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.

War is something that can change the very principles of a person, it can change a person and leave multiple effects that can last for their entire life. The sniper is fighting in a civil war where friends and family can turn into enemies at a moment's notice. The fight is between the Republicans and the Free Staters, the protagonist is a sniper for the Republicans. Throughout the story, we go into the state of mind of the main character and learn some ramifications that he gained in the war. The text, “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty shows us the physical and psychological results of war, that happens to people.

The sniper in the story struggles to survive while he fights with a sniper across the street. After a long squall of shooting, he finally strikes his enemy. For example,“Then when the smoke cleared, he peered across and uttered

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.

Symbolism is also used in “The Sniper” to represent a possible theme. Liam O’Flaherty uses a street between the two snipers to show that a possible theme is that war separates family. The story takes place in the middle of a civil war in Ireland. The protagonist is a sniper across the street from an enemy sniper. The enemy sniper is his brother, and it is unknown until the very last sentence. By including a minor detail such as a street, the author is able to both further develop the setting by showing it as urban and let the reader pick up on a theme of the

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.

“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.

Imagine yourself being in the civil war, while bullets are flying over your head, while trying to take cover, there is no place to hide so your shooting back at the enemy. Imagine your friend dies at your feet. Wars are very dangerous and easily change your life forever. The Sniper and The Cranes are about men in war. The similarities between these stories include the war scene. In The Sniper the main character is a sniper in the Irish Civil War. In Cranes the

"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.

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 .

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

What would you do if you were a sniper in the civil war or a man that walks through his town after a civil war? In fact this is what happens in two stories called the “Sniper, and the “Cranes”. In the story “Cranes” a police officer sees his friend and has to decide whether he let his friend be free or send to a prison because he was looked as the cause of the civil war. The “Sniper” is about a young man who is in the civil war who killed his brother.

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

Syria is currently all over the news regarding what many have to come to see as a civil war. A term like civil war needs to identify the players and the reasons for the war. In this case the players are being identified as pro government or antigovernment with a Sunni or Shia overtone. Sunni and Shia are the two major sects of Islam and both have a historical based conflict going back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad and how Muslims should be governed. This conflict has caused tensions and violence to flare up throughout Islamic history. This conflict has carried into modern times and has becoming a rallying point for Muslim people calling for change with their government and across the Middle Eastern region. 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.