The Sniper Short Story Analysis

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.

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

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.

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

The sniper decides to light the cigarette. “Almost immediately, a bullet flattened itself against the parapet of the roof.” This means that there is danger everywhere, vigilant and waiting for the sniper to make the wrong move, a move that might cost him his life. The informant relays the sniper’s position to the soldiers in the armored vehicle. After shooting both the informer and the soldier on the street, a shot consequently rings out. “ ‘I’m hit,’ he muttered” No matter how well of a marksman he is, he can still be wounded in battle and he has. “The woman’s corpse lay still in the gutter.” The informant would be on the side of the Free Staters as the sniper is a republican; however, since she had acted upon her beliefs, she had been assassinated attempting to flee. No matter who believes their cause is the ‘right one’, there will be casualties and injuries during the conflict on both

along the left side of it. Right on queue, the car drove over the nail

In the short story, “The Sniper,” author Adam O’ Flaherty includes the element of surprise to reveal that war causes not only physical risk, but also psychological sufferings. This is true because of many reasons according to the story. Flaherty uses surprise and the element of suspense to show how war affects those involved. In the story, there is a Civil War taking place in Ireland. The war is between the Republicans and the Free Starters.

I will be writing an essay called The Sniper by Liam O’Flaherty. During a irish war in 1922, There was a sniper, on top of a building, that had was spotted by another sniper across the street. One example of situational irony was when the sniper got shot on the arm we may have thought he was going to retreat but he didn't, example of dynamic character is the brother of the main character and the tone of this story was intense, scary and sad.

In The Sniper by Liam O'Flaherty The republicans and free staters are in civil war , and he ( the main character) tries to fight them off , and kills them and fighting them off , and he accidentally killed his brother. There is a war against Republicans and the free staters , and one guy is doing his best to win , and he shoots the snipers and he gets hit in the arm , and he cut it off , and then a lady saw him and started yelling and he had to shoot her . Then when he got most of the people he ran over and saw someone else and shot them , and he turned the body over and it was his brother . War isn’t safe and lots of people can get hurt .

The theme of the short story “The Sniper,” is that People in the world and in war are referred to as objects and numbers ( according to the government.)To further explain it is that they have no names, no faces. That they are just targets and nothing more, to be shot at from a distance. To support this theme Liam O'Flaherty refrains to any of his characters. The rising action is the battle between the enemies and the sniper himself. The climax is when the sniper finally kills his enemy; after being wounded and killing all the other enemies.

In most stories, setting is important because it creates conflict. Setting is critical in the story “The Sniper” by Liam O'Flaherty. It takes place in a setting where there is civil war and the sniper executes his brother. It creates conflict considering it takes place in a war. An example of this in the story is when the narrator explains the setting, “Here and through the city, machine guns and rifles broke the silence of the night…”

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.