Analysis

An analysis of the short story “Field of Tears” by Declan J Connaughton shows that the text has a non-chronological structure. The story focuses on a seemingly ordinary event in the life of Rita, who visits her grandfather in the nursing home. At one point, however, the story jumps back in time to the moment when the grandfather was an eighteen-year-old soldier fighting in the Irish Civil War. 

The main characters are Rita and her grandfather, De Burca. While not much is said about Rita, the grandfather’s background is revealed when he recalls a moment from the time when he was eighteen, during the Irish Civil War. 

The setting is an unnamed village where Rita visits her grandfather in a nursing home. As they drive through the village, the old man reveals that he was stationed there when he was younger. The focus of the story is the field where the old man remembers killing a captive civilian many years before, during the war. 

The events are told by a third-person narrator who switches perspectives. The first part of the story is told from Rita’s perspective, while the last part is told from the grandfather’s perspective, who recalls events from the past. 

The language is mainly informal and reflects a natural conversation between grandfather and granddaughter. In the second part of the story, the author introduces terms and expressions connected to war, as well as Irish expressions that highlight the characters’ identities and illustrate the context. 

A full analysis of the short story can be found on the following pages.