Peace and Conflict in Two Friends: A Naturalistic Short Story

As a mover and shaker man of letters, the French short story writer Guy de Maupassant penned hundreds of groundbreaking stories, yet sundry of them are still eclipsed owing to the rarity of reviews. Two Friends (1882), one of his eloquent works, is a pertinent case worth reading and analyzing. As a corollary, this article comes to terms with Two Friends to uncover the story’s narrative structure, point of view, setting dimensions, historical context, style, and symbolism to cognize readers about the significance of this piece of work that comes to grips with two dialectical phenomena which are peace and brutality. This juxtapositional datum in human nature echoes how realistic literature in the 19th century represented societies by shedding light on divergent issues in Two Friends and conversing about the impulse that thrusts Guy de Maupassant to tell about the faith of two commoners living in Paris. This investigation indulges realism in Maupassant’s work through the projection of commoner characters entangled with the dire reality of armed conflicts. Besides, naturalism discloses the reasonable forces of the environment and innate heredity that navigate the characters' actions. This will inform us about how war sometimes has the repercussions of foolish decisions or human greed, out of which innocent human beings are the overt victims who pay a heavy price.