The American Sniper Analysis

This paper will try to explore two theories of the beltway sniper. The first is the conflict theory and the second is the psychological theory. There will be summarizing of the crime (dates, offenders, how they were caught if they were). The two theories will try to explore the crime. Each of the theory will shed light on the reasons for the crime. For this paper, I will provide evidence to which theory seems to be stronger. I will also show any evidence that will lead to the deviant path that was taken. I will be explaining how you determine the path that was taken for the crime. I hope that after reading this the audience will have a better understanding of the conflict and psychological theory of the beltway DC sniper.

U.S. Navy SEAL ,Chris Kyle was just the average die hard Texan. He aspired to become a cowboy, but it wasn’t working out in his favor. After seeing the horrors of terrorism on 9/11 he was ready to fight for his country and enlisted into the military. He goes on to fight in four tours and becomes the deadliest sniper in American history. After each tour, he felt that he had to go back. He had two goals that he couldn’t give up on; protecting his team and taking out the deadliest enemy sniper, Mustafa. Chris would not stop until he achieved his goals, when he finally did, he faced a new battle. He struggled with normal daily life, but even then he persevered and found a new passion to aid him. Throughout this film, Clint Eastwood portrays the theme of perseverance through the use of setting, camera angles, and the main character Chris Kyle.

In the sniper short story the main character, which is the Republican sniper has quite a few conflict with different things during the story. One of the first conflicts the sniper has is against hunger. The story quotes “He was eating a sandwich hungrily. He had eaten nothing since morning.” I would consider this conflict man vs. self because he hasn’t been able to feed himself because of being in the war. The republican sniper has a conflict with himself in view of the fact that he is considering smoking but he knows that it is risky. The story quotes “He paused for a moment, considering whether he should risk a smoke. It was dangerous. The flash might be seen in the darkness, and there were enemies watching. He decided to take the risk”. This caused

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.

"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.

“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

May 8, 2007. Plot by six men to attack soldiers at U.S. Army base at Fort Dix in New Jersey was averted. Modern day terrorist often choose targets that are easily defeated. The general public of women, children, and the elderly are acceptable losses.

Today one does not even have to wait for a movie to be released. Simply click the “ON” button on a remote and suddenly, thousands of news and television shows are available for one to enjoy. Muslims are also the target of prejudice in these news broadcasts and programs. One such television program released was a drama titled “24.” Issues and Controversies reports: “The show, which deals with a counterterrorism unit based in Los Angeles, featured a group of Muslim terrorist characters who were plotting to detonate nuclear weapons in the U.S. At the end of one episode, the terrorists successfully detonated a small bomb in a Los Angeles suburb, killing about 12,000 people” (“Race and Ethnicity in Entertainment”). This fictional show wrongly spreads the stereotypical image of Muslims and their clichéd image of the fundamentalists on 9/11. By adding the title and image of “Muslim” to the phrase “terrorist” the program wrongly advertised that potentially every Muslim could be a terrorist. This stereotypical image is similarly expressed in news broadcasts through the use of terrorism news. By increasingly using terrorism and Muslims in top

In this photo a Middle Eastern woman is pointing a gun directly towards the camera, symbolizing the way she, like many others, are stereotyped in America. The picture is clear and concise, with front view and level angles that let the viewers see the struggles she has gone faced. Her face and arms display Arabic writings that symbolize the stereotypes given to them in America: terrorists, muslims, extremists, and fanatics. The picture is limited to the colors black and white to represent the seriousness of this issue. Her eyes staring directly towards the viewer causes them to feel sympathy, leading them to wonder why there is such hate towards Middle Easterners. The concepts of this picture go back to the main idea of the research question

As a result, people behave and think negatively under the bad impacts of media. Moreover, by overgeneralizing information about specific religions from media, people can have religious prejudices. For instance, in Chapter 8, “Framing Muslim – Americans before and after 9/11,” in the book Framing Terrorism: The News Media, the Government and the Public, the authors state that in the United States media, the Arab and Muslim Americans are described as terrorists (133). Also, people will keep a distance with Muslims, they don’t even want to work or to participate in social activities with the presence of Muslims. Clearly, after the event of September 11, Muslims became the victims of religious prejudices. In brief, leading prejudices about race and religion are one specific way that media influence people’s subconscious judgments.

In this essay, The Media’s Image of Arabs, the writer focuses on how Arabs are perceived by American. The author, Jack G. Shaheen is a professor Emeritus of Mass communication at southern Illinois University of Chicago. His work on media portrayals of Arabs have earned recognition and awards.

The connection between Islam and terrorism was not intensified until the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center that pushed the Islamic faith into the national and international spotlight (Smith, 2013). As Smith (2013) articulated, “Many Americans who had never given Islam a second thought before 9/11 now had to figure out how to make sense of these events and relate to the faith tradition that ostensibly inspired them” (p. 1). One way in which people made sense of these events was through the media channels that influenced their overall opinions by shaping a framework of censored ideas (Yusof, Hassan, Hassan & Osman, 2013). In a survey conducted by Pew Forum (2012), 32% of people reported that their opinions of Muslims were greatly influenced by the media’s portrayal of Islam that depicted violent pictorials and fundamentalist Muslims. Such constant negative depiction is likely to lead to the inevitable—prejudice and hate crime. For instance, in 2002 alone there were approximately 481 hate crimes that were carried out against Muslims (Smith, 2013). Ever since the 9/11 attacks Muslim people have been the target of “suspicion, harassment and discrimination” (Talal, n.d., p. 9).

The film “Reel Bad Arabs” attempts to reveal the racist and demeaning representation that Hollywood has placed on Arab and Islamic people. Narrating the film is Dr. Jack Shaheen of Southern Illinois University, who wrote the book upon which the documentary is based. Throughout the film several clips and quotes are used to demonstrate the prejudice and misrepresentation, from such films as The Sheik, The Delta Force, The Indiana Jones Films, Disney’s Aladdin, and The Mummy. Many Arab characters in such films are treated as a “lesser” people, as they are portrayed as either evil, incompetent, sex objects, or savages. The film claims that these false depictions are what fuel American’s racism (against Arabs) and Islamophobia.

This survey reveals that the problem with the Islam faith is not racial: The Muslim people are welcomed, the Islam faith is not. The violence that has been perpetrated against America, whether executed or planned, has brought to fruition religious persecution not seen since the persecution of the Jews in W.W.II. This “trust no Arab” attitude has brought shame to the Constitutional intentions of freedom of religion intended by our forefathers, and has set religious tolerance back 200 years. Looking at media representation of Muslim Americans prior to 9-11, it shows religious diversity in America, depicting Muslim America as just another religious community seeking to advance and protect their interests, not unlike other Americans. After 9-11 the media portrayed representations of threat and fear, creating boundaries between Muslims and other Americans. Such depiction transforms the identity of Muslims and American religious pluralism (Byng, M. pg. 3).

Commonly in the United States, even before 9/11, Hollywood has portrayed several stereotypes of the Muslim culture into the American minds. The media’s racial stereotyping of Middle Eastern people has produced consequences for the Muslim culture, such as hate crimes, racial profiling, and discrimination. An abundance of research on film media before 9/11 of the negative impacts of stereotyping from film of the Muslim culture has been done, little has been done to see its relationship to modern stereotypes of the Muslim culture post 9/11 in the Millennial generation. Producing research of the millennial generations views and stereotypes of the Muslim culture through film media has the ability to show a cultural shift. The strongest views and opinions seem to be stemming from the Baby-Boomer generation, and the less vocal generation of the Muslim