Response To Tim O 'Brien's The Sniper'

Liam O’Flaherty wrote short stories and was a leader in the Irish literary renaissance (Biography.com Editors, n/a). After two mental breakdowns, it became obvious that O’Flaherty was mentally ill. The mental illness was believed to have come from an injury received while enlisted in the Irish Guards. Once the war had ended, O’Flarherty moved to the U.S. and lived in Hollywood for a brief time. While his stories have common themes of Ireland and nature, some of his best works were written in Irish (Bloomsburry Publishing Plc, n/a).

When someone first enlists in the war, they are fresh,new, and ready to fight for their country. As the years go by, war breaks the soldiers down and turns them into rugged, motionless men. The generals mold them into killers with no feelings and only designed to kill without content. This is true in The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty. The theme of war brings out the worst in people turning them into monsters is developed through three types of conflict: man vs man, man vs himself, man vs circumstances.

When you think of a sniper what do you see a man who fights for what he

“The American Sniper” by Chris Kyle is an account of the deadliest American sniper ever, called “the devil” by the enemies he hunted and “the legend” by his Navy SEAL brothers. From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. The Pentagon has officially confirmed more than 150 of Kyle's kills (the previous American record was 109). Iraqi insurgents feared Kyle so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle earned legendary status among his fellow SEALs, Marines, and U.S. Army soldiers, whom he protected with deadly accuracy from rooftops and stealth positions. Kyle presents the gripping and unforgettable accounts of

     The sniper develops insensitivity to death during the war. When he kills the old woman, she’s trying to run away and isn’t really a threat. He even “utters a cry of joy” when he finally shoots the enemy sniper. This shows how war can get people caught up in the cat-and-mouse “game” aspect of it and forget what they’re actually doing—killing people. People get so caught up in the “game” that they don’t think about the repercussions for their actions.

Adversity can change a person's life completely for the worse or for the better. Everyone in their life at some point will go through an adverse experience but it is how they persevere and survive that changes a person. In “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty, two snipers are battling for their life in war. In “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, a man is fighting for his life as a hunter is trying to kill him. In both of these short stories adversity can be found. In “The Sniper”, two snipers are firing at each other from a distance in a war zone. One sniper gets shot and is struggling, but he creates a plan to trick the other sniper that he is dead. Then, the wounded sniper gets his chance to kill the other sniper. The wounded sniper

We all grew up with tales of dragons and beasts, banished by knights and kings. Stories of righteousness against hellfire in a most innocent way. As we grow older we come to believe that along with our days of youth, we leave behind Disney tales of “good vs. evil”, and the proper notion of an uncomplicated “right or wrong” narrative becomes nothing more than an imprint of a faded memory of what defined the world. In a perfect world, that perspective would ring as gospel amongst the people of the world, and maybe then, and only then, would the world be “perfect”. Though many long for this sort of simplicity in the universe, this is simply not how the world is. Through our storytelling, and our own psychological necessity for an affixed dichotomy

Matt Taibbi's opinions relate well to mine because i'm not usually a crazy person when it comes to war movies. But “American Sniper” changed my views on that. Since my uncle is a veteran, I never really get excited about war movies for the reason that millions are just riding waves of war curiosity and guilt; while telling their over-sensationalized story, rather than the real story. As Taibbi wrote how the effect from the movie creates many cheers and tears for the audience, and I agree with that. The part that got to me the most is when Cooper displayed classic signs of a veteran who doesn't enjoy being thanked. He immediately deeply retreats upon being recognized and becomes politely evasive. On behalf of Kyle Smith, I understood how he

were helping the opposing side. Even though the sniper shot the other sniper he also got injured .This supports the theme that no one wins in a civil war because the sniper killed the enemy but he also got shot. People's daily lives are interrupted. People had to leave their homes and shops. They left because they had to escape the violence that was going around them.

People should educate themselves on another person’s character and personality before forming an opinion about them. In the modern era, people are so quick to judge others and decide whether they admire that someone based on a first impression or preconceived notion. The ramifications of this are sometimes irreversible.

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.

When you think of war, you usually think of destroyed home and country. But do all wars end like that ? According to Hwang Sun-won they don’t. The cranes was about two men finding their childhood friendship after an occurring war. War can make something make beautiful things happen like in the story “The Cranes” .

Flaherty's, “The Sniper” represents the pain, physically and mentally war inflicts on a soldier. The short story takes place at night in Dublin, Ireland at night, during the Irish Civil War. There are two sides that divide Ireland in half. They are the Free-Staters and the Republicans. The story starts with the Republican sniper eating on a rooftop. He decides he wants to light a cigaret even though it might be risky. As soon as he lights the match he hears gunshots and hides. He looks up and the enemy across the street fires at his head, the sniper dodges it. Then, an enemy car rolls down the street. A woman comes down to the car to tell them where the Republican sniper is. The man opens the turret of the car and the sniper immediately shoots

Religion, government, and territory are the usual reason for war and the people that have to choose a side. This is seen in the story as the people have to choose between Republican or free state and the sniper is doing the deeds of the side he believes . But these states of war can make families tore apart. The conflict is internal in the character of the sniper in these reasons which lead to death of a war men , the old women, and his brother, showing the why realities of war and how a person can be driven to kill innocent people just to win a side. In the warmen case he was just protecting what he believed in the free state just protecting the old woman with her informing him that a sniper was on the roof so he did what he supposed

He must kill that enemy and he could not use his rifle… Then he thought of a plan (2)”. The shooter was left wounded in the dark as a result of his decision to smoke. Since the shooter was in a tight situation, he had to make a quick plan on how to kill his enemy. It was not a hard task for the shooter to come up with a quick and safe plan. This tells the readers that the shooter had been taught how to handle tough and messy situations. Instead of escaping after killing the enemy, the shooter decides to take another risk and cross the street to identify the person he killed. While the shooter is crossing the road, a heavy firing occurs around him, so he throws himself down by the enemy sniper’s corpse. The shooter turns over the dead body and finds out that he killed his own brother(3). The Republican sniper could have easily walked away from the body and went home, but instead, he goes to look at the dead body to unveil the identity of his