests that we will conduct. Only applicants who match the requirements of our job descriptions will be asked to sit for the tests. The tests will be divided in two parts Ability tests and Personality tests.

I will ensure that this method is valid by concurrent validity (Aswathappa, 2005). The characteristics of successful employees will be identified and will be used as benchmarks when evaluating the tests.
I will ensure that this method is reliable by making sure that the test is conducted in a standardized manner and can be interpreted likewise by two or more people.

Employment Interview  Interviews are the most popular method of selection for all employers. They provide the employer an opportunity of a thorough analysis of a candidates capabilities as a person and a professional as well as a chance for the applicant to learn more about the company.
I will ensure that this method is valid by making sure that the interviews are structured, allowing the interviewee to talk as much as possible and evaluating the interviewee immediately after the interview is conducted.

I will ensure that this method is reliable by making sure that questions are predetermined and that the same questions are posed to all applicants. Also, all interviews will be conducted by more than one person to avoid any stereotyping.

We will use the following method to make the final selection
The line manager and I will evaluate the shortlisted candidates and evaluate their test and interview results based on benchmarks set by historical performance of employees at the company as well as our personal judgments.

This method will be used because the line manager and I will be administering the entire recruitment and selection process and are considered to have thorough knowledge of our respective departments.
In addition to bringing in new engineers, we must retain our current engineers. I recommend the following

Hold exit interviews  This will help determine the precise causes of the increasing employee turnover and will highlight areas we can improve in as an employer.

Continuous growth and skill development  By consistently investing in the development of our employees and promising them growth opportunities in the company, we can reduce the turnover rate significantly.

Literature oftentimes reflects a countrys culture and peoples conflicts, struggles  aspirations, as well as social relations. A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift and The Man to Send Rain Clouds by Leslie Marmon Silko are clear-cut illustrations. These two well-written literary selections mirror distinct cultures and racial identities.  Using different writing styles, Swift and Silko captivate their readers and make them want to keep reading using descriptive details gleaned from their own personal experiences and keen observations, coupled with literary devices. Jonathan Swift uses a satirical style, while Silko shows an engaging storytelling style replete with descriptive details. Comparing the writing style of two authors shows that there are unique  engaging ways to present societal truths, and the authors cultural background can have a major influence or impact on a literary piece.

Discussion
A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift begins in an almost oratorical but candid manner, presenting with absolute frankness how he feels about the underprivileged womenfolk from his homeland, Ireland, who have more children than they can support. In order to express the wretched conditions that he foresees the children in Ireland to experience sooner or later, the Anglo-Irish writer assumes the tone of a concerned public citizen and suggests a radical way of dealing with overpopulation and dismal economic condition in Ireland  impoverished parents can sell their children to the elite to be eaten as succulent delicacies. Clearly the technique of non-rational appeal can be effective in getting reader attention and possibly instigating people to act on a grim social reality.

Jonathan Swift offers his startlingly bizarre proposal using a straightforward manner, as follows  I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food (James and Merickel 231). It may be surmised that the author wanted to spur people to action rather than just lament  a societal truth. He uses dramatic irony to satirize a social ill, namely poverty, and possibly rouse individuals and institutions from their complacency.

Swift presents his argumentative points in a matter-of-fact manner, while utilizing Middle English words, like when he remonstrates another evil in the line, There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas (James  Merickel 230).

Using a first person point of view, Swift presents arguments backed up by numerical estimates and shows a perceptive stance in presenting a critical view of the society to which he belongs. He paints a bleak picture for children of poor Irish parents who will carry on the perpetual scene of misfortunes as they have since gone through the oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor clothes to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of entailing the like or greater miseries upon their breed for ever (James  Merickel 235).

Being an Irish himself lends much credibility to Jonathan Swifts argumentative point.  By using eloquent language to express his sentiments about societal truths, he certainly engages the reader while also revealing that an authors audacity  to challenge established norms  values can be put to great use, notably by spurring people to think  act.

The Man to Send Rain Clouds by Leslie Marmon Silko, on the other hand, is a simply yet poignant tale about how two cultures can interlock, especially in the face of great misfortune. To highlight the mythical and historic backgrounds, as well as rituals of  the Indian -American race, Silko uses using the third person point of view and rich descriptive details. She utilizes literary devices like symbolisms and similes, like in the line the water fell through the light from sundown like August rain that fell while the sun was still shining, almost evaporating before it touched the wilted squash flowers (Silko par. 37).

