O 'Flaherty's Anti-War Short Story The Sniper'

An author’s main goal is to have the reader intrigued by the text with suspenseful and/or dramatic scenes happening throughout the story. The authors of all three stories (“The Sniper”, “Ambush”, and “The Trip”) all portray this expectation flawlessly. Even though the stories have a great chronological order with amazing characters, they also share similar themes and subjects. The following reasons explain why.

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.

The other sniper is situated on a building on the other side of the street as the Republican Sniper. On top of being shot at, an armored car, of the opposing side, drives up near the Republican sniper’s position. He believes that his position was given up by a local woman who was walking around. The Republican sniper must kill this woman or his life will be in jeopardy. The Republican sniper takes the shot, and kills the woman. However, even after killing the woman, the Republican Sniper is still being shot at. He has to shelter himself, so, making his way to the top floor of the building, he situates himself. The Republican sniper proceeds to have a shootout with the other unknown sniper. The Republican sniper needs a way to kill his opponent, so he devises an ingenious plan. He fakes his death by pretending to be shot in the head. The opposing sniper, thinking he had killed the Republican sniper, makes his way out of his hiding spot. This exposes him, and the Republican sniper has a clear shot. The Republican sniper takes the shot, and sees the body of his opponent falling to the ground. The Republican sniper then goes to examine the dead body of his opponent, and to his horrifying realization, discovers that the man he had just outwitted and killed, was really his brother.

The Sniper, written by Liam O’Flaherty, is a story about a Republican sniper in the Irish civil war in 1922. This story tells of a night spent on a roof looking for the enemy, the Free-Staters. In this short description of the nights events, the sniper kills 3 people; a soldier, an informer, and finally an enemy sniper on the roof across the road from him. In the end this enemy sniper turns out to be the republicans brother. This story shows the the specific characteristics a sniper must have to carry out their duty. A key moment in this text which influenced the sniper is the Civil war itself.

thinks is right or a person who fights because he has to? “The Sniper” tells a story of a sniper who is in a fight between another sniper. The story takes place in Dublin Ireland and is considered Civil War. In ¨The Sniper,” Liam O’Flaherty uses diction, point of view, and plot to create a story of loss, pain , and an intense mood.

"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 .

War can destroy a man both in body and mind for the rest of his life. In “The Sniper,” Liam O’Flaherty suggests the horror of war not only by presenting its physical dangers, but also by showing its psychological effects. We are left to wonder which has the longer lasting effect—the visible physical scars or the ones on the inside?

This essay will begin by examining the importance of O’Flaherty’s description of the setting in his short story “The Sniper”, and how his description of the setting emphasizes the reality of war. From the beginning of the story, O’Flaherty portrays a dark and dull setting of war. “Dublin lay enveloped in darkness but for the dim light of the moon that shone through fleecy clouds, casting a pale light as of approaching dawn over the streets and the dark waters of the Liffey.” (O’Flaherty) In this passage, O’Flaherty describes the setting of a simple street in Dublin at dawn. This creates a dreary tale to read. The setting in this short story emphasizes how tedious war can really be and how sometimes there can be no action for a long period of time. Usually, when there are wars in movies or novels, the plot does not focus on the

During the times of war, lines are blurred and deaths arise where guilt has no room to wrap itself around a soldier’s head as they choose between killing and being killed. Under the summer evening and heavy artillery fire of Dublin, Ireland, a republican sniper lays waiting, in a fanatical haze, behind the parapet of a building’s roof. He decides to light a cigarette, despite the risk of exposure, and encounters an enemy sniper opposite the street from his position. Promptly after, an enemy vehicle approaches, met by an informant, who divulged the sniper’s location. Having to execute the informant and a soldier exposed in the open turret, the marksman seeks upon the rival sniper, killing him by a ruse of playing dead along with an arm shot and feebly. Following a moment of hysteria, he evades the bullets of a machine gun, throwing himself aside the corpse only to find it to be his brother. In “The Sniper”, Liam O’Flaherty suggests the

¨On a rooftop near O'Connell Bridge, a Republican sniper lay watching bed. Beside him lay his rifle and over his shoulders was slung a pair of field glasses. His face was the face of a student, thin, and ascetic, but his eyes had the cold gleam of the fanatic. They were deep and thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used to looking at death.¨ (O'Flaherty 1). This quote shows that The Sniper had been alone and he was going to fight off any enemy that had come near or across the O'Connell Bridge on his own without help from anyone on his side. The Sniper was left alone without anyone on his side and with very little food and liquids to be able to survive, he had to use his instincts and other tactics to survive this

In addition, the reader sees that the man’s love for his son make him do anything to ensure the security and protection of his son. McCarthy writes, “He dove and grabbed the boy and rolled and came up holding him against his chest with the knife at his throat. The man had already dropped to the ground and he swung with him and leveled the pistol and fired from a two-handed position balanced on both knees at a distance of six feet. The man fell back instantly and lay with blood bubbling from the hole in his forehead” (66). The quote shows the reader that the man kills the gang member who has threatened the

In 1923, the story “The Sniper” was written by Liam O'Flaherty. The story is about a Civil war in Ireland where there were 2 snipers, shooting at each other and they were both on a rooftop with long-range weapons and they don’t know each other but at the end one of the sniper found out that he killed his own brother. The author uses irony and the conflict between the sniper and the other sniper just to tell us the main message which is that we shouldn’t fight each other, we should fight together because we live in the same country and we should fight for our country.