Analysis Of Liam O 'Flaherty's The Sniper'

As General Sherman of the American Civil War once stated, “War is hell.” In the short stories “The Sniper,” by Liam O’Flaherty, and “Cranes,” by Hwang Sunwon, characters suffer from divided loyalties during civil war. Through their situations, conflicts, and resolutions, both stories successfully illuminate the theme of the cruelty of war-especially civil war, but the short story “The Sniper” is more effective, because the sniper shot his own brother because he was the enemy.

The characteristics of the characters in a story are something that makes them who they are and what you start to learn about them. In The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty, the protagonist shoots and kills the antagonist. The two characters in the story are, the protagonist which was the narrator (main sniper) and the antagonist (enemy sniper). The protagonist saves the lives of others because of his his intelligence, his determination, and his risk-taking.

Courage is a deciding factor for what defines a hero. The protagonist in The Sniper displays courage in many ways. When engaged in a firefight against the opposing enemy, the hero continues to flaunt his fighting spirit and never backs down. Furthermore, after he is greatly wounded, he comes up with an ingenious plan in the face of imminent danger to defeat the enemy. This presentation of courage can also be seen in many other heroes, such as Odysseus in The Odyssey. The simple fact that he fought in the war illustrates great courage as he is

In this suspenseful short story, “The Sniper”, by Liam O’Flaherty, two snipers from opposing sides are fighting against each other. Set during the Irish Civil War, this story includes a Republican Sniper and a Free State Sniper, from opposite sides of the war. The suspense in this story is built through multiple ways using pacing and timing. The author, Liam O’Flaherty uses timing and order of events together to create a lot of suspense throughout “The Sniper”.

O’Flaherty uses dramatic irony of a sniper unknowingly killing his brother to show that war makes one a heartless killer, which emphasizes the effect that war can have on a person. After an intense sniper duel, the sniper sprinted with adrenaline flowing through his veins, right before checking the body: “wondered did he know him” and “Perhaps he had been in his own company before the split in the army” (O’Flaherty

This short story was interesting to read, and the ironic ending was surprising. The main character unknowingly shot his own brother. Despite the fact that numerous relationships are severed through war, I was still startled by the abrupt ending. Humans rarely think twice about their actions, resulting in catastrophic consequences. The story portrayed the main character as a Republican sniper who would carelessly act, such as trying to light a cigarette in the darkness during war. He never thought about the results of pulling a trigger on a person, and the outcome was atrocious. I would recommend this short story for people who prefer surprising plot twists. Although, this book was enjoyable to read, on a scale from 1-10, with 10 being the highest,

His enemy had been hit” (O’Flaherty 4). This shows that the Sniper is a good shooter. 50 yards is quite a ways away, and he was injured with only a revolver left, a gun that is not meant for long ranges, and it is in the middle of the night, so he can not see the enemy very well either. The Sniper is still able to hit his target well, and this is impressive and shows that the sniper is dangerous because of his abilities. The Sniper is able to come up with a plan that is risky, and then he is also able to execute the plan as well. The plan would go to waste if he was not able to hit the enemy, but he does hit him and that makes the Sniper very dangerous, he is able to come up with magnificent plans and is able to execute them to.

The story the sniper is a suspenseful short story written by Liam O'Flaherty. The story is about a republican sniper that has the face of a scholar that is involved in the Irish civil war. The story the sniper uses suspenseful phrases such as hurriedly, immediately, suddenly, and slowly to describe the pace of the story. The thesis of The Sniper is that the story uses timing to create suspense.

Liam O’Flaherty uses the conflict between the two snipers to help describe the main character. “She was pointing to the roof where the sniper lay. An informer. The turret opened. A man’s head and shoulders appeared, looking toward the sniper. The sniper raised his rifle and fired. The head fell heavily on the turret wall. The woman darted toward the side street. The sniper fired again.”(O’Flaherty 1-2) moments like this help us understand the main character and his mentality to do anything if it helps him survive. As the battle ensued the sniper always did whatever it took to live, even resorting to tricking the enemy sniper just to get a shot off at him. This life and death battle the sniper has to go through is what hooked me on this story, but what really made me love it was the resolution, “Then the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother’s face.”(O’Flaherty 4).

In the Sniper, the man killed his opponent unaware that it was his own brother. I can't imagine his reaction to this tragedy. But sadly this comes with his job, he needs to kill people that get in his way. I think he would be in shock and fear of what he as done. He killed his own brother in cold blood. That is a scary thing to see and go through in war. Just the fact of going to war is terrifying. But not knowing your sibling is the enemy you're at war with is worse. The things he has seen already in war, then seeing his dead brother. He also just killed an old lady.

After successfully killing the enemy snipers he rejoices for he is not the one to die that day. However, even though in the story the sniper does not hesitate to take life, seeing the dead man's body fills him with remorse later. While it may seem to contradict his behavior earlier this exact event and words used to describe it relates to the theme. Liam O'Flaherty tells us that "the lust of battle had died" in the sniper. In a life and death situation the sniper cannot think about who the other person is, all he needs to know is if they are a threat. Only after "the lust of battle" is dead, does the sniper contemplate the dead enemies name and face. Unfortunately, this blindness caused by the chaos and confusion of war result in the death of his brother, that was the enemy sniper.

All three stories face a problem. The Sniper was being shot at by his brother and ended up killing him. Rainsford

How many times have you killed your family? The short story “The Sniper,” by Liam O'Flaherty starts with the protagonist, a Republican sniper, watching the streets from a parapet while eating a sandwich. After taking the risk of smoking and giving away hs position, he finds competition and is shot. This starts his struggles to fire his rifle which leads him to come up with a risky plan to win.

Liam O’Flaherty is an Irish author who focuses his writings during the time of the Irish Civil War. Along with “The Sniper,” O’Flaherty’s novel The Informer is also based in Dublin in the 1920’s during the Irish Civil War. In this story, the theme is that war dehumanizes individuals that partake in the action. The style is straightforward and easy to understand and the point of view is third person.

The actions of the Republican shooter, the protagonist of Liam O’Flaherty’s 1923 anti-war short story “The Sniper”, affected the plot of the story because his insignificant decision to smoke a cigarette creates a chain reaction that results in the death of his brother. The Republican sniper in Dublin at night is trying to decide if lighting a cigarette is a good idea. Knowing the danger about how the flash from the lighter could be seen in the darkness, the shooter makes the dangerous decision to proceed with smoking. After the shooter kills the informer and the enemy, a gunshot comes from the opposite roof which makes him drops his rifle. When the Republican sniper goes to pick up his rifle, he realizes that he got hit in the forearm by the gun (1). During a war, choices that may seem