While there is a tragedy that is brought to readers attention at the start of the short story, Silko focuses mainly on the concerns, idiosyncrasies and beliefs of her fellow native Americans. Aside from making the reader want to read further, mainly by drawing attention to unique cultural practices and the enthralling landscape, she imparts in subtle manner deeper issues like how two cultures may come together in an unexpected way. Possible symbolisms of nature may be gleaned in the line, Leon turned to look up at the high blue mountains in the deep snow that reflected a faint red light from the west (Silko par. 39) Just like Jonathan Swift, Silkos racial origins helped in the accurate presentation of historical details and nuances befitting the characters portrayed. The main difference is that while  Swift relied mainly on satire and wit to expose and attack human frailties, particularly helplessness and foolishness in begetting more offsprings than Irish families can support, Silko used objective storytelling style and description to effectively convey her message.

Conclusion
Literature can truly depict culture and the identity, struggles and aspirations of a people, but it can only do so in a powerful  effective way through the authors skills. Jonathan Swift and Leslie Marmon Silko are two  such writers whose racial identities render them powerful voices who can bring social realities and issues into the consciousness of people in unique and creative ways.

In the short story, Guest of the Nation, the writer potrays the conflict between friendship and duty. The narrator, which is the main protagonist, is faced whether to conform to his role as a combatant or to consider the humanity of their enemies, which in the process of captive became his pals.

Guest of the Nation is a short story written by Frank O Connor, an Irish author of over 150 masterpieces which includes short stories and memoirs. The short story apparently portray the execution of the two Englishmen, Hawkins and Belcher, held captive by a small group of rebels  during the War of Independence. The short story has four sections, wherein each section takes a different tone and mood. In the first section, the writer reveals the surprisingly real sense of camaraderie between the English prisoners and their two Irish captors. They play cards and argue about different topics such as politics, religion and the capitalist system. In the first part, one can see human attachment even if they come from opposing groups. In the second section however, Bonaparte, the narrator, discovers that if some Irish prisoners being held captive by the British Army are shot, he together with Noble will have to shoot their English friends in retaliation. This news truly disturbs Bonaparte and in the next morning, he has a difficulty facing his prisoners. A few days later, an intelligence officer for the rebels arrives with the news that four Irishmen were executed or shot by the English. As a form of revenge, it is inevitable that the rebels will have to kill and execute Hawkins and Belcher in the evening. Bonaparte and Noble, whom the prisoners became friends, are the one assigned to do the retaliation. The tension is clearly manifested as the two Irishmen struggle between duty and friendship. When they have to transfer the two prisoners, they make up a story but Hawkins does not believe them. However as the truth settles in, Hawkins tries to persuade the Irishmen rebels not to kill them, arguing that, if their positions are reversed, he would never shoot  a pal   Though the narrator regards them as a man rather than an enemy , his duty goes first due to the inevitability of the situation. In the last section, it ends with the two Englishmen being killed. The final part of the story describes the consequences of the narrators betrayal within himself. After the killings, he looks up at the dark sky feeling very small and lost.

Noble says he saw everything ten times the size, as though there were nothing in the whole world but that little patch of bog with the two Englishmen stiffening into it, but with me it was as if the patch of bog where the Englishmen were was a million miles away, and even Noble and the old woman, mumbling behind me, and the birds and the bloody stars were all far away, and I was somehow very small and very lost and lonely like a child astray in the snow. And anything that happened to me afterwards, I never felt the same about again (OConnor).

The main theme in the story is duty. The narrators perception of duty is established on submission to the orders of someone higher than he in position. His interpretation and his fulfillment of duty however brings him guilt as his conscience continuously disturbs him. But at the same time, his duty absolves him to decide for himself on what to next to the prisoners. The short story can apparently be regarded as an expression of revulsion against war, a call to turn away from armed struggle.

Ultimately it is a humanist statement that no cause, no matter how right, can justify killing. The short story is somehow a subtle social movement during the writers times that discourages wars and political conflicts since the sense of humanity of the main participants, the soldiers, is at stake. Just like any other writers, OConnor uses literature as a significant medium to give the readers a glimpse of social reality that is often ignored. War makes soldiers prisons of their own ghosts.  The question revolves in whether duty is more important than human attachment.