The Soldier Sniper By Anthony Swofford

When narrating his story, Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby feels “within and without” by what is happening with him (Fitzgerald 40). It may be not a common feeling to the majority, but not a unique feeling among writers either. Tim O’Brien in his short story How to Tell a True War Story also encountered it. This ambiguous feeling is portrayed near the end of his story, “Often in a true war story there is not even a point, or else the point doesn’t hit you until twenty years later, in your sleep, and you wake up and shake your wife and start telling the story to her, except when you get to the end, you forgotten the point again” (78). Tim O’Brien was both an insider- a soldier and an outsider- a listener and a stories-collector. That position gave him an exclusive perspective of telling “a true war story” (78). A true war story is never simple and straightforward, but always complex and contracted. It is covered by multi-layered meanings that require a long time to unwrap.

The sniper is undoubtedly a dynamic character. The author displays this through the plot, the sniper’s thoughts, and even states it directly. Liam O’ Flaherty wrote of the sniper being overwhelmed with penitence after defeating his opposition. In the story, the author directly stated how the sniper’s feelings had changed. Liam O’ Flaherty did this again when he wrote about the sniper feeling reckless after drinking from the whiskey flask.

Imagine yourself in Iraq and watching terrorists float across a river on beach balls, having your leg crushed by a building and getting shot in the head. These are all things that Chris Kyle experienced and lived through in his four tours in Iraq. His book American Sniper takes you through his life at home and at combat.

June 6, 1944, known infamously as D-Day, was the largest amphibious offensive in military history. The strategy and planning of the battle that turned the tide of World War II was an operation that took months of meticulous planning, worry and sacrifice. The Allies crossed the English Channel to the beaches of Normandy, France with more than 5,000 ships, 11,000 planes, and 50,000 vehicles carrying 150,000 service men and equipment that would change the world forever. Waiting for them was the Atlantic Wall with a German Army with more than fifty divisions at their disposal. Attempting to breach the concrete gun emplacements, anti-tank obstacles, mines, tripods and large weaponry would prove to be deadly, but ultimately a successful invasion.

People should educate themselves on another person’s character and personality before forming an opinion about them. In the modern era, people are so quick to judge others and decide whether they admire that someone based on a first impression or preconceived notion. The ramifications of this are sometimes irreversible.

During his time in combat, Sledge describes the strong and brash personalities of the Marine personnel he fights alongside and their persistence in working together to defeat the enemy. These personalities would include the outspoken and blunt NCOs (non-commissioned officers) who guided and presided over the group throughout the battles

Raven ran down the corridor while multiple attackers we catching up. She turned down a hall to see 6 more attackers. She had to act fast. She looked around desperately trying to find an exit. She cursed quietly in Russian and then braced herself for the attack. Bang!

In order to determine what point of view works best in a story, it is appropriate to identify the amount of characters whose thoughts are provided via the narrator. In the case of “The Sniper”, the narrator releases the thoughts of just one character, the sniper. The limited information provided, as a result of the narrator focusing on just one character, can be argumentivally validated as a feature of third person single-vision Valerie Vogrins “Point of View: The Complete Menu”, located within chapter four of Gotham Writers’ Workshop, “Writing Fiction”. In the chapter, Vogrin explains what exactly single vision outlines. “With this POV, the narrator has access to only one character’s mind. Thus, single vision refers to the process in which

“War does not determine who is right - only who is left”-Bertrand Russell. In the story “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty there is an Irish war with two sides, which can be reflected in the two halves within the protagonist. The story takes place in Dublin with the Republican against Free Staters. Our main character is crazed fanatic as stated in the text through his trigger happy finger and joy to kill. The author suggests the horrors of war as the solider endures physical dangers and psychological trauma.

Stephen Crane wrote The Red Badge of Courage thirty years after the Civil War had already taken place. I found this book confusing at first with all of the flashbacks, it had throughout the story, but as the book progressed I found it interesting with all of the details he used. I felt like I was in the war myself; he is a descriptive author. If I was going to suggest this book to other readers, I would tell them to be patient because it seems to be very confusing in the beginning, but it will get better as the story goes on. Stephen Crane is a fascinating author with his detailed work because he was not even at the war and everything seemed so real throughout the book. During this time period writing about wars was done primarily through first person experience. The novel was written in third person limited, which means he knows everything about one character, but only knows the other characters externally. Although Crane was not there to witness the Civil War, his realism in the novel gained him notoriety for writing about a fictional battle that seemed so real. A reader would think they were actually there during the story because he was so descriptive with his work.

In short stories, many people may overlook how greatly an author described the setting. It is important that a well-thought-out framework is included in a piece of literature. “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty, gives a fair setting of Dublin, Ireland at the break of the night. On a rooftop, across the large city street, the sniper unknowingly faced his brother. They’re inevitably against one another, both now torn apart by civil war. The night they clashed was what the author seemingly described the most. Setting for this story creates conflict because the sniper had extreme difficulty seeing his brother in the darkness. The narrator had said, “The long June twilight faded into night. Dublin lay enveloped in darkness but for the dim light of

Stephen Crane was considered one of America’s most influential realist writers. Crane was born on November 1, 1871, in Newark, New Jersey. He was the 14th and last child of Mary Crane, who was a writer/suffragist, and Reverend Jonathan Crane, a Methodist Episcopal minister. Crane spent less than two years as college student, between going to Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, and then to Syracuse University in upper state New York. After college, Crane moved to Patterson, New Jersey with one of his brothers and frequently visited New York City, writing short stories on his experience there. Though he is widely known for his novel The Red Badge of Courage, which was published in 1895, Crane’s first work to be published was Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, after he rewrote it in 1893.

Samuel Pankey is a new writer who has developed his writing throughout the course of Mrs. Blackburn’s Creative Writing class. Samuel grew up in Leawood Kansas and moved to Sedalia Missouri just over two years ago. During the class, Samuel has learned many different writing skills including how to successfully use dialogue in stories. One of his short stories is the Infiltrator. In the story, Samuel develops many new alien worlds and characters. The story serves as just one example of Samuel’s creative talent and the new ideas his writing brings. After the class, Samuel plans to continue to write and develop his short stories.

I enjoyed The Recruit by Robert Muchamore because it was very exciting and interesting. I enjoy book about spies and action/adventure. Robert Muchamore was very good at leaving you at the end of every chapter with a cliffhanger.

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?