How Does Liam O Flaherty Use Figurative Language In The Sniper

Liam O’Flaherty’s realistic fiction story, “The Sniper,” takes place in Dublin, Ireland during a civil war. In the story, a Republican Sniper is stuck on a roof with enemy snipers surrounding him. He shoots two enemies down before he is shot in the arm causing his rifle to brake. Now he must find a way to make a hard shot in order to kill the enemy with just a revolver and a hurt arm. By using word choice and sensory details O’Flaherty demonstrates the theme that actions have serious repercussions.

Based on character analysis, “The Sniper” and the “Horseman in the Sky” both clearly reveal a true question of humanity but do so in different ways. Carter Druse, a young wealthy Virginian, and a Republican sniper whose name remains yet unknown, have various similarities and differences in their ways of handling their conflicts. Similarly, both young snipers willing choose to fight in their own civil wars. Carter fighting in the American Civil War, and the sniper fighting in the Irish Republican Civil War. Along with both being snipers, the two are also faced with the same horrifying conflict… killing a family member. Carter Druse, fighting for the Union, is ultimately faced with an unimaginable decision to kill his father, a Confederate soldier.

“Wars never hurt anybody except for the people who died” -Salvador Dali, leader of the Surrealist Movement. In both stories men who are at war are described, both of these men have killed a man who are known as their foes. Both of the men realize that the man they killed could've been a friend, and were someone who really wasn't the enemy. The relationship between these two stories is that war can tear families apart. In Liam O'Flaherty's “The Sniper” and “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy both show similarities and differences in plot, irony, and theme.

"The Sniper" places a strong emphasis on the evils of war, and yet paints a vivid image of mankind's qualities and their society. Employing the technique of describing one particular sniper to symbolise a general subject, readers are able to gain a deep insight into the evils of war. In this story, the assembly of setting, contrasting characters and themes of fanaticism and division of loyalties are vital to conveying the horror of war. On the other hand, "The Sniper" also discusses the power of war, depicting it as the decider of life and death for men. Its force is further emphasised when neighbours are turned into enemies under war's influence.

War covets the aspect of man that is man itself, for it craves to morph them into mere objects and targets. For many soldiers, they succumb to such a fate; being depleted their ability to feel immediate emotion, they develop primitive, animalistic urges of bloodlust during a time of bloodshed. The aspects of war gravely impacts a person, and as such can be seen in O’Flaherty’s character “the sniper,” as well as seen in O’Brien’s character “Private Paul Berlin.” The sniper is a victim to the war’s cold, emotionless embrace. A Republican soldier, he is, divided from his brothers in arms on the other side, the ones called the “Free Staters.” Nonetheless, under the circumstances, they all are pawns to Dublin’s chess table of a civil war, being played at the mercy of the war’s

Through literature, Liam O’Flaherty, the author of the short story The Sniper, clearly illustrates how horrific and destructive war really is. He illustrates the appalling agony of the Irish civil war through a dramatic story of two brothers against each other in the war. Through the the author's writing, readers can conclude that the theme of The Sniper is that war destroys families. O’Flaherty sets emphasis on this theme by using many strong literary devices. The literary devices used that apply the most emphasis on the theme are situational irony, setting, and the author's use of direct characterization .

     In this story the author shows how location plays a big part in how physically dangerous a war is. Gunshots heard throughout the city are a sign of how close the fighting between the “Republicans and Free Staters…” is to innocent citizens (this is most often the case in civil war). The sniper’s positioning “on a rooftop near

O’Flaherty uses the irony of the sniper killing his own brother to emphasize the unpredictability of war. In the beginning the person opposite of the sniper is described as “his enemy” (O’Flaherty 3) and the sniper was said to have “uttered a cry of joy” at his death. Little did he know the face was not an enemy it was a familiar face “his brother’s face”. This not only shows the unpredictability of war but the dehumanization of soldiers. The sniper did not care who he killed and sought after their death. His one and only thought was to kill them, not to think if they had a family or that they were a real person with feelings not just an object. Just as the Sniper

The sniper is undoubtedly a dynamic character. The author displays this through the plot, the sniper’s thoughts, and even states it directly. Liam O’ Flaherty wrote of the sniper being overwhelmed with penitence after defeating his opposition. In the story, the author directly stated how the sniper’s feelings had changed. Liam O’ Flaherty did this again when he wrote about the sniper feeling reckless after drinking from the whiskey flask.

The story, “The Sniper” is written by Liam O’Flaherty and is an action based story that involves war with two men. In this story, there is a Republican sniper that is being shot at by another sniper. The Republican sniper gets shot in the arm but in the end he kills the sniper which is his brother. Timing, pacing, and conflicts cause a lot of suspense throughout the story. Suspense is created in the story by using timing and pacing.

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

Regular civilians took to the streets and fought for what they believed. The story of “The Sniper” follows one of these people working as a sniper for the Republicans. As with any well-written character, this Sniper is complex. He has multiple conflicting motives guiding his actions, and has a complicated history. These things influence how The Snipers traits connect to the theme of

These example show the theme statement that no one win in a civil war. The short story “The Sniper” can be described through the literary element of setting of time,place,atmosphere,as well as the theme statement of no one wins in a civil war. Time shows it is going on during the irish civil war in June of 1922.The story”The Sniper” is taking place in Dublin,Ireland. Atmosphere also

The story takes place during the civil war in Ireland. The sniper is isolated and the time of day is twilight. We don’t have a lot of information about what is going on during the story. The story is being told by a third person so the reader can only see what the person who is telling the story sees and feel. The mood that is set in the story also adds to the suspense of the story.

This story sets in the early days of the Irish Civil War in Dublin. It was a battle over Irish Nationalists over whether or not to the Anglo-Irish treaty, a treaty to establish a free state. But as a result from that, a substantial amount of civilians caused an outbreak and fought one another. Brother vs. Brother, Man vs. Women, etc. There's two main characters in this story, The IRA sniper and another sniper that was an enemy, they were both on top of rooftops trying to take each other out. ¨Taking off his cap,...he pushed the rifle slowly upward over the parapet until the cap was visible...a bullet pierced the center of the cap¨- Narrator ( O'Flaherty 3). Thus, the IRA sniper had to ponder of a plan to kill the opposing sniper, the only way to do that was to supposedly get ¨shot¨ by the other sniper. The IRA sniper before all this got shot on his dominant arm, the right one. He needed that arm to shoot, but since it got shot, it can't function very normally. He had to think of somehow distracting the opposing sniper. Another example that the IRA sniper is sharp witted is when he ¨died.¨ ¨The sniper dropped his left hand over the roof and let it hang, lifelessly. After a few moments he let the rifle drop to the street¨- Narrator (O'Flaherty 3). As a result, the IRA sniper faked his death so that he could at least have a chance to exterminate the opposing sniper. The enemy sniper let his guard down and got shot by the IRA sniper by his pistol. Since the IRA sniper´s right arm couldn´t work at all, his left arm did the shooting. In these two situations, planning and faking his death; the IRA portrays