The Sniper Short Story

Suspense is defined as the author withholding information or when the unexpected happens, leaving you guessing and wanting more. In the story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, he has inserted much suspense in this short (long) story, for the reason that it makes the reader want to know more and having to mindset of excitement or surprise. Another reason he added many suspense is so that it wouldn’t be so blunt, it wouldn’t just tell us what happened it would give us details and how he got or how he did that and more.

An author’s main goal is to have the reader intrigued by the text with suspenseful and/or dramatic scenes happening throughout the story. The authors of all three stories (“The Sniper”, “Ambush”, and “The Trip”) all portray this expectation flawlessly. Even though the stories have a great chronological order with amazing characters, they also share similar themes and subjects. The following reasons explain why.

The main character in The Sniper was in a fire fight. He shot and killed 3 people. After the fire fight he started to dwell on what he did .In the story it said, “The lust of battle dies in him. He became bitten by remorse.” As a result, “he looked at the smoking revolver in his hand, and with an oath he hurled it to the roof at his feet. The revolver went off… The bullet whizzed past the sniper’s head.” Because of him dwelling, he almost killed himself.

The other sniper is situated on a building on the other side of the street as the Republican Sniper. On top of being shot at, an armored car, of the opposing side, drives up near the Republican sniper’s position. He believes that his position was given up by a local woman who was walking around. The Republican sniper must kill this woman or his life will be in jeopardy. The Republican sniper takes the shot, and kills the woman. However, even after killing the woman, the Republican Sniper is still being shot at. He has to shelter himself, so, making his way to the top floor of the building, he situates himself. The Republican sniper proceeds to have a shootout with the other unknown sniper. The Republican sniper needs a way to kill his opponent, so he devises an ingenious plan. He fakes his death by pretending to be shot in the head. The opposing sniper, thinking he had killed the Republican sniper, makes his way out of his hiding spot. This exposes him, and the Republican sniper has a clear shot. The Republican sniper takes the shot, and sees the body of his opponent falling to the ground. The Republican sniper then goes to examine the dead body of his opponent, and to his horrifying realization, discovers that the man he had just outwitted and killed, was really his brother.

* The author creates suspense by starting with the slow beginning and then making the story faster and more attention-grabbing. The author cleverly manipulates readers sense of disbelief by eliminating the possibility of police help or parental understanding. The author reveals the serial killer to the reader at the end of the story. By that time Duncan keeps searching him. Author slowly reveals the clues out of the lost journal of serial killer to make readers focus in the story. Also with the slowly

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 first way the author creates suspense in the story is by foreshadowing. When Captain Torres walked into the barber’s shop, the barber, “Started to shake,” (Tellez 1) indicating that the barber felt instant fear, when his enemy approached. This foreshadows that the barber knows the man and that he will be deciding to kill him or not. Foreshadowing creates suspense because it is a clue given to the reader. It is the reader’s job to guess what is going to happen in the story and that is what makes it interesting. Without foreshadowing the reader won’t be able to prepare what is going to happen next. Another scene where the foreshadowing technique is used was when the barber came up with his reasons to not kill Captain Torres. The barber contemplated in his mind, “Don’t want to stain myself with blood. Just lather, and nothing else,” (Tellez 2) which foreshadows that the barber is not going to commit murder.

Explaining that “ flash might be seen in the darkness, and there were enemies watching,” implying that if he takes the risk to smoke his position might be compromised. Then he could be shot at, injured or even killed. Also, the author adds in this detail over deciding to take a smoke and this creates more suspense, even though he didn’t have too add this detail into the story for us to understand the story, since he did the reader thinks Don’t smoke you could die, it’s a bad idea, and you don’t even need to smoke. This creates more tension between the reader and the main character the sniper leading to more suspense. While “The Flowers” doesn’t develop the suspense just plainly states it. An example of this is “Her heel became lodged in the broken ridge between brow and nose, and she reached down quickly, unafraid, to free herself. It was only when she saw his naked grin that she gave a little yelp of surprise.” This just plainly states she is surprised, it doesn’t describe it in a way of where she was scared or worried, which shows why “The Sniper” demonstrates better suspense then “The flowers.” A way “The Dogs Could Teach Me,” doesn’t develop as good of suspense is where the text, says “As I did, kicked sideways, caught my knee on a sharp snag, and felt the wood enter under the kneecap and tear it loose,” and “I don’t think I passed out

he hesitation or decision-making issue within characters’ mind is regarded as an suspense. In “Just Lather, That’s All ”, the barber struggled in whether or not to kill the enemy who now infront of him. In the end, the barber did not want blood on his hand. Meanwhile, in “The sniper”, two snipers who were from different sides fought against each other in a war. While examining the corpse, the sniper discovered that the enemy was his brother. Also “The Black Cat” narrates the process of the protagonist from normal to committing a crime step-by-step. Internal conflict moves the story’s plot, thought the short stories “Just Lather, That's All”, “The Sniper” and “The Black Cat” respectively.

