The sniper lingered in the spot for some time, but the sound of the machine gun, a powerful noise which overpowered the intermittent shots and occasional explosions, brought him back to the present. The sniper drew his brother’s eyelids to a close and stood hurriedly. He quickly realized his mistake, and the spitting of the gun neared him, the attacker no doubt having found his stature an easy target. He stumbled to the side, just as the machine’s thunderings miraculously slowed. It had run out of ammunition, but for how long? The sniper’s face was contorted in a creased grimace, which showed off two clenched sets of stained teeth. He began to run aimlessly, strengthened by fear and guided by instinct. His mind was elsewhere, …show more content…
In it was water, but it may have already been depleted. He knew nothing remained of the provisions he had brought. But there had to be something. Anything! On reaching the metal flask, the better part of him knew it was empty, and he tapped it. He felt no water shifting within the container. He had to leave. The sniper was in a risky position, wherein he was lucky to even be alive. Suddenly, the sniper was standing, limping, dragging his feet like a dull-minded drunk. Then he was walking, ever quicker, while biting lip and pressing at his fingernails. He raised his head, and saw in the distance a shifting form, a figure, walking towards him, walking away. It seemed to notice him, and the sniper noticed the man. This other man must be an enemy. His better judgment said so, at least. But for some reason, he clung to the desperate, fantastical notion that this man would help him. The sniper had been injured significantly. As the sniper neared the man, or the man approached him, the man’s figure became more distinct. The sniper realized this man, and the smudges that accompanied him which gradually turned into other figures who seemed to multiply with every step were the sniper’s allies. The man waved to the sniper morosely, and the sniper squinted his eyes as he stepped into a cloud which carried the obvious stench of alcohol. The man mimed tossing the sniper a flask which he
Essay Outline Alone: Being Disconnected Solitary confinement, isolation(Appositive), which disconnects a person from relationships with others has recently being condemned as inhumane in the treatment of criminals within the prison system. Such solitary confinement leads to disruptive thinking, an inability to have a clear flow of thoughts resulting in irreversible psychological effects in as little as fifteen days. This kind of isolation amounts to psychological torture and can lead to suicide as life loses all meaning. This essay will explore the idea of extreme loneliness and isolation in three pieces of writing, Night by Elie Wiesel, I Am Legend by Robert Matheson, and The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty. These authors explore the idea of
Throughout the story the theme that actions have serious consequences is evident. In the moment the sniper is ready and eager to shoot at the enemy. But after the moment is over, the sniper realizes just how awful his actions are.
The war influenced the sniper by forcing him to be brave. In this situation, brave is lying on a roof for many hours scouting the area for
In “The Sniper” by Liam O'Flaherty, the Republican Sniper is shown as brave, stupid, and sneaky. The Sniper is shown to be scared in the story when he was sniping at the window sniping. “The noise would wake the dead.” This quote shows that The Sniper is stupid because during this part, he is smoking and giving out his position. During the story,The Sniper is also acting dead when he got shot at. He shows that he is sneaky when he moves out of the way to go to another spot. Rainsford shows that he is sneaky during this scene because he took off and hid somewhere else. Then when the smoke cleared, he peered across and uttered a cry of joy. His enemy had been hit. The Sniper is quick ,strong, and creative in the story because he found many ways
“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.
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 .
The sniper brushes with death again when he throws his revolver down without thinking and it goes off. Bullets make a war very deadly, as they are much more precise than earlier and much simpler weapons (such as swords and muskets).
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
It seemed like ages before he was free. He ran back towards the British line, expecting at any moment to feel a bullet rip through him. Then, out of the blue, a single shot rumbled across the dormant battlefield. Ed spun around just in time to see the German commander’s pistol smoking. The machine gunner who had spared his life was slumped over, motionless.
The sniper was inhaling a cigarette on a rooftop when someone launched a fire at him from the opposite side of the street. He managed to escape the shot successfully without any injury or bruises. The sniper also managed to kill two other free staters after that, one man and one woman.
Then the sniper dealt with the pain and stayed low profile until he could come up with a plan. ”The sniper lay still for a long time nursing his wounded arm and planning escape... He must kill that enemy and he could not use use his rifle. He had only a revolver to do it. Then he thought of a plan.”
He saw the blur of what was the Humvee drive past his field of vision, and then a moment later it came back into view. At its backend, he saw the soldier work a large machine gun like a hero in a movie. He stood frozen in amazement and awe. Then the soldier stopped firing, his gun apparently having run out of ammo as it continued to smoke and cool down. The soldier then turned to face him as he bent down to pick up another box of ammunition off the floor of the Humvee, feeding a chain of new rounds into the gun.
“Suddenly from the opposite roof a shot rang out and the sniper dropped his rifle with a curse”. (O’Flaherty 1) This shows that the IRA Sniper was willing to reveal himself, just for a chance to smoke. “The lust of battle had died in him. He had become bitten with remorse”.(2) This shows that he was killing people for his job, but when he shot the enemy sniper, he wondered if he knew him. And he suddenly felt guilt and regret.
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.