The setting in stories are important because it helps create conflict during the story. The setting is important in the short story “The Sniper” by Liam O'flaherty. This short story is in dublin Ireland. Dublin ireland is have a civil war. When they were at war the sniper was fighting against his brother and who he had killed. The setting of this story creates conflict because he was at war and it dark and he had shot and killed his brother. An example in this in the story is when after he had shot the enemy he went to see who it was because he thought he had a good shot . The narrator says “ the sniper turned over the dead body and looked into his brother's face” .

One technique Richard Connell uses to create suspense is foreshadowing because in the beginning of the story he talks about how the island has a bad reputation, and he talks about how General Zaroff and Rainsford hunt together. First in the beginning of the story, Whitney and Rainsford talk about an island the yacht they are on is passing by and how it has a bad reputation. According to the text Whittney tells Rainsford, “‘It’s rather a mystery’... ‘The old charts call it ‘Ship-Trap Island’... ‘The place has a reputation--a bad one’” (Connell 1). The author is clearly using foreshadowing because he writes about an island that Rainsford will later get trapped on and how the Island has a bad reputation. This creates suspense because it makes the reader nervous about the island, making the reader want to know what makes the mysterious island so scary and dangerous. Next, toward the middle of the story, during dinner at General Zaroff’s mansion General Zaroff and Rainsford talk about the hunts General Zaroff like to go on and how Rainsford should join his next one. According to the text General Zaroff says to Rainsford, “‘Tonight,’ said the general, ‘we will hunt---you and I” (10). The author is clearly using foreshadowing because he writes about how Rainsford and General Zaroff will go on a hunt together where General Zaroff will hunt Rainsford. This creates suspense because it makes the reader want to know what General Zaroff likes to hunt and how

     The Sniper had much suspense in it each passing sentence got you more on the eadge of your seat. The biggist suspense scene was when the sniper made the enemy think he was dead, and waiting for the enemy to come up and see his kill. Then after the sniper

Every good story has some part where it gets suspenseful. In the stories, “The Most Dangerous Game,” “Liberty,” and “Harrison Bergeron” there were situations of intense suspense. In “The Most Dangerous Game,” an example of suspense is when Rainsford was noticed by Zaroff while he was laying on the branch. “The general’s eyes had left the ground and were traveling inch by inch up the tree. Rainsford froze there, every muscle tensed for a spring. But the sharp eyes of the hunter stopped before they reached the limb where Rainsford lay; a smile spread over his brown face.” That was a suspenseful situation because Zaroff easily found Rainsford, and just smiled before leaving him unharmed. In “Liberty” an example of suspense is when the narrator was taking Liberty to her cage, and strange men tried stealing Liberty and kidnapping the narrator. “Two strange men in dark glasses were crouched behind the hedge. The fat one had seized Liberty by the collar and was pulling so hard on it that poor Liberty was almost standing on his hind legs.” That was a suspenseful situation because two strangers tried kidnapping the narrator it wouldn’t have ended so well, because they could have used her to scare her family into

In “The Sniper,” Liam O’ Flaherty creates a tone of foreshadowing by using situational irony to explore the cost of revenge. The tone of foreshadowing , is used by Liam using a lot of suspense in his words, explanations, and quotations. One of the first quotations with foreshadowing is “He paused for a moment, considering whether he showed risk of smoke.” The sniper was sitting on a rooftop near O ‘Connell Bridge, with a Republican sniper laying near by. The sniper was eating and drinking and was unsure of lighting a cigarette with a flash that could ruin his cover. The quote is put out in a foreshadowing way that makes someone think about what will happen if the sniper lights his cigarette and blows his cover. It is very suspenseful. A second

The Sniper has more suspense because it has at least three conflicts, were as the Flowers has only two conflicts. The Sniper has at least three pieces of suspense, when he lit the cigarette, when he had to kill the enemy with a revolver, and when he found out he had killed his brother. The Flowers has only two pieces when Myop found the dead body, also when she found out the dead man had been hung. If a story has one conflict to lead up to, it will not have as much suspense as a story that has multiple conflicts. The Flowers only has about two pieces of suspense in the story. When Myop first steps on the skull and the text says, “It was then she stepped smack into his eyes.” Additionally, when she finds out he had been hung the text says, “she